Tag Archives: academic costume

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

Posted on June 21, 2012 by | Comments Off on Class of 1930 first to have Senior Torchlight ceremony (p. 312)
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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Posted in Chapter 14, p. 312, The Cutten Period 1922-1942, timeline

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

Posted on June 21, 2012 by | Comments Off on ’32 football team first to be called Red Raiders (p. 311)
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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Posted in Chapter 14, p. 311, The Cutten Period 1922-1942, timeline

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p. 236 – Colgate in the 1890’s

Posted on June 14, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 236 – Colgate in the 1890’s
1895 Editorial Board
Picture of Editoraial Board

band was organized; it consisted of 16 members and was directed by John W. Finch, ’97. Dramatics, too, captured enough student interest to warrant establishing in 1890 under Professor Thomas’s sponsorship the first Dramatics Club. Though it seems to have disappeared about six years later it had among the productions to its credit The Rivals and The School for Scandal, with students taking the women’s roles.

Academic garb was not yet accepted as a matter of course. Occasiona1ly a senior class would adapt cap and gown to be worn in the spring or fall and the Class of 1897 requested the faculty to appear similarly attired at commencement but that innovation had to wait until President Merrill’s administration. The Quartette and choir as shown in the Salmagundi of 1893 had mortarboards and wore gowns over evening clothes.

Outstanding in this generation of students was Harry Emerson Fosdick,.’00, who was destined to a great career as New York City

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Posted in Chapter 11, Colgate in the 1890's, p. 236

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p. 231 – Colgate in the 1890’s

Posted on June 14, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 231 – Colgate in the 1890’s

1891 to succeed Dr. Beebee as Professor of Homiletics. An alumnus of Hamilton College, he had been minister at churches in Waterford and Newburgh. Dr. George R. Berry came in 1896 from the University of Chicago, where he had received his Ph.D., to teach the Semitic languages. In 1897 Dr. Edward Judson, who had been a member of the faculty as a Latin and modern language professor (1867-74), relieved Dr. Jones of pastoral theology which he had taught in addition to homiletics following Dr. Harvey’s death in 1893. Judson came to the campus on a part-time basis since he continued to hold the pastorate of the large Judson Memorial Baptist Church in New York.

Morale in the Seminary faculty and to some extent among teachers in the College and Academy suffered in the nineties because of the dismissal of Professor Nathaniel Schmidt. It occurred against the background of theological controversy in the United States brought about by the application of higher criticism in Biblical studies as expounded by German scholars. Among the Baptists, the new scientific and literary analysis of the Scriptures made headway in the 1880’s and, like the Presbyterians and Congregationalists, they found it necessary to remove at least two professors from theological seminaries for their unorthodox teachings.

The difficulty at Colgate comes as a surprise, however, when one remembers Dr. Dodge’s liberal views and Dr. Clarke’s progressive theology. Had there been a strong man of Dodge’s stripe in the presidency to give forceful leadership, it might not have arisen. Schmidt had been one of the President’s favorite students and freely acknowledged his mentor’s emancipating influence. In 1891 at the age of twenty-nine and after only three years of teaching he was made Professor of Semitic Languages and Literature, in view of the Trustees’ appreciation of his “marked attainments” as a scholar, linguist, and teacher. He was an editor, also, having induced his associates to establish in 1892 the Seminary Journal, a ten-page quarterly, which he directed for its one-year existence; it carried scholarly articles and book reviews and kept alumni in touch with the Seminary.

Word had spread abroad, meanwhile, that Professor Schmidt denied the divine inspiration and “inerrancy” of the Bible. This was a serious charge when leveled against a seminary professor because he was in a strategic position for corrupting the denomination’s theology at its source. Dr. Hinton S. Loyd, Executive Secretary of the Education

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Maroon and orange selected as new school colors (p. 208)

Posted on June 14, 2012 by | Comments Off on Maroon and orange selected as new school colors (p. 208)

dents. A series of revival meetings in 1871, however, seems to have met with a mixed response; most of the Hill appears to have been swept up by it but a few students seem to have resisted and called for a University Church which they felt would meet the special needs of the campus. Their efforts were fruitless and they were informed that the village church was interested in students and welcomed them to all its activities.

The village people took pride in “their” university and many watched with zest the growth of “college spirit” and customs. Since so many of the students were preparing for the ministry the prevailing atmosphere continued still to be more earnest than that on other campuses. The subtle changes which were creeping in, however, brought a more carefree outlook. Through their contacts with college friends at Hamilton, Syracuse and elsewhere, and through reading the regular coverage of college news in the Madisonensis, students kept abreast of developments on the “collegiate scene.” Madisonensis editors often deplored the lack of college spirit but one, alarmed in 1883 at what he thought was an over-emphasis of “college ‘tone:” asked “whether the extreme type of college man, with his college fashions, his college slang, his inane college gossip, his peculiar college mannerisms, is not as complete a snob, as poor a creature, as exists.” Neither he nor other alarmists could prevent Madison students from adopting current practices and customs.

Distinctive college garb was introduced as early as 1870, when freshmen announced their intention of wearing “Oxford caps,” which would seem to have been mortarboards. By 1881 all classes had them, each class identified by the color of the tassel-senior, purple; junior, blue; sophomore, red; and freshman, green. One student urged without results, that the seniors should wear gowns and another that the faculty adopt academic costume as was the practice at other institutions.

Madison’s colors, blue and magenta, adopted in 1868, were changed in 1886 by the Students Association to maroon and orange. They were a conspicuous means of fostering enthusiasm at athletic events and a feature of college life which was especially interesting to the young ladies who followed the fortunes of the teams, especially baseball.

College slang, of course, infiltrated the campus and Madison students seem to have made at least two unique contributions. One was

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Posted in Chapter 10, p. 208, Student Life, 1869-1890, timeline

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