Category Archives: The Cutten Period 1922-1942

p. 314 – The Cutten Period, 1922-1942

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profound adjustments could be foreseen. None-the-less, the University was in a strong position for adapting to new conditions of the immediate present and for planning for the long-range future. It could count among its assets a sound financial basis, expanded and well-kept buildings and grounds, an able faculty, a loyal alumni body, and a reputation not only for athletic prowess but also for a progressive educational program of high quality. President Cutten’s leadership had indeed been productive.

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p. 313 – The Cutten Period, 1922-1942

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M. Williams, ’95, President of the Alumni Corporation, and Bernard P. Taylor, ’24, Secretary, and its effectiveness assured its perpetuation by each successive senior class. The commencement of 1940 was made notable by granting an honorary degree to Mrs. Frances Payne Bolton, Member of Congress and the great-granddaughter of Elisha Payne, one of Colgate’s “Thirteen Men.”

As the expanding Alumni Corporation came to play an increasingly greater part in University life, a full-time secretary became necessary.Raymond E. Brooks, ’06, one of the organization’s founders, was appointed in 1925 to relieve Professor Alton, who had combined responsibilities for alumni affairs with his many other duties, and was assigned office space in the Administration Building. His successors were: Bernard P. Taylor, ’24 (1929-35), Herschel L. Mosier, ’22 (1935-42), and Carlton O. Miller, ’14 (1942-60); the latter had also been one of those who had established the corporation in 1919.

The program for alumni activities included the annual Homecoming Day, first held in the fall of 1923 to give the graduates an opportunity to see the college “in its shirtsleeves” since the usual day-to-day operations were suspended when they came in June. With the conclusion of the Million Dollar Campaign, the first of the annual alumni funds was established in 1925 to be completed the following spring. As a means of building alumni loyalty and interesting prospective freshmen in Colgate, the corporation in 1926 and 1940 sponsored the production of films which presented various characteristic features of undergraduate life in and out of the classroom and which had extensive showings before alumni groups and in secondary schools. Student selection was a service to the University which appealed to many alumni and under the leadership of George W. Cobb, ’94, committees for this purpose were formed throughout the country and sent many fine young men to Colgate. Undergraduates were also enlisted in this enterprise and prizes were given for those who were particularly diligent in the work. To honor those men who made outstanding contributions, the Alumni Corporation in 1937 instituted Alumni Awards for Distinguished Service; the first recipients were most fittingly James C. Colgate and George W. Cobb.

As Dr. Cutten’s administration drew to a close with his resignation to take effect in the summer of 1942, World War II had already changed the aims and operation of the University and further and more

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Class of 1930 first to have Senior Torchlight ceremony (p. 312)

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Old Golf Course behind President's House c. 1920, A1000-63, Folder 2, p312

players of the period became All-Americans-J. Edward Tryon, ’26; Leonard D. Macaluso, ’31; John F. Orsi, ’32; and Robert L. Smith, ’33, captain of the famed 1932 team. The Colgate undergraduate spectators, too, won recognition as “the All-American cheering section.”

With the Seminary’s removal to Rochester in 1928 the time was opportune for changes in commencement practices and festivities. The Class of 1929, with their gift of Bachelor of Arts hoods, introduced a new note of color at the graduation exercises. The Alumni Corporation, in an attempt to induce graduates to return to the campus, in 1930 established Alumni Day on the Saturday prior to the Monday of the actual commencement exercises. The Class of 1930 was the first to carry out the Senior Torchlight ceremony on the Taylor Lake peninsula, on Baccalaureate Sunday evening, and James C. Colgate delivered to them the first of a series of memorable homilies he was to give on these occasions. The idea for the ceremony originated with Frank

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’32 football team first to be called Red Raiders (p. 311)

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1932 Football Team, Sports-12, p311

The coaches were: Richard C. Harlow (1922-26), George W. Hauser (1926-27), Earl C. Abell, ’16 (1928), and Andrew “Andy” Kerr (1929-46). All made genuine contributions but it was Andy and his teams who became legendary. His gridiron innovations, which he insisted be executed with mathematical precision, and the impact of his character on his players are a legacy of great value.

