Can you spot a freshman in the crowd? Up until the early 1970s, you certainly could, thanks to the dink.

The dink is a small, brown, peaked hat. Embroidered with the wearer’s name and class year, dinks adorned the heads of every first-year student six days per week from the start of the fall term until the Lafayette football game.

In the October 2, 1928 issue of The Brown and White, students sounded off about the distinctive accessory: 

J.J. Kirkpatrick ’29: “The wearing of the freshman dink is a worthwhile institution. It helps class spirit by putting the men on equal level. It also makes it easier for the enforcement of traditions and regulations. Likewise, the dink enhances the appearance of some types of freshman pulchritude.”

A. Lehr ’29: “Truly, it is a horrible example of what the well-dressed man should wear, but still, it does make a frosh look very cute.”