University of Miami - Ibis Yearbook (Coral Gables, FL)

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TIMELESS TRADITIONS OF A YOUNG UNIVERSITY

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i In the mid ' 30 ' s the tri-colored spirits got a boost when Ernest Duhaime donated Little Black Joe a cannon that would signal each Hurricane football score. Little Black Joe was made off with after a spirited game in ' 36, and the following year Erl Roman donated the now famous Touchdown Tommy cannon. In ' 39 a Miami Herald headline testified that things were back to normal. Said the headline: Necking Still as Popular as Ever; University of Miami Coeds Declare. With the times finally improving, the University was brought back from financial abyss and the young school began to strengthen itself for the growth that wo ' uld begin during the war years. War had come to almost every nation but the United States by that September in 1941 but the students went about their business, hoping that they would not be affected by the fighting so far away. But December 7 did come, with its conflict and uncertainties, and UM students were swept into its tide. The first general move was the cancell ing of all social functions. Sororities required members to enroll in Red Cross courses and bought war bonds with money usually used for traditional dances and banquets. Tires were taken off the market. Sugar was rationed. The Slop Shop put up the sign: Use Less Sugar and Stir Like Hell We D9n ' t Mind The Noise. Frosh still threw upperclassmen in the pond and vice versa, despite the fact that most of those upperclassmen were in uniform and in training at UM. The war was thought of so highly that a War Council was formed. Juke The Japs With The Slop Shop Jive was just one of the slogans used to sell bonds. Back to pre-war curriculum with less emphasis on military courses went the UM as the last V-12 unit graduated in October, 1945 and bell-bottom trousers disappeared from the campus. The best football team in a long time topped the season with a New Year ' s Orange Bowl victory. Veterans and new buildings made UM boom. Classes were scattered amo ng three campuses, North, South, and Main. Interminable griping centered around commuting as the fleet of 30 buses whisked students from campus to campus. Classes were carried on to the rhythm of hammer and saw while construction of the new buildings boomed overnight. Frosh flung rat caps , some 3,516 of them, into the air as Touchdown Tommy roared. More than 1,000 freshmen lived, attended classes, played, griped and joked on the 2,700 acres of South Campus, the reconverted Richmond Lighter Than Air ' Naval Base. The Frosh who entered in ' 47 gained one advantage South Campus became coed. Students gave the University a surge of school spirit which was reminiscent of pre-war days. The base was well equipped for the Navy but not for the student. In 1947, a new modernistic building, Memorial Classroom Building, opened on Main Campus amidst blocks of temporary wooden structures and acres of pine. Students felt UM had finally come of age! Student Activities took a surge with the advent of the country ' s most modern student union and with Dr. Thurston Adams, activities director. The class of ' 48 were around long enough to see the opening of the dorms, nearly 600 apartment units, which gave the students greater freedom and a chance to cook for themselves. The abandonment of South Campus and its extensive facilities was offset by the addition of the Main Campus intramural fields. About this time, a big contest was held to rename the Slop Shop. The winning title?, Slop Shop! The Saturday Evening Post featured UM as Sun Tan U to garner more national recognition by exploring the tropical aspects of the southernmost school in the United States. The realization of almost a quarter of a century of dreams came late in ' 49 when the old skeleton became the Merrick Building. Alumni poured back for Homecoming, exclaimed over changes and were amused by President Ashe ' s leading the Homecoming Parade in a dilapidated jalopy. After the war, the University grew with remarkable speed. Enrollment tripled in 1946 to 6,500. By 1952, with President Jay F. W. Pearson carrying the UM tradition, full time enrollment had reached 10,000. CHEni$TinrOrncE-lJf none ECONOMICS SCIENCE RADIO TV- PI 1 The University, now is one of the youngest major complex universities in the country. In a brief 41 years, it had undertaken certain educational chores which Henry King Stanford, now president, is defining for our future development. UM is a phenomenon which heeds some interpretive mementoes. It is big. It has a bouncing vitality. The subtropical setting involves more than the mere fact that ivy won ' t grow on its walls. Strange dream-like things happen to it. An alligator decimates the white ducks in its campus lake. The football team shoots meteoric to the level of the rarer stars. Nationally important research develops from ideas, skillfully caught with shoestring lassoes. The lily pond reflects the figures of many students seriously contemplative and intent on theirs, and the University ' s future. Copy by Judith Spitz; photographs of north campus by Sandy Levy and Richard Sherman. 21

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