history
In the beginning, it was only an idea. The thought of friends gathering together to visit & sing & be merry. The thought of partaking in some fine alcoholic beverages at local pubs. The thought of walking from bar to bar to bar in a drunken stupor hoping to stumble upon a ride home before you passed out in the streets. Then, it became a reality.
The first Pub Crawl was launched in January of ‘90. It was quite small in comparison to today’s crawls but definitely large enough to be enjoyable. There was only about 9 friends participating that year. It was on a Saturday, the day after Chuck Tobia had returned from Australia. Chuck’s brother Pete had arranged a sort-of "Welcome Home" party & Pete & Ev Wilson scouted out 28 bars for the 1st crawl. TWENTY-EIGHT BARS!!!!! MY… they were ambitious back in the day! The official starting point has always been Hogshead, but on that first day the fellas met at 2p.m. (instead of 4pm as the tradition now holds). Many of the original places (e.g., Auditorium Club, Poseys, David's Brass Rail, Georgian's Casino, Sam's Hofbrau) don't exist any longer. Needless to say, they never made it to all the places. They ended up soaked with rain somewhere around the Town Lounge at 2:00 a.m. Highlights included eating pickled eggs at the Auditorium Club, drinking tequila with Carla (a very memorable bartender) at the Torch club, cleaning out the salad bar at Sam's Hofbrau, and an unmentionable escapade on the steps of the state capitol (in broad daylight). Original attendees included Chuck, Pete, & Tony Tobia, Jim Smith (a Tobia brother-in-law), Ev Wilson, James Hays, Mike Reid, & Pat and Chris Daleiden.
The gang decided to do it twice a year, and continued to get anywhere from 6 - 12 people attending. Then, maybe in 1992 or 1993, Mike Bordisso [aka Donk] (see the stained glass in Old Ironsides) told everyone he knew about it and they got over 30 people. From there it just kept going up. They started three crawls per year somewhere around 1993. Highlights from the later Pub Crawls include the first Halloween pub crawl and a summer one, which for no particular reason, was deemed a "toga" party (you may even have one of the coveted t-shirts ~ I know I do!) Another good one was the time that Jake Jacobsen broke a glass coffee table at the Quorum. Or Jake winning 2nd prize in the costume contest as Budman! Friends have become more than "just friends" at this special event. And we did have one somewhat memorable lesbian fight at American Legion. Amazingly, some people continued to get "lost" year after year so we even established a special map for those simple souls. We’ve had head nurses, superheroes, rock bands, roller girls, sperm (yes, sperm), warrior princesses, fairytale princesses, & even a male Princess Leia, professional soccer players, vampires, goblins, an occasional Hugh Hefner, pregnant nuns, male nuns, Ike & Tina Turner, Spice Girls, pirates, pixies, dinosaurs, bees & a plethora of others join us on the Pub Crawl. What ever happened to karaoke at Kyoto and dancing at the Delta King? I truly miss cruising to the Quorum, Chuck’s "founding fathers" speech at Fanny Anne’s & the nightly peanut fights at Gilhooley’s. Ahh, the good old days!
Today, the Pub Crawl has grown to enormous capacities. We have about 19 standard bars on the Pub Crawl map &, depending who you are with, there are many "bonus bars" hidden along the way. It has even been copied (poorly by amateurs) & mimicked. But the REAL Pub Crawl is alive & well & still going. Everyone is invited to Pub Crawl & please bring your friends. It truly is "the more the merrier" type of event. Just please be considerate & do not rampage the bars we visit.