University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt - Overview

Overview

During the Scavenger Hunt, teams compete to acquire items off a list of approximately 300 items, with each item assigned a point value and evaluated by a panel of judges. Items involve performances, construction, arts and crafts, research, travel and finding obscure objects. Lists typically include at least one item that takes place on the University's main quadrangles while students are in class, a party on Friday night, a road trip (with its most distant point from campus being 1,000 miles or less), an item encouraging team members to donate blood, and Scavenger Olympics, which includes original games and athletic competitions.

Scav Hunt was founded in 1987 by Chris Straus, who organized the list and judged items with Cassie Scharff, Diane Kelly, Nolan McCarty, and Rick Jeffries. Perhaps the most notable item that has yet been completed was from the 1999 list; a breeder reactor in a shed was successfully built on the main quadrangle. The item itself was a joke referring to the "Radioactive Boy Scout" David Hahn. The students irradiated thorium with thermal neutrons and observed traces of uranium and plutonium.

In 2002, Scav Hunt was the subject of a documentary titled The Hunt. The 2007 Scav Hunt was also the subject of a documentary, Scavengers. The Scav Hunt holds the Guinness World Record for largest scavenger hunt.