Yep, it's for real. It is backed by a $10,000 endowment, enough to fund this annual award in perpetuity.

It's to recognize Uni High students who exhibit spontaneous creativity. Unbidden originality. Thinking outside the box. Coloring outside the lines of the coloring book. The nontraditional, the unconventional, the unexpected. Extraordinary acts in ordinary circumstances.

The Class of 1972, a fairly typical Uni High assortment of misfits, eccentrics, and mad geniuses.

Didn't we just say it's annual?

It is presented at the Uni awards ceremony at the end of each school year.

Any organism of the species Homo sapiens sapiens who is enrolled as a student at Uni for any part of the school year.

Any member of the Uni student body, faculty, or staff can submit nominations. Students can even nominate themselves. Don't be shy!

There's a cash prize of $150 (or more, as you'll soon see.).

That's not all: Winners have their names engraved on a plaque permanently on display in the school. They also receive a coveted Wylde Q. Chicken t-shirt, and an attractive certificate of Wyldeness, suitable for framing. The certificate features state-of-the-art Blank Back Side (BBS) technology, leaving a full 50% of its surface area available for any use your imagination might devise.

Any bunch of eligible individuals can be nominated as a group. If a group wins the award, the judges may decide to bump up the cash prize accordingly, to $200, $300, maybe as much as $400 to be split among the group.

No. Just because we made fools of ourselves on a regular basis doesn't mean that you have to.

The more spontaneous, the better. But we're not going to arbitrarily restrict what kinds of activities qualify because, after all, we're looking for people to do things we never would have thought of.

Almost! But we won't reward anything harmful, hateful, hurtful, destructive, illegal, or excessively dangerous to life and limb.

Ummm... We'll have to plead the fifth.

The point is, we'd like to encourage acts of creativity that will not only be fun at the time, but will still be good memories after you've matured into responsible, upstanding citizens like we now pretend to be. We don't want to encourage things that will make you cringe when you remember them 25 years hence.

Look here to find out.

We have a handy nomination form you can use if you like. Fill it out online and email it, or print it and fill it out by hand.

Submit nominations to advancement director Karen Cooley (kcooley@uni.illinois.edu). You can leave documentation in her mailbox in the main office or drop it off at Hue House.

The essential items are:

• Your name and position at the school (student, teacher, elevator operator, etc.)
• Full name(s) of the student(s) you are nominating, and their class year(s).
• Description of the work, product, activity, or event you would like the judges to consider.
• Description of the context in which it was done. If it was done for a school assignment, what was the assignment?
• Brief explanation of why you think it deserves recognition.

That's all we require. But it'll help your case if you provide good documentation, too. For example, you might include:

• A copy of the work itself, if it's on paper or easily transportable.
• Documentation such as photos, drawings, or articles.
• Comments and endorsements from teachers, students, or other eyewitnesses.
• Audio tapes, videotapes, etc. - but keep in mind that materials that can be more easily posted on the web will be easier for the judges to view.

If you can possibly submit your materials in digital form by e-mail or on the web, we'll send happy thoughts and moonbeams in your direction, because it will save us a lot of trouble. But we'll try to work with whatever you give us.

How about now? Now is good. Is now good for you?

April 16 is the deadline for submitting nominations.

You'll improve your chances by submitting any supporting documentation early, especially if it includes videotapes, audio tapes, cuneiform tablets, or other stuff that can't easily be posted on the web, because the judges might have to pass your materials around by snailmail.

April 23 is the final deadline for submitting documentation. We won't look at anything submitted later. This is an absolute, positive, definite deadline. No exceptions, not even if you look up at us pleadingly with your big brown eyes, your lower lip quivering pathetically.

The winner is selected by a committee of Uni alumni who have proven their wyldeness by winning the award themselves in past years, along with members of the Class of '72 who founded the award. Nominees are judged on the basis of their originality and their contribution to the enlightenment, enrapturement, and overall effervescence of humanity. The committee may employ a variety of techniques in the judging process, including, but not limited to, throwing darts, examining chicken entrails, and seeking the advice of faculty members. Decisions of the judges are final.

Good idea! We might even give you a Wylde Q. Chicken award for that.

Along with the yeti and the Loch Ness monster, the identity of Wylde Q. Chicken ranks as one of the world's great unsolved mysteries. Some people who claim to have experienced close encounters with Wylde Q. describe him as a small wire man that David Woolley fashioned by hand in art class and kept hanging in his locker. Others say he was a real live chicken from the University farm whose photo appeared in the 1972 Uni yearbook. Skeptics argue that he's just an imaginary character invented by Jeff Becker during freshman math. The full truth might never be known.

Constantly! Well, pretty often, anyhow. More than you'd think, if you never thought about it.

She wanted to walk on the Wylde side.