Twist and Shout!
From the Archives: “The World’s Largest Twister Game”
![Archival image of students playing a giant Twister game on the Main Green.](https://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/1400_wide/public/2024-07/BAM-Archive_May1983_Twister1_0.jpg?itok=vnZFWXZ6)
“Left foot, green!” “Right hand, blue!” A collective groan arose from several hundred student contortionists in what was billed as “The World’s Largest Twister Game.” Sponsored by the Grass Roots main campus coordinators, the even was part of a Thursday afternoon Spring Weekend kickoff on April 28. Milton-Bradley, Twister’s manufacturer, donated 100 plastic playing boards; taped together, they formed a technicolor rug on the Green in front of University Hall.
![Archival image of students on the Main Green playing a giant game of Twister.](https://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/1400_wide/public/2024-07/BAM-Archive_May1983_Twister3_0.jpg?itok=DVeaNnaD)
The Twisting lasted from 3 p.m. until 5:30; the students’ endurance, no doubt, was enhanced by a mass ice cream chowdown (“the world’s largest sundae,” served in a trough traversing the Green). But because of a technicality, the Twister game won’t be in the Guinness Book of World Records. That’s okay; “we just wanted to sponsor something really crazy,” says Linda Segal ’83 of the Grass Roots committee.
Maybe the best part was near the end, when the spinners called out, “Okay—HUG ANYBODY!” A great cheer went up; everyone dove and rolled into clinches. A rock band began to set up in front of Sayles; Spring Weekend was under way.
![An archival image of students calling Twister directions on the Main Green.](https://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/1400_wide/public/2024-07/BAM-Archive_May1983_Twister2_0.jpg?itok=k-8ECR0S)