The time had come to find out whether the East Hartford stadium's massive plumbing system - all 627 toilets - could stand up to a simultaneous flush. An army gathered for the affair Wednesday, wearing free radio station T-shirts and waiting for instructions.

The plan: All toilets in the brand-new University of Connecticut football arena would be flushed twice to emulate a halftime dash for the johns by Huskies fans.

McLellan, a state official who oversaw the 40,000-seat stadium's rise from bare dirt to towering bowl, was tense. He didn't have the bodies for a full-on Halftime Flush, as he'd called it, so each volunteer would be assigned to three or four toilets. It wasn't one-on-one flushing, but it would do.