History and Founders
In 1986, University of Chicago third year undergraduate Chris Straus acted on an idea to hold a campus-wide scavenger hunt that nodded back to his childhood. Aiming high and envisioning a somewhat elaborate event, Chris recruited first year students Cassie Schraff, Diane Kelly, Rick Jeffries, and Nolan McCarty to help organize.
Throughout the academic year, the team met up weekly at the C-Shop (now Prét a Manger) to plan the event over coffee and ice cream. From the start, wry humor, razor-sharp wit, and quirky bookishness drove discussions and pitches that prompted laughter secured a spot on the growing list.
Hoping for maximum participation, the Scavenger Hunt founders decided to hold the event in the spring between midterms and finals, May 7-10, 1987, when weather tended to be mild and students could set aside time to play.
Going into the event, about a dozen teams registered. Word spread and by Sunday, around 2,500 spectators and players from nearly forty teams showed up at Ida Noyes ready to show the five founding judges hundreds of items from the list.
Wildly successful, the Scavenger Hunt was energizingly chaotic, infectiously fun, and the turnout was stunning. In that moment, on May 10, 1987, with little discussion, the founders unanimously decided to plan another Scavenger Hunt for the following spring and unknowingly kick started a beloved annual student tradition that has evolved, yet, throughout the past thirty-seven years, remains essentially the same in spirit. [37 1987 points, which is 101.52 2024 points adjusted for inflation]
Hitchcock Hall
Lab ’84, AB ’88 Biology, MD ‘92
Professor of Radiology, UChicago Medicine
1st Member
Third generation UChicago faculty member, life-long Hyde Parker, and son of the College’s long-serving Dean of Students Lorna Straus (1967-1982), Chris’ UChicago affiliation runs uninterrupted from birth at Chicago’s Lying-In Hospital, K-12 at Lab, undergraduate years in the College, med school at Pritzker, and rising appointments at the UChicago Medical Center. With that deep pedigree, it is fitting that Chris was the visionary who organized this long-running goose chase through the University’s back yard.
Pierce, Shorey House
AB ’90 Public Policy, MBA ’93 University of California, Berkeley
Chief Branding Strategist, Cassandra Branding
2nd Member
New to college life and nursing fresh breakup wounds, Cassie was looking for social activities when her RA mentioned the scavenger hunt her friend Chris Straus wanted to organize. Intrigued, Cassie joined. As a karmic twist, the once heartbroken Cassie met her future husband Bob Hallberg, AB ‘90, through the Scavenger Hunt and enlisted him to tabulate subsequent judging results on his Apple Macintosh computer. Cassie and Bob’s daughter, Athena Hallberg, AB ‘21, continued the family Scav tradition and played for the South team.
Pierce, Tufts House
AB ’90 Biology, PhD ’97 Duke University
Senior Research Fellow, University of Massachusetts Amherst
3rd Member
Growing the Scavenger Hunt planning team, Cassie Scharff recruited new friend and fellow Pierce resident Diane Kelly. At home in the Reg, Diane enjoyed researching potential trivia questions that were a Scavenger Hunt staple before the internet. Through the Scavenger Hunt, Diane, too, met her husband Jim Cambias, AB ‘88, who was Chris Straus’ roommate. Their daughter Emily Cambias, AB ‘18, became the first ‘Scav Baby’ and later claimed her birthright as a Scav captain when she led Burton Judson teams “Robespierre and the Reign of Cher” and “Marie Curie & the Free Radicals.”
Pierce, Thompson House
AB ’90 English, JD ’93 Creighton University
Partner, Cline Williams Wright Johnson and Oldfather
4th Member
During his first quarter, Cassie Scharff excitedly approached Rick while he was eating lunch in the Pierce Tower dining hall and told him about the idea to plan a scavenger hunt for the student body. Perhaps feeling the start of a mild crush, Rick was charmed and joined the team. As time went on, Rick was all in and believes he typed up the first list on his Tandy TSR-80 computer and remembers drafting the group’s first RSO constitution.
Pierce, Thompson House
AB’90 Economics, PhD ’93 Carnegie Mellon
Susan Dod Brown Professor of Politics and Public Affairs, Princeton University
Needing entertainment to counterbalance a tough first quarter at the College, Nolan quickly joined the Scavenger Hunt group when his roommate Rick Jeffries approached him. Drawn to the humor and thought driving list preparation, Nolan enjoyed trying to stump teams but found his niche as the fair Head Judge who reasonably allowed for partial credit for effort. Banding together to show group spirit, and to raise funds, Nolan recruited his high school brother Nathan to design the graphics for the first Scav t-shirts in 1989 and 1990.
On loan from Nolan McCarty
The first Scavenger Hunt t-shirt, designed by judge Nolan McCarty’s brother Nathan
