Sadie Hawkins Week

In October 1938 Al Capp’s “Dog Patch” comic strip character Sadie Hawkins (the ugliest woman in Dog Patch, whose influential father set aside a day for a foot race when the town’s unmarried women could chase eligible bachelors and got to keep ones they caught) inspired a week of events. UT claimed to have originated the idea of a collegiate Sadie Hawkins celebration, and Al Capp himself (as well as Dean of Women Harriet Greve) endorsed the activities. More than five hundred tickets were sold to the dance at the Alumni Memorial Building, and faculty and townspeople purchased tickets to watch from the balconies. In 1939 Al Capp attended a scaled-back, two-day Friday footrace and Saturday dance. In October 1940 United Features Syndicate issued a press release in response to claims of various universities where Sadie Hawkins activities had originated on their campuses. The release firmly established UT as the originator of campus Sadie Hawkins activities. The activity ceased following the 1941 “backward dance.”