Going Back in Time with Buggy

It’s officially known as Sweepstakes. And its history is almost as long — and almost as storied — as the history of Carnegie Mellon itself.

The iteration of what we now call Buggy — referred to in The Tartan as the Interfraternity Motor Sweepstakes —was described in the CIT Alumni magazine as “the greatest, wildest, jazziest, most blood-curdling, hair-raising, breath-stopping, shirt-tearing event in Tech annals,” and featured vehicles that looked like early iterations of soapbox derby cars.

Buggy starts rolling.

The starting line for the inaugural race in June 1920 was outside what is now known as the College of Fine Arts building. Racers then traveled toward Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall, went up Tech Street, down through Schenley Park and then turned back to campus. Buggies would then take pit stops and have their rear wheels swapped before heading back toward the starting line.

Alpha Kappa Psi shows their stuff.

Alpha Kappa Psi, the first sorority to enter a Buggy on race day, pushed in an exhibition heat in 1922.

Buggy returns post-WWII.

Buggy returns after a hiatus due to World War II from 1943 to 1945. The field was small — only nine teams — as not all of the fraternities on campus had reactivated following the War.

Mary Skriba takes the wheel.

The first documented female driver, according to the records of Buggy Historian Tom Wood, took the wheel in 1973, driving for Kappa Sigma Little Sisters in an exhibition heat against Phi Kappa Theta. Mary K. Skriba (DC 1974) slotted a time of 5:07.5 and kicked off a long tradition of women behind the wheel, especially as buggies grew smaller and more aerodynamic. Women’s heats were officially added to 1979.

Singularity navigates the course.

BFor the first time, an autonomous buggy navigated the Buggy course, thanks to the efforts of the School of Computer Science. In a trial run on race day morning, the buggy, named Singularity, successfully navigated the buggy course until just before the monument. But when the exhibition heat was run later that morning, some line-tracking problems forced the team to bring the run to an early end.

Buggy returns post-WWII.

Buggy continues to evolve.