IIT at mid-century supported pageants, competitions, and assemblies that promoted wellness, competition, cooperation, and patriotism. ROTC assemblies reflected IIT’s long tradition of supporting military preparedness. Physical activities such as mud wrestling took advantage of unfinished areas of campus that later would be filled, sodded and landscaped. Beauty pageants (to select prom queens) supported homecoming and graduation events. Come the 1960s and 1970s, with its allowances for greater individuality and quirkiness, the university came up with the Spring Thing Tricycle Race.