Cover Story Spring ’26

Last year, a group of multigenerational alumnae ranging from the Class of 1975 to the Class of 2008 formed a committee to organize an anniversary celebration for Under the Lights. As they started planning, it became clear that the 30th-anniversary celebration might actually be the 31st anniversary, or perhaps it was the 34th. With certainty, UTL as an event was celebrating three decades, but exactly how many years had it been?

Facing conflicting collective memory, Winsor Archivist Chelsea McNeil combed through dozens of boxes looking for answers. Items such as UTL-branded t-shirts, event flyers, and invitations point to the event starting in the early ’90s.

“I believe the game and festivities held October 19, 1992, were not formally chartered as ‘Under the Lights,’” explains Ms. McNeil, “but rather, the birth of the tradition, as it was presumably the first use of athletic field lights on the new fields.”

Carolyn McClintock Peter, who served as Winsor’s head of school from 1988 until 2004, provides some background for the tradition’s origins. When the new fields were first constructed, she says, Winsor was trading athletic spaces with nearby Simmons College. Simmons teams could use Winsor’s new outdoor facility, and in exchange, Winsor could use Simmons’s indoor complex. But in order to make the schedule work without sacrificing any of Winsor’s field sports, the teams needed more time. Or: more light.

“The lights were put in to extend the day so that we could have Winsor’s teams practicing until five o’clock or thereabouts, and then Simmons students could come and use the field into the darkness,” says Ms. Peter. Winsor became the first among its cohort of Boston-area independent schools to have lights. “And as soon as we had lights, the kids wanted to establish a night game.” So the school reserved one night a year in its agreement with Simmons when Winsor students could take advantage of the lights. From there, the tradition picked up steam quickly.

A winter 1993 newsletter found in the archives recounts a fall 1992 athletic season that was full of firsts, including: “First night game in Winsor history,” “First time over 300 people attend a Winsor game,” and “First place for crew at Head of the Charles.” In the newsletter, black and white photographs show former Athletic Director NancNCy Bilodeau on the microphone announcing the first at-home night games and Coach susan donovan talking with players on the sideline ahead of the varsity soccer team’s win on the new fields. A caption on another photo reads, “Varsity hockey players prepare to take the field for their successful game against Newton Country Day under the lights at Winsor.” Perhaps that’s where the eponymous event name originates.

However, the first “official” UTL is often cited as 1994, and files in the archives support this conclusion. One 1994 invitation reads, “The Winsor School cordially invites you to a new event, ‘Under the Lights,’ Friday, October 14, 3:00–9:00 p.m.” The invitation goes on to detail the game schedule for Lower School and Upper School field hockey and soccer teams against Newton Country Day, refreshments for sale, and a holiday shopping boutique.

From these early days, the tradition only grew, and as it grew, it became about more than athletics. “A whole Spirit Week developed” around the event, says Ms. Peter. A pep rally on Friday afternoon. Competitions for class cheers. “The whole week people were wearing red makeup, and red hair, and red clothing,” she says. “It was a lot of enthusiasm for sports, but it was an awful lot of school spirit.” Over the years, UTL became “a way kids, and their families, and the faculty expressed their enthusiasm for the school.”

“Dressing to themes in the days leading up to UTL always added some fun to going between classes; it’s exciting to see the tradition continue to a more creative degree than ever!” says Meg weeks’04, current president of the Alumnae Board. “I remember the nervous excitement as a soccer player knowing that we would have our biggest cheer section of the whole season that night, so it was fun to be an onlooker (from the ‘new’ gym balcony!) rather than an athlete this time around.”

In some ways, UTL today still revolves around the simple chance for the community to gather and cheer on Winsor athletics during one Friday in October. Contents now include mid, JV, and varsity teams across soccer, field hockey, and volleyball, with 11 games against 7 area schools. Hundreds of onlookers including current families and alums still come to watch the games “under the lights.”

However, the event has come to represent so much more. It’s an opportunity for students, families, alumnae, and staff to come together as one Winsor community. The dining room opens to everyone, including visiting teams. Parents’ Association (PA) volunteers spend weeks planning and assembling decorations, and collecting donations of red spirit gear to distribute on game night. Winsor’s halls are strewn with red feathers from the river of boas waving through the school. Staff spend countless hours preparing and producing the event, from ensuring the smooth operation of our facilities to DJing the pep rally to, eventually, cleaning up all those feathers. It’s an event that touches every member of the community, bringing everyone together under one red banner.

“Attending UTL reminds me that the best parts of Winsor have endured and strengthened since I graduated. Bringing my baby to Winsor for the first time with my wife [Carly Bernstein Rose ’09] who is also an alum made this year’s UTL even more special,” shared Lacey Janet Rose ’06.

Banners that say “Red Hot” and “Under the Lights” hang from fences and balconies just like they did in the ’90s. The PA now helps make the atmosphere particularly festive with decorations and spirit tables stocked with red heart sunglasses, foam fingers, and beads. For the past few years, the PA, in collaboration with the Student Association of Fine Arts club, also staffed and supplied activity tables with face painting, tote-bag decorating, bracelet making, and even a photobooth.

Refreshments are still part of the party, though they no longer need to be purchased. This year, attendees noshed on a cozy fall menu of stadium fare favorites including pretzels, hot dogs, and chili. For something sweet, cinnamon sugar donut holes, apple cider, and a hot-chocolate bar hit the spot. Alums and parents gathered in the Conway Room and balcony overlooking the fields to cheer on athletes while posters and a photo slideshow showcased the memories from past years of Under the Lights.

UTL’s precise origin might be a challenge to pin down. It developed organically over several years, growing out of the simple excitement of a night game beneath shiny new lights and into the first event called “Under the Lights” in 1994 (as good an official “first” UTL as we can claim). But without a doubt, UTL endures as a favorite campus tradition blending athletics, community, school spirit, and fall fun for one Friday in October under the lights at Winsor.