Concordia College - Spire / Concordian Yearbook (Fort Wayne, IN)

Page 16 text:

Student life at Concordia never was colorless and drab. Place a large group of lively youths in a dorm for nine months and interetest- ing incidents are bound to happen spontan- eously, or with only a mite of encouragement. Stories, stories, and without end, are told about the primitive early days. They are stories that sprang from the depth of human emotions. But life in the last decade has became especially intricate for the student. Let us turn our attention to some phases of this area. Sports were a great interest at Con- cordia at all times. Our present gymnasium was constructed in 1927-28. Dedication of the com- pleted gym was held in June of 1928, with a series of four military tournaments. The college pionered in baseball and established a number of firsts. Basketball flouri- shed long before it became full grown and de- veloped into the Hoosier hysteria of the present. Football, for some reason, never struck root at Concordia. The climax in college basketball was | attained in the last years when our team was entered in the National Junior College Tourna- ments. Who can forget the homecoming event at the opening of the basketball season with 12 Do you know that in Decem- ber, 1927, twelve men organ- ized a fencing club, and each received four lessons in the de- licate art of fencing? The bowling alley bottoms became the canteen counter tops. — Basement of Crull Hall. the hotly contested game between the alumni and the varsity? Older alumni reminisce over the field days at Driving Park. Primaners constituted an advance guard to make preparations on the scene the day before the event. Track events, bountiful eats, and the dark cigar for any shaver who was brave enough to tackle one, without faculty penalty but usually with much physical discomfiture, all of these are favorite topics in the discussions of alumni of that era. ° Sey = teeta inated nents

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The first years in Fort Wayne w ere not easy years. In 1862 and 1863, the two up- per classes were sent back to St. Louis, because the Indiana conscription laws would have drawn students into the service if they were over se- venteen years old. Classes have been graduated annually since 1865. Disaster struck on Decem- ber 28, 1869—fortunately it was vacation time —when fire gutted the English Academy build- ing. The next semester found facilities more in- adequate than ever before. Relief came with the construction of Hanser Hall and other buildings. By 1872, the campus assumed its maximum size and present shape. Hanser Hall, the first large structure, was erected in 1869-70. Schick Hall began to serve Concordia in 1905. The twin dormitories came in the mid-twenties. Sihler Hall, the older, cost This band played from original Sousa manuscripts. PER cant “Home run!—Right over Washington Blvd.” The athletic field before Crull Hall. $123,250. Crull Hall cost less because certain economies were observed. Th groundbreaking ceremonies for Sihler Hall were held on March 2, 1924. What a cold, wintry day that was! Crull Hall was dedicated on September 20, 1925. The four faculty resi- dences on the East Drive were oc- cupied in January and February, 1926. Thus, by the middle of the twenties, our campus acquired its present profile.

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There come to mind many incidents that delighted former Concordians but that are completely unknown fo the last generation of students. There was, for ex- ample, the old night watchman in Hanser Hall who groped his way about at all hours of the night to safeguard the building despite the fact that he himself was barely able to see. The old ‘‘College Moon” came to a tragic end when it was demolished in the twen- ties. This was the last of a number of light towers erected by the city of Fort Wayne for the purpose of illuminating the streets. The ““Moon”’ rose to a height of 150 feet and carried four huge electric lights at the top level. It was the outstanding landmark on the southwest cor- ner of the campus, and a poem by the Rev. H. W. Gockel, now of “‘This is the Life’’ television fame, memorialized it forever. The ‘‘Tabernacle”’ A temporary classroom building which later became Bethlehem Luth. Church, Fort Wayne. The lastest in pep ses- sions and automobiles. 13 The culprits pose by the wreckage of the college moon. The old swimming pool, long since the faculty garage, is still remembered by many. The old ‘“‘Tabernacle’’, a temporary classroom building placed just in front of the swimming pool in 1922, was the butt of many jokes current at that time. The old horse and car- riage barn, formerly located near the gym where the parking area now is, was the scene of a most thrilling fire. The tragedy was that several horses—not as fleet as Swaps, perhaps, but nonetheless good horse-flesh— lost their loves.