IMO better than any Southern Cal prank.....but you can dismiss it as East Coast bias Scott.
Looking Back: The Wreck Tech Pajama Parade
History notes that the ?Wreck Tech? pajama parade dates back to 1896, the year of Auburn?s first home football game---which was against Georgia Tech. It was a time when most people traveled by trains, including football teams, and the Tech squad was scheduled to arrive at the Auburn train station early in the morning on November 7.
Word of Tech?s travel schedule had reached several members of Auburn?s corps of cadets that year, so the night before the Tech team?s arrival, the cadets woke in the middle of the night and walked to the train station---in their pajamas. Armed with grease and lard, they applied a thick coating to about a quarter-mile of rails leading into and out of the Auburn station. They then returned to their beds.
As the legend goes, the next morning -- which was game day -- the train carrying the Tech team made its approach to Auburn from Atlanta. But when an attempt was made to apply the brakes and slow the train for its scheduled stop, there was no traction! The train didn?t stop! Instead, the train, with amazed Tech players and fans aboard, slid all the way through Auburn and halfway to Loachapoka, which was about 10 miles away.
The Tech team was forced to walk the five miles back to the train station, and later that afternoon Auburn won the first game ever played on its campus 45-0, much to the delight and laughter of Auburn students.
John Heisman, for whom the Heisman Trophy is named, was Auburn's coach at the time. It?s not known if he had a hand in the prank, but it is known that he liked to have a good time.
The next year, 1897, Tech officials were still angry about the cadets' late-night shenanigans, so they refused to play Auburn. And they only agreed to resume the football series after Auburn?s campus administration threatened to expel any students caught trying to repeat the greasing prank.
In 1898, word went out from Auburn's upperclassmen to the freshmen that the tracks would be greased again. The freshmen were in a bind! So, under the cover of darkness, on the eve of Tech?s return to the Auburn campus, two or three pajama-clad students slipped into the night and headed to the train station. Then there were two or three more, and then six or eight. In a matter of minutes every Auburn freshman and even some upperclassmen were running toward the tracks in their pajamas, much to the dismay of college administrators. If they expelled everyone involved, there would be no need to have classes on Monday.
But the students didn't grease the tracks that year. They held a giant pep rally instead, and Auburn?s Wreck Tech pajama parade was born! The year was 1898. And every year after then, on the week of the Tech football game, Auburn freshmen marched in their pajamas chanting, "Wreck Tech, Wreck Tech, Wreck the Hell out of Georgia Tech?"