The outstanding 1932 team will always be remembered in Colgate annals as “unbeaten, untied, unscored on,-and uninvited” to play in the post-season Rose Bowl game. This team incidentally was the first to be called “Red Raiders.” Their new uniforms of maroon pants, white jerseys trimmed with maroon, and white helmets were responsible for the designation which all successive football teams have borne. The unbeaten 1925 team inaugurated a 23-year period in which Colgate either defeated or tied its arch-rival, Syracuse. Hamilton College reappeared on the schedule for the last time in 1926 and ’27. Four

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p. 310 – The Cutten Period, 1922-1942

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John F. (Jack) Rourke, Bio File, p310
                     
Andrew (Andy) Kerr, A0999-1, Folder 9, p310

 

Dr. (Doc) Ellery C. Huntington, Bio File, p310

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Seven Oaks golf course completed (p. 309)

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had lived before migrating to the United States, was completed in 1928. The next year James Dalgety came as the first coach and golf professional. When new Huntington Gymnasium pool, the gift of James C. Colgate, was put in use, swimming was added as a sport in1926 under the coaching of J. Howard Starr of the Physical Education Department.

Dr. Cutten sought to foster winter sports, especially as an outlet for student energy. Hockey which had an intermittent existence since 1916, partly because winter weather sometimes failed to provide the necessary ice, returned in 1928 as a minor sport and in 1929 had become a permanent part of the program. Ten years later skiing gained recognized athletic status and won popularity under the sponsorship of David W. Trainer, of the Geology Department, a Dartmouth alumnus who as an undergraduate had been active in the Dartmouth Outing Club. In appreciation of his efforts the ski slope behind the Huntington Gymnasium was named Trainer Hill.

In addition to the required two years of freshman-sophomore physical education, Colgate in 1930 introduced an intramural program. Supervised by the Physical Education Department, it afforded all students opportunity for athletic competition on the basis of fraternities and other groups and elicited a wide response. Several sports, such as golf, tennis, handball, squash, and swimming were stressed as those which could be carried over into the post-college years.

Colgate’s football record of the ’20’s and ’30’s matched, and in some instances surpassed, that of the preceding decades. Students, alumni, faculty, trustees, and townspeople shared in giving the team enthusiastic support. There probably were no followers more eager than the President of the University and the President of the Trustees. Dr. Cutten, the former Yale center, who occasionally took a hand in coaching, could always be relied on for rousing speeches at student and alumni rallies; Mr. Colgate repeatedly stressed the ideals of good sportsmanship, as well as the “will to win” theme. The editor of the Alumni News, recognizing in 1927 that at Colgate and many other colleges there was undue emphasis on football, believed that instead of trying to “drive the customers away from the side-show” greater effort should be made to get them interested in the “main tent”-i.e. the intellectual life of the college. In developing the Colgate Plan the University was attempting to demonstrate the worth of this approach.

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Civilian pilot training program is introduced in response to WWII (p. 308)

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thus enabling each house to admit a larger number. Lack of an adequate freshman dining hall delayed putting the recommendations into effect until 1937 when the Student Union Building was opened.

The outbreak of World War II impinged rather little on the usual student interests and activities though the undergraduates were alert to the rush of events. Many were somewhat prone to be skeptical over reports they read, fearing they would become victims of propaganda as they felt the World War I generation had been. By the fall of 1940 Colgate had established a Civilian Pilot Training program under contract with the Civil Aeronautics Authority. The unit had a flying field on Route 20 between Madison and Bouckville, three planes and three instructors, and members of the Physics and Geology Departments taught the ground school courses. Initially 30 students enrolled and up to June, 1942, 159 had completed the program, most of whom made war careers of flying.

