"For a Free Six Pack of Beer Wear this Shirt...

 ...to Philadelphia Hash House Harriers 500th Run" reads the printed paper tag sewn onto the bottom of the Stedman Hi Cru label on the tee shirt from the 1987 event:

 

"FOR A FREE SIX PACK OF BEER WEAR THIS SHIRT TO PHILADELPHIA H H H 500TH RUN"

 

 

 

 

I've never seen a t-shirt promotion like this. Free beer for wearing a tee. It probably belongs in a museum! 

 

 

The Hash House Harriers seem like a spirited bunch - billing themselves "A Drinking Club with a Running Problem," "the (HHH or H3) is an international group of non-competitive running social clubs. An event organized by a club is known as a Hash or Run, or a Hash Run. 

Hashing originated in December 1938 in Kuala Lumpur, (now Malaysia). A group of British immigrants began meeting on Friday evenings, to run in a fashion patterned after the traditional British game of hare and hounds, in which one or two "hare" runners scatter a trail of cut paper for the "hounds" to track. Apart from the excitement of chasing the hare and finding the trail, Harriers reaching the end of the trail would partake of beer, ginger beer, and cigarettes." 

The objectives of the Hash House Harriers as recorded on the club registration card dated 1950 are:

• To promote physical fitness among our members
• To get rid of weekend hangovers
• To acquire a good thirst and to satisfy it in beer
• To persuade the older members that they are not as old as they feel   - Wiki

 

Back to this deadstock vintage 1987 Philadelphia Hash House Harriers tee shirt with the free 6-pack promotion tag sewn onto the label. On the back is a colonial flasher on Victorian house under  "Expose Yourself to Philadephia." So extra. Imagine the thrill of someone handing you a six free beers due to the t-shirt you're wearing.  

 

 

The promotion came amidst a giant Hash party weekend as an international "Americas Interhash" was in Philadelphia the same weekend. This other deadstock vintage 1987 tee shirt documents that weekend, apparently held from September 4 - 7, 1987:

 

 

The Hershey Hotel is implicated as is the Liberty Bell 

 

 

 

 

This one is printed on a blank tee shirt from the famed Melrose Los Angeles punk store - The Village Mews - the tag reads "Village Mews - Clothes for Heroes - Los Angeles, California" : 

 

 

I acquired 4 other Philadelphia Hash House Harriers vintage 80s t-shirts in this collection. They are: 

 

1. Another 1987 Philly HHH 500th Run tee, no free six-pack tag, just normal, officially dates the run to Saturday, September 5, 1987:

 

2. A bright yellow vintage March 1 1980 Philly Rumson Joint Hash tee:

 

 

3. A light blue vintage 1983 Philly HHH 300th Run tee:

 

 

And 4. A vintage 80s Chickenman Sunday HHH Run 689 Cum On On tee:

 

 All these tees are available at Skippy Haha Vintage Etsy!