Indecent exposure to the American Civil War [class]

History professor James McPherson's popular American Civil War lecture began like any other.

At about 1:30 Wednesday afternoon, bantering students filled McCosh, discussing their upcoming Gettysburg field trip and impending final exam. The class of several hundred also included elderly observers, some sitting in the front row. Wednesday's lecture was meant to cover positive versus negative liberty in the Reconstruction.

And there was absolutely no question that the uninhibited spectacle destined to interrupt the class was a prime example of liberty gone wild. Whether that interruption was positive or negative all depends on who you ask.

About 35 minutes into the class, the throbbing beat of '70s rock could be heard in an adjoining stairwell. McPherson paused, expecting the interruption to die down, but it only got louder.

In walked an unidentified male, wearing silvered, jumbo aviator style sunglasses.

The person's head bobbed rhythmically to the Ram Jam tune "Black Betty," which screamed out of the boombox perched on his shoulder. An awkward silence in the audience that seemed much longer than its actual length — maybe all of 10 seconds — had the students guessing at what could possibly follow.

Then came the nakedness.

Two male students, unidentified but quite obviously caucasian, jogged into the room. They wore matching aviator sunglasses — jumbo — but nothing else. Longhaired and absolutely shameless, the two threw candy to the audience while shouting holiday greetings. One left a gift-wrapped present on the professor's stand.

Though the gift-bearing exhibitionist ran out a few seconds later, the other, possibly inspired by the music and the shocked atmosphere, continued to jog around the entire perimeter of the lecture hall, with what some might describe as unencumbered glee.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the two streakers, identified here by the pseudonyms Matt and John, agreed to answer a few questions.

Matt denied any pre-streak jitters. "I was pretty much fired up to go," he said. "I just thought it would be a good day for streaking."

One big issue on John's mind was his appearance. "I was afraid that maybe I should've shaved," he said, without being too specific about where he needed to shave. "It was a huge rush . . . I'd recommend it to anyone."

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Reactions to the display were mixed. Stifled laughter, then an awkward silence, revealed the students' discomfort with the human form in an overly natural state. Not even McPherson was impressed.

"Some [pranks] are funnier than others," he said, before cracking a joke about liberty that helped to ease the tension. Several weeks before, a group of students, armed with water guns, had marched into McCosh 50 in the middle of McPherson's lecture and soaked a male student with water. This prank McPherson had found exceptionally funny.

And the contents of McPherson's gift from John and Matt?

"Chocolates," John noted.