Five tight-knit UI alumni return to Moscow for Homecoming after 30 years of Las Vegas
There is one word that best sums up 30 years of tradition — loyalty.
“That’s the word I’d use to describe our group of friends,” said Gary Schmidt, one of five University of Idaho alumni whose tradition born from friendship at UI has lasted decades.
Jeff Sutton | Courtesy
Vandal alumni and longtime best friends (from left) Patrick Murphy, Gary Schmidt, Doug Fox, Steve McWhortor and Jeff Sutton, pretend to kidnap Fox for his bachelor party in 1988. The group is returning to Moscow for Homecoming Weekend.
Schmidt, Jeff Sutton, Patrick Murphy, Doug Fox and Steve McWhortor took an unassuming trip to Las Vegas during UI’s fall semester of 1985.
“It was a spur-of-the-moment deal,” Sutton said. “It was Labor Day weekend and we had just received our financial aid. We were big on penny poker at the time and decided that it would be a blast to play some actual poker.”
While the trip wasn’t intended to be more than a one-time getaway, it sparked a 30-year tradition of Vegas trips.
Murphy said the trip went so well the first time that he and his buddies decided to go back for a second and third, before making it an annual custom.
“The second year we knew someone who worked in Vegas and ended up in a free room, and the third year we went for Doug’s bachelor party,” Murphy said. “At that point, we thought, ‘It’s been three years, why not keep this going?'”
Every year, the five friends take time out of their chaotic schedules to coordinate another trip to the strip. However, rather than celebrating the third decade of tradition with another Vegas escapade, the group is instead returning to Moscow for Homecoming Weekend.
“We love the idea of going back to where it all started,” Sutton said. “We enjoyed the college experience immensely, so we thought, ‘Let’s go back,’ and Homecoming Weekend happened to work perfectly with all of our schedules.”
The group of five first met while living in an old UI residence facility that has since been torn down — Gault Hall. The building once stood in the place of the Living Learning Community and was a precursor to the group’s later Vegas shenanigans.
“Gault Hall was full of crazy traditions,” Sutton said. “Every year, there would be massive snowball fights between the residence halls and the Greek houses — hundreds of people would partake in these campus-wide snowball fights.”
Their knack for adventure resonated within Gault Hall long before Vegas too, as the group participated in all kinds of festivities, from hall-wide organized streaking endeavors across campus to creating their own hot tub in the dorms, Sutton said.
“There was a tiled common shower area on the third floor,” Murphy said. “We had this bright idea to make a hot tub. We plugged the drains, blocked the doorway, and turned all of the showers on hot at full blast.”
He said they were able to fill the showers with nearly three feet of water before a friend called them down to the second floor of the building.
“We go down there and the ceiling is just bowing, almost two feet down,” Murphy said. “We almost flooded the hall and destroyed the place … we learned our physics lesson for the day.”
Jeff Sutton | Courtesy From left: Patrick Murphy, Steve McWhortor, Doug Fox, Gary Schmidt, and Jeff Sutton in 2013 while racing cars in Vegas.
The group said the adventures did not stop at the dorms, but transferred over to their Vegas travels down the road.
“I would say that the first trip was record-setting in terms of some unique memories,” said Fox, who attended UI until 1987 before finishing his education in Washington.
Sutton said every Vegas trip has been different and each one of his friends harbors their personal favorite.
“During one trip, we walked to this bar that had exotic dancers and they were taking bids from the crowd to see who was willing to oil wrestle one of these girls,” Sutton said. “So we pulled our money together for Steve to do it … they put giant boxing gloves on his hands and tied his knees together so he couldn’t do any real wrestling and it was just a crack up.”
The spontaneity of the trips was another exciting element, Fox said.
“It was harmless, but one time we dared each other to drive out to Mustang Ranch, which is basically a bordello, to take a selfie in front of it… and then we all ran back to the car and peeled away,” Fox said laughing.
The trips were not limited to wild excursions, Murphy said, who found the more laid-back expeditions to be just as enjoyable.
“One of my favorites was our 20th annual … We also went skiing in Tahoe before heading to Vegas and it was a beautiful day,” Murphy said. “We were able to ski over this incredible lake, and then we had good luck with some blackjack tournaments in Vegas later on.”
Schmidt said his favorite parts of Vegas ranged from going jet skiing to exploring the various clubs and casinos around the city.
Even though Fox said each time was uniquely fun, the group did not always experience the smoothest of journeys. He said the 14-hour travels to and from Vegas would sometimes cause the group trouble as the car would break down or the driver would become tired behind the wheel.
“One time, we were driving back to Moscow at night,” Fox said. “It was pouring down sheets of rain and barely stopped in time to see an entire herd of cattle blocking the road.”
Despite any potential setbacks, the group has never missed a Vegas trip — until this year.
Although their Vegas trips have provided a plethora of eccentric stories, Sutton said he’s looking forward to reminiscing about life in Moscow over the Homecoming Weekend.
“We love its size, its flavor, its attitude,” he said. “This weekend, we’re going to try going golfing, but we’ll probably spend a fair amount of time driving around and walking through campus to see what’s still standing and what’s changed.”
The event they look forward to the most over the weekend is the Homecoming game, which was the group’s favorite Homecoming tradition as students.
“There was something about the camaraderie that comes with being as loud and rowdy as possible that was really great,” Schmidt said.
The most impressive part of their 30-year tradition, Murphy said, is that they’ve managed to stay in contact after college, a luxury they realize not everyone gets.
“Staying connected is the driving force behind our Vegas trips,” he said, “It’s easy to concentrate so much on the day to day –the next thing you have to do, the next job or chore — that you forget that these other people who are so important to you, their lives are going on at the same time as yours.”
In addition to staying in touch, Fox said it’s important to appreciate the college experience.
“Seize the moment,” Fox said. “Don’t worry so much about what’s going to be happening 10 or 15 or 20 years from now … It’s good to plan, but don’t miss the moment to recognize the friends that you have … that you’re at a great place to go to school and spend time with the friends you make.”
Corrin Bond can be reached at [email protected]