Legend or fact?

Have you heard the IU urban myth about the fish and the virgin? \nNo?\nLegend has it that should a virgin ever graduate from IU, a fish from the Showalter Fountain will swim away.\n"There used to be a seal there that was regularly stolen by sports fans after we won something, but it was always returned," Folklore Associate Professor John Johnson said. "But one time it wasn't returned, and it had to be replaced with a fish. So the story began circulating that it was because a virgin graduated and that if another one ever graduates, that fish is going to swim away, too."\nLike most urban legends, the fish-virgin story started somewhere else but was adapted to fit IU.\n"At Texas Tech there's a statue of Will Rogers that will ride off if a virgin graduates, and there are lions in front of the New York City Library that will roar if a virgin walks past them," Johnson said. "It's a common legend around various places."\nNot surprisingly, there are other legends on campus surrounding the loss of virginity.\n"When a frat guy loses his (virginity) for the first time, he throws his shoes up on telephone wires," Johnson said. "But that's just one of many legends surrounding why the shoes are up there. I'm not sure anyone really knows why they're there."\nAnother myth in regards to the dangling shoes reveals that students throw their shoes over telephone lines when they make the Dean's List, while those who flunk out throw snakes.\nThat's not uncommon when it comes to urban legends, though. A story will get started by someone and then twisted around by so many people that it barely resembles the original version after a few tellings.\n"It's called a friend-of-a-friend story," Folklore Professor Sandra Dolby said. "You hardly ever find where they start, but that doesn't mean they couldn't have originally happened. I suspect it's a combination of something happens, and it gets passed around and 'improved' a few times."\nDolby also believes that urban legends are altered in different regions to highlight the problems of that area. College is a time when many lose their virginity. In another place, the fish could have an entirely different meaning.\n"Look at Gary," Dolby said. "It's an area of racial conflict, and the legends there have to do with gang initiations and things like that. Legends get adapted to show the concerns of an area. If people are afraid, they immediately believe something."\nAnother IU legend, for instance, tells the story of a coed-murdering lunatic. Although there's no record of an escaped mental patient ever killing anyone on campus, it still remains a popular story around IU.\n"The story goes that there were two roommates who stayed on campus over a vacation," Folklore Faculty Emeriti Linda Degh said. "One goes out and one stays in when there's a radio message that a lunatic has escaped an asylum. The girl who stayed in hears scratches at the door but doesn't open it all night because she's afraid it's the lunatic. In the morning, she wakes up and opens the door to find her roommate dead."\nAnother aspect of urban legends is their tendency to return. IU has twice been caught in the grip of fear over the same prediction.\n"Twelve or so years ago, there was a rumor going around that Jeanne Dixon predicted that a coed would be murdered on a Midwest campus during a holiday," Johnson said. "Parents were trying to get their daughters to come home or coming down to stay for weekends. Then a few years ago, the same story started going around and everyone believed it again. Urban legends are like fads. They don't last very long, they go away for awhile and then they come right back again."\n-- Contact senior writer Chris Freiberg at wfreiber@indiana.edu.