The news of Pearl Harbor came shortly before a Christmas Vesper Service at which the Rev. William F. Davison, ’23, preached on “Home for Christmas” to a shocked congregation far removed from the happy spirit associated with the season. As they left the Chapel in the soft white snow-the first of the season-they faced the future with uncertainty. Students were counseled to remain in college to complete as much of their education as possible before going into service. Colgate, like most colleges, adopted an accelerated academic program early in January, 1942, which provided for a three-term year and enabled the Class of 1943 to graduate six months ahead of schedule. Learning and teaching took on a new seriousness. Hamilton’s first blackout, the initial visit of the Red Cross bloodmobile, the collection of scrap metal, new wartime courses such as Map Reading, Democracies and Dictatorships, and Military German, and the presentation of a service flag by the Class of 1932, all served to remind students and faculty that the nation and its colleges were at war, Colgate among them.

The preceding two decades had seen great expansion of the athletic program. Golf was introduced in 1923, though for some years before students had, played on the old course, bounded roughly by the quarry, cemetery and President’s House, which had been constructed in 1917 on the initiative of some faculty and townspeople. A new course, incorporating and expanding the old one and named Seven Oaks for the village in Kent, England, near which the Colgate family

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Fraternity houses built (p. 307)

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organized in 1923, became Gamma Omicron of Sigma Chi in 1930 and Delta Pi Sigma, a local founded in 1928, which became Alpha Upsilon of Phi Kappa Tau in 1937. Thanks to the loyalty of alumni brothers and mortgages, nine of the original eleven fraternities constructed new houses during the period-Beta Theta Pi, 1923; Phi Gamma Delta, 1924; Theta Chi, 1926;  Nu, 1927; Phi Delta Theta, 1927; Alpha Tau Omega, 1928; Lambda Chi Alpha, 1930; Kappa Delta Rho, 1930; and Delta Upsilon, 1931. The Theta Chi house has the distinction of having been the old Hamilton Female Seminary building until that school closed in 1891; it was subsequently used as a summer boarding house and in its later years stood abandoned.

Non-fraternity men had formed various loosely knit organizations to meet their social needs and had been given the use of the social room in West Hall. It was not until 1927, however, that, under the leadership of Edward M. Vinten, ’28, they succeeded in establishing a permanent group, the Colgate Commons Club. It had exclusive use of the West Hall lounge and provided fellowship and recreation for many students who could not afford fraternity membership or for other reasons had not joined the Greek letter societies.

To assist the local chapters in dealing with their problems, several alumni in 1928 formed the Fraternity Alumni Council of Colgate University (Interfraternity Alumni Council) with Frank M. Williams, ’95, as president and Carlton O. Miller, ’14, as secretary. They sought through a sharing of ideas and experience to encourage scholarship among the undergraduate brothers, to assist in constructing fraternity houses and improving business practices, to bring about a more satisfactory tax policy on their real estate, to improve communication and relations among fraternity alumni, parents, faculty, administration and local residents, to aid bringing new fraternities to the campus, and to promote good fellowship among alumni of all the fraternity groups. Their work was to be most helpful.

Dissatisfaction with rushing and pledging procedures eventually led, in 1934, to an investigation by a Trustee Committee headed by William M. Parke, ’00. The committee concluded that the problem stemmed primarily from the inability of fraternities, through lack of facilities, to accommodate more than 60 percent of the student body though a great many more wanted the advantages of fraternity life. Drawing on the experience of Dartmouth they recommended that the rushing and pledging be deferred until the end of the freshman year,

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‘Colgate Thirteen’ is organized (p. 306)

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of the English Department and coach. Despite the limited facilities of the Little Theater in the Administration Building and later in Lawrence Hall, Masque and Triangle, the dramatic society, staged some notable productions under his direction. The actual performances were usually given in the village “opera house” or movie theater.

