January 19, 1991 : OUCH3 is Founded : Oxford University Community Hash House Harriers

by Gary “TURBO” Engen

TURBO (that’s me) – I started the very first OUCH3 hash from back of my house on Faculty Row on Sat, 19 Jan, 1991. I was the PMS at ARMY ROTC at Ole Miss and had a number of years of hashing behind me.

That first hash trail wandered through the sorority dorms then through RR tracks, some shiggy, through parts of Oxford before catching the Faulkner trail area and back to Faculty Row. No enroute beer stops on that 1st run but plenty of liquids/down-downs at the finish.

I had been on fun runs in the area with Keith Womer (Dept Chair at Finace (or  Business) Dept at Ole Miss) and John Robertson was an Army Major that worked with me at the ROTC Dept. So there were only 3 of us on that “initiation” to hashing for those two.

Keith was subsequently (after he made 3 runs) named “Gradient Man” and John became “Sewyrunt”. My lame brain doesn’t recall a lot of details from times past now-a-days but “Gradient” was linked to PhD Keith Womer’s work and I think John was an Arkansas fan so we linked “Sewy” to his hash name.

Subsequent runs picked up as we ran every 2nd & 4th Saturday and threw in some Full-Moon runs every now and then.

Gradient Man (See above)– He eventually became a “Joint Master” of the OUH3 with me and was a great runner with a lot of 5k and 10k runs. He and I were about the same age at the time (approaching 50). When I departed Oxford upon my Army retirement in June 1993, Keith (Gradient Man) took over the OUH3 for many years thereafter until, I think, he moved to the St Louis area to take a faculty position at St Louis Univ or some other.

Sewyrunt – Was our Hash Cash initially and I believe he also departed the Army from Oxford and took some hospital admin job there in Oxford area. He was a reluctant runner but avid “Happy Hour” and down-down participant.

Hot Lips – Linda was Hash Mamma and Sewyrunt’s wife and was one of the early H3 hashers but did not accumulate many runs as I recall. She added some “class” though to what frequently became an ugly brawl.

Mud Diver- I believe he was a grad student at Ole Miss or a professor that worked with Keith Womer

Baby Doc- a tall/fit grad student that could out-run most of us! He almost had his PhD thus “Baby Doc”

Dog Style – Larry was an Army Captain at the ROTC Dept and had a couple dalmation canines that sometime ran with us, thus “Dog Style”

Quickie –  Another younger Ole Miss student who was usually up front and faster than most

Sasquatch – Keith Womer’s son that made a few runs with the pack.

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Lot’s of good memories just thinking about those days!