‘You’re It!’: 10 Men Locked in 23-Year Game of ‘Tag’

23-year game of tag, adults play tag

It’s almost February, and that means it’s nearly “tag” season. What, you’ve never heard of it? Just ask this group of 10 men who’ve been playing the same round of the playground game since high school–23 years ago.

It started like any morning in high school — the guys were running around the campus of Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane, Washington, playing tag and killing time until they had to get to class. One key difference between this game and the average tag bout is that it never ended, even after all of its members left town for careers, families and new lives.

That’s not the only difference — this game is not bound by the borders of a playground, or a state for that matter. The game is active for the month of February, and whoever is “It” at the end of the month hangs on to the title for the rest of the year. Members have been known to fly across the country to tag one another, even hiding in the trunk of another member’s car to get redemption.

This game can get ugly. Members form alliances, sneak into one another’s workplaces, even breaking into one another’s homes in the middle of the night in pursuit of a tag. This crew is as motley as they come, comprised of a high school teacher, a priest, a tech-company manager, a lawyer and the chief marketing officer of Nordstrom Inc., to name a few. While these longtime friends have traveled down very different paths, a high school reunion sparked the idea to reignite the game for one month out of the year.

Whether they’re traveling (sometimes fruitlessly) across the country to hide in a target’s bushes or their favorite bar, or even just performing a simple B&E, it seems that these friendships will last for life.

Do you and your old buddies have traditions like this? Let us know below in the comments.