The big 'Playboy party school' mystery tied to beltless pants?

[snopes]

It appears there is a possibility -- I stress, a possibility -- that there has been a breakthrough in one of the most confounding mysteries of our time.

The mystery is this: Why do so many people, including a great many who either live in Madison or attended UW-Madison, swear that they saw a story in Playboy magazine sometime in the 1960s that ranked the top "party schools" in the country, and UW-Madison was not included, because the magazine chose not to rank "professionals with amateurs"?

http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/moe/263938

[rogue74656]

OK...
I'm sure someone out there has a collection of Playboy's from the 1960's.

Mine don't start until the late 80's (when I was old enough to subscribe) so I won't be of any help, but n ow that we know what we are looking for, it should only be a matter of time before we can answer this one...

[snopes]

But unless you have one of the correct regional editions, you may not see the ad at all.

- snopes

[Cervus]

Is it my imagination, or weren't there two other posts in this thread earlier today, stating that they'd heard the rumor attributed to other schools?

[snopes]

This list of schools to which this rumor has been attributed is essentially the set of all colleges and universities in the U.S.

- snopes

[hoitoider]

Yep, I remember the U Va one well when I was at Tech. I went to the last Easters in 1982:

Like any college tradition, Easters lacked national notoriety until it got the definitive stamp of approval -- that of Playboy magazine. A 1974 issue of Playboy magazine listed the top party schools in the country, but left the University of Virginia off the list. Why, you might ask?

According to University alumnus Peter Quick, "From the words of Playboy: 'Sorry, U.Va., we don't rate professionals.'"

http://128.143.134.59/CVArticle.asp?ID=30347&pid=1588