Colorado College - Nugget Yearbook (Colorado Springs, CO)

Page 25 text:

Colo i afro Co cgr¥car l ool; 11,tHfll)t-Sct oi der President Tenney, the number was very small, though of the men who studied under him and went elsewhere for a degree, the proportion of first-rate students was remarkable. Many years later, President Dwight of Yale, in speaking of Colorado College, with Professor Kerr, who was visiting there, said that they had received a num- ber of pupils who had been prepared for college, or who had taken the first year or so, at Colorado College, and then came there to complete their courses, and that after the first one-third, they had not had one who had fallen below standard. That there was only one other institution in the West that had shown an equal record. President Tenney struck the keynote of their intention to build up this reputation when he said: Our printed course of study represents not what we should teach, not what we expect to teach, but what we have been able to teach with the force at hand. Of their ideal of what made the College, he said: We must not, however, in looking at our comely walls of stone, forget what after all constitutes the College. Not walls, not dormitories, not libraries, not museums, not laboratories, but living men, make the Col- lege ; mature students aiding these younger — this is the College. The personal char- acter of the men who teach is the most important factor. Was not Socrates a Univer- sity? Was not Plato a school? More stimulating to youth than all books, is the liv- ing instructor, guiding to the discovery of life ' s best discipline and award. ¥ The instructor — is the College. • But the hardy little institution was called on to fight all manner of discouragements: Sickness, financial reverses, and shifting population many times left some of the pro- fessors practically classless. Interest in broader scholarship and culture was sadly lacking; the community seemed to have lost its power of educational orientation. Plans failed to materialize. Money had to be raised at almost any sacrifice, and valuable property was parted with. Still the demands came pouring in. In 1 885 President Tenney left. The darkest era was closing down on them. The era before the dawn, for the College had now as ever staunch hearts behind it, and they came nobly to her defense. So let us bridge this period by turning to what we can find of student life In the fall of ' 83 we find some sixty students enrolled in the various departments. There were two literary societies, the Occidental Club and the Irving Institute, a Musical Association, a C. C. Y. L. O. C. F. H. P. (Colorado College Young Ladies ' Or- ganization, Combining Fun, Health and Pleasure) with the motto No admittance to Gentlemen, and a C. C. Boarding Club which meets three times a day for practice. The Occidental Club published a monthly sheet called The Mirror. From the Gazette are taken the following items: September 29, ' 83 — A subscription paper has been started for the purpose of securing a football and has been met with by a generous response from most of the students. October 5 — The new foot ball recently ordered is expected to arrive within a few days. The College has been divided up into two squads. October 1 2 — The new foot ball has arrived and consequently the boys are happy. October 26 — The following reply has been sent to the challenge of the B. F. Crowell foot ball team : ' Mr. B. Storee, Secretary. ' Dear Sir — Your challenge to play the C. C. foot ball team is accepted pro- vided the B. F. C. football team pay half the price of a 30-inch Rugby ball and half 21

Page 24 text:

