Green Beer Day. The one day of the year when Miami University students are happy to wake up before dawn. The one day of the year students aren't judged for having green-stained lips and wildly inappropriate shirts. The one day of the year that gives faculty and staff at Miami and law enforcement officials in Oxford a headache worse than the hangover students will experience March 2.
To many students, Green Beer Day is a holiday that is as set in stone as Thanksgiving or Independence Day. However monumental Green Beer Day seems to students now, it was not the original green-beverage holiday at Miami.
The first mention of green-colored beer at Miami was in the March 14, 1952 issue of The Miami Student in reference to St. Patrick's Day.
"Monday, Oxford restaurants will mark the anniversary of his [St. Patrick's] death by selling the traditional dark green beer which is sold all over America on this holiday," The Student reported.
According to reporting in The Student, students 50 years ago were just as zealous in their pursuit of green beer for St. Patrick's Day.
"Somehow directions for getting uptown to that green beer always appear on slant walk," the March 17, 1964 issue of The Miami Student said. "One year a green stripe up the walk led the way and last year shamrocks miraculously appeared as guideposts for the thirsty."
A few years later, The Boar's Head, a bar in Oxford at the time, ran an advertisement in The Student saying it would open early to, "combat the infamous Monday morning blahs" The Purity, another bar in Oxford at the time, also ran an advertisement saying they would open at 6 a.m. on St. Patrick's Day.
Even in 1969, Oxford officials called the St. Patrick's Day celebrations a "huge headache."
The first time students celebrated with green beer before spring break was in 1977. In the March 8 issue of The Student that year, The Purity ran an ad saying, "It's already time for St. Patrick's day at The Purity and the College Inn… a wee bit early due to spring break." The ad also said the bar would open at 5:30 a.m. to sell green beverages.
In the 1970's, the university switched from quarters to semesters, causing St. Patrick's Day to fall over spring break on a regular basis.
Not to be deprived of the green-themed holiday, students began celebrating St. Patrick's Day early. But, the celebration wasn't called "Green Beer Day" until the 1980's. In the March 9, 1982 issue of The Student, CJ's bar had an ad for "Green Beer Day."
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Miami's disapproval for the day remained even though the holiday underwent a name change. The 1986 Recensio reported on the university's disapproval.
"If Miami's administration has their way, Green Beer Day 1986 will be the last of the early morning celebrations," Recensio reported.
The university sent out requests to the bars asking them not to open at 5:30 a.m., but the bars refused to comply.
So, while the tradition of drinking green beer was solidly in place by the mid-1980's, other traditions didn't spring up until later. At that time, green doughnuts and green SDS pizza was the food of choice, not green eggs. Students also didn't begin selling t-shirts to commemorate the day until the mid-1990's.
In 2000, Miami put out a public notice saying, "Miami University does not support Green Beer Day in any way." The day was also met with disapproval from the Irish American community at Miami who thought the day, "fueled stereotypes" about the Irish.
In a letter to the faculty, former Provost Jeffrey Herbst said, "Like you, we have no patience with the bars that sponsor the events or the media that typically makes this event a regional news story." They also discouraged professors from canceling classes on Green Beer Day.
While Green Beer Day may not be a tradition Miami University embraces, the holiday remains close to the hearts of many students.
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