Marquette University - Hilltop Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

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The only bad things that can be said about holidays during the school year are that there are not enough of them, and that they come too far apart. But in 1939. Marquette students got two Thanksgivings — and they were only a week apart. That year. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that Thanksgiving would be held a week earlier than usual, on the second to the last Thursday in November. Wisconsin Gov. Heil, however, declared that Thanksgiving would be observed on the traditional day in Wisconsin. This presented Marquette students with a dilemma. Students whose families lived in other states had to decide whether they would miss spending Thanksgiving with their families, or to miss classes and make the trip home. Fr. McCarthy, Marquette's president, made the decision much easier. He announced that Marquette would observe both holidays, and classes would not be in session on either of the Thanksgivings. first Cotton Bowl ever played. Marquette's opponent in Dallas is Texas Christian University, whose quarterback is Sammy Baugh, one of the game's greatest passers of all time. Marquette loses 16-6. — A new enrollment record is set as 3.634 students sign up for the fall semester. The number of women enrolled approaches its previous record, set in 1930. — Marquette and Milwaukee throw a big three-day party to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the birth ofPere Jacques Marquette. A 20-foot-high candle with a six-f(x t-high flame is erected on Wisconsin Avenue. A cast of 1,000 elementary, high school and college students acts out scenes of Marquette 's life, and 25.000 people attend the celebration. 1938 — Most Marquette students still live with their families within walking distance of school. Bur recognizing a growing need for student housing, the enterprising Alumnae Association leases an apartment building at 12th and Kilbourn to accommodate 85 women. It is aptly named Alumnae House. 1940 — The four-hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Society of Jesus is celebrated with a large Mass in Gesu. 1941 — Brooks Hall, the first men 's dorm on campus, opens. Funds to purchase a bachelors' hotel on 13th Street were obtained from the income of the Student Union. The 21

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Run That By Us Again, Father . . . Until the mid-1960s, all students were required to attend at least one retreat annually. Alumnus Roland W. Bogenberger, 1942, recalls that at a retreat in 1941, a priest told the young men that women are the root of all evil. The statement drew reactions from many groups and individuals on campus, and it even made the local newspapers. The embarassed priest evaluated what he had said, and admitted that it probably would have been better to have said something like The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Somehow, it just didn't come out that way, Bogenberger recalls. Above Right: Grandmora Hall, the Science Building and Gesu weathered many cold Wisconsin winters together, until Grandmora was demolished in 1977. Right; Part of the three-day pageant celebrating the tOOth anniversary of the birth of Pcrc Marquette Opposite Page: The 1937 football team had tough act to follow. The 1936 team had played in the Cotton Bowl. 20

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Above: A view of the upper campus. looking south on 16th Street, including the Dental School. Hospital Annex, Medical School and Gymnasium, about 1944. Note the barracks between the Medical School and the Gym. Opposite Page Above: Registration. 19J8. That year, less than one-third of the students were women. Fighting The War At Marquette The battlefields of the Second World War were thousands of miles away, but Marquette played an important role in the war effort. By the fall of 1941, more than 1.000 male Marquette students and faculty members had been drafted. Most of these men received deferments until actual fighting began. The fighting began on Dec. 8. 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The effects of the war were felt almost immediately. The military literally took over the campus. Students in the medical, dental and engineering schools became members of the armed forces almost automatically. Most of the liberal arts, journalism and speech students were drafted for combat duty. In order to graduate students more quickly so that they could participate directly in the war effort, Marquette adopted a trimester calendar. Until 1946, there was no summer vacation, and a class was graduated every four months. There was such a rush to get students through Marquette that, alumna Eunice Grobe I.anbrecht, 1948. remembers. New Year's Day was a triple-absence day. By May 1943, 2.300 Marquette students and faculty were in active duty. Although many of them were decorated, one Marquette alumnus received a citation for his innovative and unique service. Lt. Emeron F. Bachuber, who graduated from the dental school in 1937, pioneered dental treatment in battle. He had inadequate equipment to work with at the front, and had to improvise with spare tools and salvaged parts. The military occupation and trimester calendar continued through 1946. After that, the military remained on campus, offering programs that proved to be forerunners of the current ROTC program. In 1946, the campus was inundated with new students who were taking advantage of the G.I. Bill, which aided veterans in getting a college education. 22