College of Wooster - Index Yearbook (Wooster, OH)

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doubled in size, work upon a new dormitory was started, and, best of all, the alumni inaugurated the movement tor the erection of that cherished desire of the students' hearts, a new gymnasium. flliflihere was also a feeling among all, that, in spite of the defeats, disasters and disappoint- ments ol the past, the year would be one of great victories. And this too was realized. l remember that it was said at this time that no such victories had been won in ath- letics for over lifteen years. ln ,1q,, the tall there was a game called toot ball,-nothing at all like the game now known by that name, i f but one more suited to those 5 - - strenuous days. How we howled ' f- H when the Wooster eleven, as the f00t ball team was then styled, was able to score on what the State, an impregnable team sent out by some scientific school at Cleveland! How we rejoiced when our old rival, Oberlin, went down before our teaml How we cheered as we saw them turn an apparently hopeless defeat into a great victory over Dela- warel How our hearts beat with pride, as we carried the tirecl players oft' the field and over to the dilapidated old Gym.Hl fllflqhen there came a day when two or three hundred of us went to Cleveland to see the team defeat Reserve. We shouted ourselves hoarse, and the team played magnilicent ball, but it was of no useg the lates were against us, and we came home with sad faces and sore hearts, for in those days that indelinable some- thing called college spirit was a reality, and a victory for one team meant a victory for the whole school, a defeat was felt by all alike. llliflihe basket ball team was that Page twelve was considered, all over

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I DIIVI WITH THE MIST GF YEARS S l loolc baclc today, through the many years that have elapsed, to the last year of my college iffy course, 1905-6, a Hood of recollections rushes upon me. To be sure, time has blotted out M many of the minor details and left only the bold outlines, and even these somewhat blurred and indistinct, of what is now the dead past. And yet many things were so deeply impressed upon my memory that they come back upon me now with startling distinctness. fill remember very well the general presentiment that prevailed among the whole student body at the very beginning, that the year would be a good one. And this anticipation was certainly realized. The entering Freshman class numbered about one hundred and thirty, almost twice the usual number. The routine work, that which was accomplished in the class-rooms and under the evening lamps, about which so little is said in college publications, and so little heard in the stories we have since told of college life, but which are, after all, bone and sinew of the whole thing, this went on as vigorously as the compromise between the insistence ofthe instructors and the resistance and desistance of the students would allow. flLlVlaterially, Wooster made considerable advancement. The Library building was Page eleven tv...

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.. - fvt' pt3lQlji.f'i ?ff2Q1iei.l:agp. lllliifgl q Uv., .i,..v ,,. it - wi' ,Rf :-1.. , .A .,,. mill.-.r.f.f...l1,f,:1 year the best we had yet sent out. It defeated Kenyon, Oberlin, Denison, Delaware, and other colleges. But, as in foot ball, along towards the close of the season, there came the inevitable disappointment. By losing the game with 0. S. U., our team lost the State championship. In both of these cases, the success of our teams was perhaps left thus incomplete in order that some better thing might be reserved for the next year. flllln debate we were hardly as successful as in athletics. The since famous Tri- State Debating League had just been organized between the Western University of Pennsylvania, West Virginia University and Wooster. This was a great thing, since back in 1906, Wooster was a comparatively small school. Our initial debates in the league were by no means prophetic of the record we have since maintained. We won the contest here, but lost at Morgantown. Uur only consolation was that the other universities fared no better. mln oratory, our success was much more brilliant. Two years ,before we had taken third place in the state contest. One year before we managed to get second place. But in 1906 we took another forward step and Edwin B. Townsend captured for us iirst place. flf.The literary societies plodded on with their regular work, though in those days the halls were bare, unfur- nished, and cheerless. A pleas- ant feature of the year's work li. cm. i , was the custom, then started, and since, I believe, kept up, of one society giving a special program for the benefit of the others. fll1,Dramatic efforts appeared to be on the wane, and, with the exception of the Class Day performance Page thirteen