Under the leadership of Professor Hoerrner and, after his retirement in 1934, Professor Thomas Roberts, the Glee Club received wide support and held to its customary high standards. Its quartet made the first commercial recording of Colgate songs in 1926 and in 1929 for the first time the Club gave a joint concert with a girls’ chorus, the Skidmore Glee Club. A smaller and more informal singing group, the Colgate Thirteen, was organized in July, 1942, “to spread Colgate spirit through song.” Beta Theta Pi inaugurated its annual intrafraternity song contest in the spring of 1930. The first of a series of student musical comedies was produced in 1935.

The highlight of the debating program was probably the team’s successful trip to English universities in 1924. Cambridge and Oxford teams visited the campus on their American trips. Able students and effective coaches-Carl A. Kallgren, ’17, Ralph E. Kharas, Lawrence A. Appley, and Jasper (Jack) V. Garland-combined to make excellent records.

The YMCA, renamed successively Colgate University Christian Union and Colgate Christian Association, played an active part in student religious life, especially under the sponsorship of Dr. Alton and Secretaries Shotts and Gregory. After the latter’s resignation in 1933 students with some faculty assistance took greater responsibilities. The Association arranged in 1936 for the first of the all-campus Mother’s Day weekend programs which Beta Theta Pi had inaugurated in 1933.

The two honorary senior societies, Skull and Scroll and Gorgon’s Head, in 1925 vainly attempted to merge as the Mercurius Society in an effort to eliminate campus politics in selecting members. Seven years later, however, they succeeded in consolidating as Konosioni which emphasized service to Colgate as well as recognition for athletic and other attainments. Acknowledgment of freshman and sophomore campus leaders came with the formation of the Maroon Key Club, a junior honorary society, in 1931.

Fraternity life was in its heyday in the 1920’s and ’30’s. Two were added to those already on campus-Theta Pi Delta, a local group

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p. 305 – The Cutten Period, 1922-1942

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freshman caps, attendance at cheer and song practice, and in general maintaining campus traditions, was taken over by the Sophomore Vigilance Committee in 1930. Paddling was a common punishment for violating the rules to be found in the Frosh Bible. By 1939 the senior honorary society, Konosioni, had assumed the duties of the sophomore committee.

Undergraduate support of the honor system had so declined by 1922 that on recommendation of the Students’ Association the faculty abolished it. Many undergraduates had come to believe that the crime was not so much cheating as being caught. Later college generations sought unsuccessfully to create sufficient public sentiment to revive the no-proctoring arrangements.

Interclass rivalry was a marked feature of student life in the ’20’s, especially between the Freshmen and sophomores, as had been true in the past. From time to time it was channeled into supervised events such as athletic competitions, the salt rush, and the pushball contest but the most violent encounters were likely to come when the classes held their banquets, usually off-campus, and before Moving Up Day in the spring. In 1923 they pelted each other in the center of the village with decayed eggs and the next year repeated the performance on two successive nights, on the second of which nearly the whole student body seems to have joined them. Irate businessmen with befouled storefronts and innocent bystanders who had been in “line of fire” demanded an end to such misbehavior and town and gown efforts averted it thereafter. The normal relations between students and merchants were very cordial and the latter were among the staunchest supporters of many campus activities, including athletics.

The undergraduate publications of the preceding years continued in the Cutten period. The Maroon editors by the middle ’20’s gave more space to non-athletic news items than formerly and in the spring of 1924 introduced “The Weeping Willow,” a column of comment and gossip which lasted until the fall of 1940 and at times gave considerable spice to the paper. The Salmagundi changed from a Junior to a Senior yearbook in 1934. Banter, the humor magazine, enjoyed the distinction of being suspended by the faculty in 1928 for publishing “objectionable” jokes. The literary magazine, The Willow Path, expired in 1931 for lack of support.

Dramatics made a strong bid for student attention. Russell F. Speirs, a Syracuse graduate in 1923, joined the faculty that year as a member

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