Girls of the Big Eight

You Know, Of Course, that there are hundreds of gorgeous women on college campuses all over the country. Having already brought you Girls of the Southeastern Conference, Girls of the Southwest Conference, Girls/Women of the Ivy League, Girls of the Big Ten and Girls of the Pac-10, we don't have to convince you of that. But our expanding portfolio of America's most comely coeds wouldn't be definitive without a look at the Girls of the Big Eight. So we sent our intrepid Contributing Photographer David Chan off to the heartland of higher education--the universities of Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Nebraska and Iowa State, Kansas State and Oklahoma State universities. That's a lot of territory, and we wouldn't have been surprised if David had disappeared in a cornfield like the one above--if not forever, certainly (text concluded on page 220) Girls Of The Big Eight (continued from page 146) until harvest time. We can picture the scenario now: Farmer Jeb comes running into the main house, shouting, ''Maud. it's the goldangdest thing you ever saw. We just emptied out the combine from the back 40 and guess what jumped out? A little Chinese feller with a lot of fancy cameras. He asked me if this was the University of Missouri and where to find the women. I tol' him you was the only woman around here and he asked if you wanted to pose clothed, seminude or nude. I woulda shot him, except he says he's from Playboy. Maud? Where you going. Maud? Put your clothes back on. Maud. . . .'' In truth. Chan, a veteran of our five previous campus campaigns, found his way around just fine and brought back photos of such lovelies as Kansas sophomore Cara Anderson. We asked Cara whether or not most of the schools in the Big Eight have similar atmospheres and similar student bodies (aggregate, not singular, bodies, buddy) and she said, not surprisingly, that the University of Kansas is unique. ''We have all types of people here. A lot of the other schools are very preppie, very Greek. Here, we've got flower children, sorority people, freaky people, punk people, everybody. Yet it's very friendly all around. It's not a cliquish school at all.'' Cara said that the number of girls who had turned out to meet Chan had given her very little hope of appearing in the magazine. ''When I went to see David at his hotel, there was a roomful of girls. Some of them had big portfolios full of pictures. And there are a lot of pretty girls at Kansas. A lot.''

Cara was right about the strong Greek influence on many of the Big Eight campuses. Dawn Becker, one of four successive Becker sisters who have graced the Iowa State campus in the past four years, says, ''We have a very strong Greek system at Iowa. There are 16 sororities and 32 fraternities, and each sorority has at least 70 members.'' One would think that with all those frat houses on campus, there would be a lot of heavy boogieing going on at Iowa State, but Dawn says no. ''Iowa State is a pretty tough school academically, so you can't afford to have too good a time or you'll flunk out.''

By contrast, the University of Missouri, according to coed Allison Klote, is ''the biggest partying university in the country. The town of Columbia is packed with bars--one on every street corner. However, it's also very preppie. When the guys down here aren't partying. it's alligators and polo ponies on the shirts. Top-Sider shoes and short haircuts high above the ears. The girls have to be preppie to get the preppie guys. You have to dress the same and hang out at the same bars to catch these weirdos. I, as you can tell, am not much into preppie. I'm into punk. New Wave. In fact, if there's one thing I'd like to say to everybody, it's 'Whip it!' ''

But in the Big Eight, there's something even more important than scholarship or partying. ''Football,'' says Janette Svoboda, a Nebraska senior, ''is the biggest thing around here. The Huskers [Nebraska Cornhuskers] are it.'' It's the same at Colorado, where Lorna Tate, also a senior, is a pom-pom girl for the Colorado Buffaloes. Partying comes in a close second, though, says Lorna. ''In Boulder. anything goes,'' she says, adding that the third most popular activity (often combined with the second) is skiing.

One of the nicest surprises of Chan's trip was an invitation to attend the graduation of our 25th Anniversary Playmate. Candy Loving. from the University of Oklahoma. Four years ago, when we discovered Candy on the Oklahoma campus and took her away with us to our photography studio in Chicago, she vowed that she would return to school and get her B.A. in journalism and public relations. She kept her word. ''When I start something.'' says Candy, ''I like to finish it.''

The biggest thing at OU, says Candy, is the Sooners football team, but ''we're also becoming famous for our energy-research departments, which have really become top-notch over the past decade.'' Why did Candy decide to return to school after having seen the bright lights of the big cities? ''I needed the change of pace. Badly. I can't tell you how much. After living the way I've lived the past three years. I was ready to just relax, kick back and enjoy the wonderful life of a student. You don't know what a carefree existence it is until you get away from it for a while.'' Despite her extended leave, says Candy, she was accepted back on campus by the other students ''pretty easily. They'd ask why I'd given up that life for this one and I'd tell them. 'Well. I know what that world is like, so I figured that if I came back, I'd have had the best of both worlds.''' Candy's next goal is an M.A. in human relations. We wish her and all of our heartthrobs in the Big Eight the best of both worlds. They've certainly made ours more beautiful.

''But in the Big Eight, there's something even more important than scholarship or partying. Football.''