His address celebrated, then, both the dedication of the College building and his inauguration as president. He gave a splendid idea of the early life and difficulties of some of our now famous institutions of learning, showing that Colorado College might at least lay claim to as promising a beginning. I quote from it in part: Our graduation class of two is as many as Amherst began with; twice as many as the Yale first class, and one-third the number of the first graduates of Princeton. The first class of Harvard went forth six years after the first steps were taken to found the University; the same time that has now elapsed since the revival of our College. So that in these points our first Commencement is as honorable as the beginning of the fore- most colleges of the land. When Dartmouth College, beginning as an Indian charity school, was removed to its present location, the first exercises were held in a hut of logs about eighteen feet square, without stone, brick, glass or nail; in which was housed President Wheelock ' s family. Bowdoin, the alma mater of Longfellow, be- gan its work in a small building, and the first call for prayers or recitation was the pres- idential cane, rapping on the stairs. During more than a score of years at the begin- ning of Yale College, they not only had no building of their own, but the entire fac- ulty did not exceed three or four tutors and the president, who spent no small portion of his time in financiering, as if he had been in a Western college. When Harvard was one hundred and forty years old, the faculty consisted of the president, three professors and one tutor. Princeton, the log college of New Jersey, had only twelve thousand dollars of endowment at a time when she had sent forth twenty-seven hundred graduates. If, therefore, we have not been able, in these early years of Colorado College, to rival the great schools of the East in their maturity, we may, in the hour of their wealth and their fame, lay claim at least to a beginning as promising as they had. The dedication of the first permanent college building might well be taken as end- ing the first epoch in the history of the College. Over almost insurmountable obstacles it had triumphed thus far. It had been born in a spirit of faith and of prayer. The first motto had been, Nil Sine Christo, Nothing without Christ; after ' 76, changed to Nil Desperandum Christo Duce, Never de- spair with Christ for leader. From the first the fortunes of the College had been in the most unselfish and devoted hands. In their reports we find such words as these: And we pray every day that we may have no more money unless the Lord will also give us wisdom for using his money to advantage. In the face of every discouragement, through the darkest days, they worked on cheerfully, faithfully; giving time, health, money and all the enthusiasm of noble hearts consecrated to a great purpose. Well may we be proud of our College spirit! The Tiger spirit! It had its incep- tion in the lives of those who thus made it possible for our College to be what it is today. And when the old, old tingling wells up, throbbing through our veins in all its intensity, bringing the tears to our eyes, and a huskiness to our voices, we might well bare our heads to those early heroes who labored before the dawn with never a fear that the day was not coming. With the dedication of Palmer Hall then, the College entered upon its second era. The first was a struggle for the right to live, the second might be called a struggle to maintain this right. Efficiency, now, more than ever, was their ideal. From the first the founders had been jealous of their degrees. Preferring to give few, rather than give such as should be of low estimation. None were given under President Dougherty. Un- 20

Page 26 text:

the expense of putting the grounds in proper condition for the game, with the under- standing that the winning team take the football. Yours respectfully, L. B. VELLA, Sec C. C. A. A. ' On November 2 we read the inevitable — Mr. Harry Johnson had his ankle se- verely sprained last Saturday in a game of football. January 4, ' 84 — Prof. Strieby called the male students together to form a fire brigade. Soon after appears the following amusing items: Football has again been revived as an amusement during recess. For some time the highly interesting and rather dangerous pastime of shinny has been the favorite amusement, but football has again assumed its former prominent position. Last Saturday evening the students at the Club House had a spelling match. March 7 — Prof. Loud is now teaching a class in Analytical Geometry. Several of the students have received admonitions from the faculty for lack of punctuality at chapel exercises. In September, 1 884, the two literary societies combined, forming one society called the Phoenix Literary Society. The Mirror was discontinued for lack of support or something or other. In November, 85, The Pike ' s Peak Echo was started. It was published bi- monthly, running throughout the year. (This was rather a long life for a college paper then. It is the earliest publication of this kind we now have on file in the library.) It had for a motto: I speak of what I have heard. It was virile, energetic, ambitious. As an exchange put it: It did not play true to its name. It ' speaking ' in greater measure ' of what it thought ' than of ' what it heard. ' For instance, in January, 1886, it startles us by saying: Mr. was con- spicuous at the last meeting of the Phoenix by his absence. When a gentleman signifies his willingness to join the society and take his share, of its burdens, and then flunks the first time he is put on the program, it looks as if he cared very little for the society and its welfare. Boulder is mentioned in March, 1886, as having a student body of about 75, and it will graduate a class of 6 this year. Student life was very plainly factional. The College, as Kipling said of the ship on its first voyage, had not found itself. There was, however, a latent force, a vital- ity in the student body (and the character of the student body is the character of the college, is it not?) that augured well for the future. Once organized, unified and all this youthful, untried strength would assume a character and an individuality supreme over every faction. College spirit — they had no conception of; that is, in our modern sense of it. Take our athletics, for instance. There is no more unifying influence in college life than its athletics, when they are clean. Why? Because they foster a college spirit. It is our team, though we may not know a man that is on it, personally. They represent us. If they lose, we lose; if they win, it is our victory. So, in this middle period of the ' 80s, the transitional period between the old and the new, though spirit was eager, keen, abundant, it worked against itself, and seemed even weaker than it was. Athletics, because of the lack of the unifying principle of Colorado College patriotism behind, was merely an outlet for the superfluous spirits of the individual, and shinny served as well as football. There was, as the editor of 22