McCabe Mile

A quotation is read, a book slams shut, and they're off! So marks the beginning of the McCabe Mile.

As part of the annual tradition, each year a pack of runners races around the basement stacks of McCabe Library. Started by a few Swatties in the 1970s who were in desperate need of a study break, competitors run 18 laps around the stacks in hopes of finishing first and clinching the prize - a huge roll of Scott toilet paper (in honor of the race's namesake, Thomas B. McCabe, Class of 1915 and former president of Scott Paper).

Michael Fleischmann '13
Scarsdale, NY.

"It's 18 laps around the stacks in the basement of McCabe Library. It's held every year during Ride the Tide, so that prospective students can throw down, too."

"The McCabe Mile tests both our endurance and ingenuity," says Fleischmann '13.

"If you guess where the quote they start with is from, you get to move up to the front of the pack before the race begins," says Elise Garrity '09, a past winner.

Garrity adds that winning the run is "definitely" worth the roll of toilet paper. "We rolled it down Magill Walk," she says, "and it goes all the way down to the train tracks!"