College of Wooster - Index Yearbook (Wooster, OH)

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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

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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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and the productions rendered by the girls' literary societies, the paraphernalia of the histrionic art was left quietly to re- pose in the green room. it used to be a custom, however, and is yet, for all I know, to have, every other year or so, what was called a minstrel show, at which students actually rubbed cork on their faces and did stunts. This came oli' in 1906 with great success. fllclubs, societies, associations, leagues, fraternities, sororities, which in those good old days were as numerous, almost, as the blades of grass on the campus, Hourished that year as always. But the organization that made the most progress of all was the Y. M. C. A. Early in the year it broke camp in its narrow, cramped a a e quarters in the Chapel basement 5 1:,, Z M J, ,U s and marched triumphantly to its Jiw ,.-' , fi - - sumptuously furnished rooms in , '-fggifj , A V , ,,,- ' QP . J Scovel Hall, where all year it '- 'Y?rZf:T3Z.Sg , . . . . ,wi did valiant service along lines il which, but for it, would have F 33 2 'ie i aggw j. li -,1lf7fi2i,g2' , been sadly neglected. flLAnd what shall I say more? For ,,,. J. K the time would fail me to tell e e e t of the socials and the recep- tions, the walks and the drives, the political intrigues and the scraps, the songs, the yells, and all the stunts that go to make up a college year. And there are so many other things which the students of Wooster University did and said in 1905-6, the which, ii they should be written every one, I suppose that even the University Library itself could not contain the books that should be written. flli.lVloreover, as the year drew towards its close, the sorrow of depart- ing from my Alma Mater, the pleasure I took in the final examinations, and the excitement of Commencement have blotted out of my memory even the more important events, and consequently I can give no clear account of the last Page fourteen