The Villa Man Auction

The University’s enduringly odd students have held creative fundraisers for more than a century — seasoned alumni will remember the famous Howard Hall smokers, which blended boxing matches and cigar odium to raise money for orphanages in India — but the maddest modern one is the annual autumn Villa Man Auction, a sort of talent show during which the University’s braver men sing, dance, act, and commit comedy to lure the “bids” of the University’s amused women, who are rewarded (or punished) by winning dates with the shameless stars of the stage. The one act that annually draws the most cash is the one with no romantic glint whatsoever; it’s a vast gourmet dinner cooked by former professional chef Father Ed Obermiller, C.S.C., and his Holy Cross colleagues. All told the auction raises more than $20,000 a year for the poor in Tanzania.