Mystery Solved

The List Issue featured four University Archives images in search of captions. Readers answered the call and helped identify three of them, with the first image (below) generating the most replies.

The dueling knights were part of an event sponsored by the Society for Creative Anachronism, according to alumni. Memories varied as to what year the image was captured, but responses narrowed the time frame to the late 1970s or early 1980s.

This photo was likely taken outside Sellery Hall in fall 1973, wrote Larry Classen ’77, JD’80, noting, “Streaking was a rather popular cultural phenomenon at that time, as was anti-Nixon sentiment. I have no recollection of whether this was organized in any way or how we learned about it. But at some point, word spread that there were streakers outside.”

Friends and former classmates of Ben Jeffrey Madoff ’71 identified him as the mystery man in this image. Madoff launched his own clothing line in Madison and now leads a video-production company in New York City serving clients such as Gucci and Ralph Lauren. “That is me in the picture,” Madoff confirms. “I’m real; the parrot isn’t.” He says Jeffrey Jayson ’72 captured the image inside a campus library in 1968 or 1969. “I don’t remember where I found the parrot, but I had it for a few years,” Madoff says. “It was low maintenance. Never ate.”