The good ol’ days

Today, dining halls and convenience stores on the campus offer students anything from club sandwiches to sushi to soda. But 30 years ago, they were serving students another staple in many college students' diets: alcohol.

In 1973 the state drinking age was lowered to 18, and with it came the establishment of several on-campus bars that would go a long way to establishing this university as one of the premier party schools in the country, according to university archivist Anne Turkos.

"I think students today would be astonished to know that we actually had fairly available alcohol on campus," Turkos said.

With three on-campus bars, "fairly available" is right.

Students presented their driver's license and university ID to gain entry and signed a paper claiming responsibility for any guests with them — they could bring up to two.

Joe Mullineaux — a senior associate director for Dining Services who was first a patron and later an employee of several campus bars — said although alcohol flowed freely, students generally did not become boisterous or belligerent because of the harsh consequences they would face.

"If you or your guests did anything wrong, you would be the one going in front of the judicial board," he said. "The judicial board is a pretty strong punishment."

However, The Pub quickly established itself as the rambunctious bar, which one bouncer once described as "like the bar scene from Star Wars only a lot wilder," Mullineaux said. It consistently packed its doors with as many as 2,000 patrons per night and went through 400 kegs of beer in a weekend.

Originally located where today's suites are on the east side of the Stamp Student Union, The Pub outgrew its small space and moved to LeFrak Hall a year later. In 1975 it expanded to the South Campus Dining Hall, where it served students for the next nine years.

But the campus bar scene was not just limited to The Pub.

Students looking for a classy, date-night atmosphere would wine and dine in The Terrabac Room — a nicer bar with a full kitchen and "fairly sophisticated wine list" located where today's North Campus Snack 'n' Shop and Cambridge Community Center lie, Mullineaux said.

According to Mullineaux, the Terrabac Room was also transformed into a dinner theatre for one month out of the semester, where student-produced plays and movie screenings were commonly showed. Here, students could use their meal plan to enjoy anything from pizza and salads to crepes and fondue and could get a draft of Heineken for a mere 85 cents.

Stamp was also home to The Chicago Room — or, as it was known to students, "The Hole in the Wall." Mullineaux estimated the bar stood near where Panda Express lies today. Because "The Hole in the Wall" only had a maximum capacity of 40 students, the venue was in high demand, Mullineaux said.

"It was open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and it was packed from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. Monday through Friday," Mullineaux said. "[Students] were waiting when you opened the door at 8 a.m., and we had to kick them out at 8 p.m."

On top of these bars, alcohol played a role in other university events. Nickel draft beers were offered along with dinner specials, such as Oktoberfest or Thanksgiving in the dining halls.Dining Services and Resident Life offered a keg of beer to the floor with the most votes in the Student Government Association's elections.

Dining Services made some of its space available — what is currently occupied by 251 North — for student groups looking to have mixers.

"We supplied the ice for the kegs," Mullineaux said of the informal events.

Once the drinking age was increased to 21 in 1982, university officials said stricter enforcement would be needed, and it just wasn't worth keeping bars on the campus — despite the financial hit.

"It cost us a good deal of money because we were making a profit on all those places, which was subsidizing the meal plan," Mullineaux said. "But it was more a case of, ‘There aren't enough students to justify being open, so we're not going to risk serving anybody underage.'"

Although hotspots like The Pub are long gone, their remnants remain. The walk-in refrigerator that could tap up to 200 kegs at once in the South Campus Dining Hall is now used by the bakery, and the lines that transported the beer from the kegs to the bar now rest on the ceiling of Dining Services' business offices.

Some students said they were surprised to learn bars existed where they now eat their meals.

"That's amazing," said junior finance major Chris Levy when told of the campus bar scene. "If they were here now, I bet the nightlife would be that much better."

For Mullineaux, the years he spent as a student at this university and a Dining Services employee in the bars represent a bygone era, and some of the best years.

"You bring back a lot of good memories," he said. "It was a very fun eight years."

israel@umdbk.com