The Boar's Head Dinner became a tradition at the University of Rochester in 1934. It replaced the December College Night Dinner, part of a monthly dinner series held by the College for Men. Student organizers based the Boar's Head Dinner on a sixteenth-century Oxford University tale, in which a student, alone in a forest, defends himself from a charging wild boar by thrusting a book of Aristotle down its throat (the boar chokes on the "dry" text). As part of the evening's entertainment, the story is retold by a University of Rochester faculty or staff member with embellishments and revisions. The event is held annually in November or December, although it did not take place from 1943 to 1945 because of World War II. Originating at the College for Men, it was open to men students only, and faculty and staff regardless of gender. Of equal longevity as the men's holiday dinner, women students held their own Christmas College Supper with a plum pudding procession; in 1971, they began attending the Boar's Head Dinner after pressuring the organizers to justify why it was still for men only.

Early on, the Boar's Head Dinner was planned by the Traditions Committee of the Students' Association. After the Traditions Committee was abolished in 1968, what is now known as the Student Programming Board took charge of planning the event. The Boar's Head Dinner includes food, costumes, speeches, music, and entertainment from invited performance groups on campus. Each course is preceded by a song, sung by the University's a cappella groups who act as servers for the evening. Students, faculty, and staff may purchase tickets to attend.

Since 1992, the Boar's Head award (a plaque) has been presented during the event to a student organization in recognition of its efforts to create a stronger sense of community on campus. The previous recipient of the Boar's Head award decides which organization receives it the following year.