COEUR d’ALENE — "I kind of shake my head because it's a pretty stupid thing if you think about it," reads a quote in a front-page Press article from 1999.

The comment is attributed to longtime Coeur d'Alene resident Pat Mitchell, and he's referring to a little Lake City tradition that he helped create — the Polar Bear Plunge.

That tradition turns 39 this New Year’s Day.

"It’s kind of neat," Mitchell said Friday. "It's amazing how many people are doing it."

Hundreds of revelers will gather on Sanders Beach on Monday to ring in 2018 with a cleansing cold splash into Lake Coeur d'Alene. People usually start arriving around 11 a.m. and thrust themselves into the water as the clock strikes noon.

"I think it’s just to start the New Year out with something different, something crazy," unofficial timekeeper Chad Bennett said during the 2016 Plunge. "It’s good clean fun."

The Plunge began when Mitchell and four Coeur d'Alene High School friends formed the Coeur d'Alene Polar Bear Club and jumped in on Nov. 21, 1978. It was then moved to New Year's Day, to become the event of organized icy chaos that is now so frigidly popular.

"The seed of the idea was just to get in the newspaper. We had no idea it would catch on," said Brian Hunt, one of the original Polar Bears who now lives in Norway. "I don't know if it started with Pat or Bryan Riba, but it was one or both of them had the idea. I lived on Lakeshore Drive and was on the swimming team with them, so my house was the natural location. Without Facebook, the newspaper was the only way to get 'likes.'"

Mitchell, who was a junior when he and his pals started the tradition, said with a chuckle that his teenage self would say, "Why did people even follow us doing this stupid thing?"

"If I can lead people into cold water, I mean, maybe I should run against Donald Trump," he said, his chuckle turning into a laugh. "I have all these followers going into a frozen lake, and I’m broke."

Jokes aside, the original Polar Bear Club had five members: Brian Hunt, Rob Langstaff, Mitchell, Bry Riba and Ken Kohli. The first four "are still kicking," as Mitchell says, but Kohli died in a plane crash in 1996. 

"I see him when I go down there," Mitchell said, describing how he remembers his friend when the Plunge comes around. "In my mind I call it the 'Ken Kohli Memorial.'"

Mitchell said he plans to be at the Plunge this year, but he might get in before the crowds amass. He said he recommends people wear water shoes because Sanders isn't too kind on tender feet.

"There’s going to be snow this year," he said. "The hardest part is standing before if you have bare feet."

For those who enjoy a little too much champagne while celebrating on New Year's Eve, Mitchell said the Polar Bear Plunge will help with libation-related aches.

"If they do have a hangover, it cures a hangover pretty good," he said. "But don’t stay in the water too long."

The weather on New Year's Day is supposed to be mostly sunny with temperatures in the mid-20s.

The lake? Yeah, it will be cold.