Twenty-seven cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs were injured last week following a first-snow fracas that has, um, snowballed in recent years from frolic to brawl. The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that the injuries included broken bones, concussions and that “one cadet suffered a human bite on the arm.”
“First Shirt/First Snow” has become a tradition, if you can call it that, since the 1980s. Amid the first snowfall, freshmen cadets try to throw their first sergeant – aka “first shirt” – into the snow, while upperclassmen try to protect him.