The fall colors on campus seemed particularly red that year.

These third-party iconoclasts were politicking at Northeastern, but not for higher office. They were part of the university's Mayor of Huntington Avenue contest, out drumming up votes for their candidate, Crash Castro the Castronut. Crash, his handlers insisted, was a Soviet-supported Cuban astronaut who had landed on campus. And he'd love to be mayor!

Outrageous motifs made the annual competition, begun by the Husky Key Society in the early 1950s and lasting into the 1980s, the highlight of the fall season. The mayor served as the unofficial mascot for Northeastern sports teams, so campaigning for the honor was fierce. Backed by student groups, mayoral hopefuls would stage rallies on the quad. Some stumpers and supporters (often as many as several hundred strong) even attended classes in costume the week before the election.

Incidentally, these Reds didn't cause the only scare in the 1962 race. The mayor's top hat was misplaced, and several candidates were penalized for off-color jokes and rule violations.

Despite the occasional campaign scandal, the Mayor of Huntington Avenue contest was "one of the few occasions when the campus came together," recalls Jim Furneaux, LA'66, who ran (unsuccessfully) as Crash. And that's the kind of populism a student body can get behind.