Occidental College - La Encina Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

Page 28 text:

THE SPORTING FANCY In the very middle of the nineties, during the year of 1895, Occidental ' s varsity foot- ball squad averaging one hundred and fifty pounds of weight won the championship of Southern California. The rivals ridden over included U.S.C., Chaffey College, Whittier College and Throop Institute (now the California Institute of Technology). On that first conquering team played three Ramsaur brothers, and fitting is it in Occidental ' s fiftieth year that the freshman footballers should be captained by another generation ' s Jack Ramsaur. Charles Bazata, Dean Cromwell, Horace Cleland, Dwight Chapin, J. P. Hagerman, Owen Bird, Fred Thompson, Chester Bradbeer, William C. Allen, Drury Wieman, Tliaddeus Jones, Harry Kirkpatrick, Sid Foster, Sam McClung, Arthur Shipkey, Ralph Deems— these are but names, and names but tags to memories. And while the student of today may pass a hur- ried, unknowing eye over them, into the eyes of other generation ' s grand-stand quarterbacks and team mates will come a glow of warm recognition of rememberings of football victories when uniforms were home-made, when every yard gained was gained by line plunging, when Oxy cinder-paths encouraged winged feet to phenominal glory in the days of Peter Poole, trainer; and when State championships were chiefly a matter of defeating the University of California. TTie Oxy tiger is no longer the sabertooth it was in the days when California colleges and universities were young, but still into every athletic team is inculcated the fire and the spirit, the fight and the sport that burned in those yesterdays. Football of 1936, chaotic, colorful and grandstand filling, rushed through a season that heard cheers in two languages as the team played conference games and a Tnatch in Mexico City. Occidental o U.C.L.A. 21 Occidental o San Diego 7 Occidental 19 University of Mexico 6 Occidental o Whittier 18 Occidental 32 La Verne 7 Occidental o Redlands 10 Occidental 7 Cal. Tech. 7 Occidental o Santa Barbara 27 Occidental 14 Pomona 6 More definitely consistent in the heads up, aerial, wide-open brand of football played than scores would indicate, Occidental ' s Bengal owed much of the yards it made to the 24

Page 27 text:

giant humor of the production as artistic a thing as has been played in the Greek Bowl. Assum- ing the role he once so enjoyed as drama critic, the editor pauses to fling orchids for charac- terization to Roy Littlejohn as Falstaff and Willow Bray and Lita Houston as the merry wives. WTien into the rich but almost forgotten fields of oratory and debate come some forty odd undergraduates prospecting for honor and exciting extra-curricular activity, it can be little less than an amazing tribute to the Occidental speech department. Attacking contemporary subjects four members of the Occidental debate team traveled to Stockton to compete against Brigham Young, Montana State, Utah State, U.C.L.A. and Cal-Tech and to be defeated in the semi-finals by the University of Nevada. In the party were Kring, McCune, Prochaska, Gassaway and Coach Melekian. Don ' t touch me. I am Crazy Horse! night after night filled the air of the Phi Gam basement and distraught Fiji minds the house over, but it was all to good purpose and late in March, Carter Yates won the Southern Conference Interpretive Reading Contest. Mean- while, down on Armadale Avenue gentle Deltas were sighing to The Ancient Beautiful Things and Willow Bray captured the parallel women ' s honors. Gregariously, the fraternal herds on campus moved through fairly peaceful pastures even though with Psi Delta Chi a thing prehistoric, the men felt a little overwhelmed by the larger number of women ' s houses. But what they lacked in quantity they decided to make up for not so much in the quality of their persons but in what they might do. And so, the Alpha Taus won a cup and an inter-fraternal glee club contest. The Kappa Sigmas chose four to sing their way to quartet supremacy and a hundred dollar prize. S.A.E. captured the intramural oratorical contest. But it was the Fijis who startled the whole campus with their sudden single surge of altruistic and intellectual philanthropy when they presented a lecture on art featuring one of their most prominent alumni, Rockwell Kent. Vestiges of Greekdom ' s more prosaic existence were seen in a rather smooth dance presented by the male conglomerate at the Vista del Arrovo Hotel in Pasadena, and in their synchronized Hell weeks that improved the condi- tions of every house, if not every pledge. Much of the good cooperation of the Greeks was due to the tact of Charles Bosworth, Interfraternity Council president. Invoking not so many diverse muses, the sororities glided through a year that bespoke of a gay social whirl, sundry teas for faculty and mothers, two very long evenings of pledge presentation, and a romantic, though the night was much too cold, Pan Hellenic dance at the Annandale Country Club. Reigning over the six sorority presidents that formed the Pan Hellenic Council was Jane Kieser. 23

Page 29 text:

power of Dave Benioff, the passing of Don Peters and Aram Rejebian, the slipperiness of Tex Chisson and the gargantuan agihty of Glen Sycamore Groves. When on deep defen- sive, many a wide end run was halted by the sweeping tactics of George Ingles and Rex Huddleston. Captain Guy Nunn, too, found a roving line commission more palatable than his previous year as center. Two of the smallest audacities of the squad, Johnny Carmona and Glen Seekins, replaced him at the key position. Losing the Jittle-big game of the year against Pomona by a score of thirteen to nothing, the Occidental freshman concluded a season with score results as varied as the varsity ' s. Winner of the most valuable freshman player award, Captain Ramsaur had outstanding assistants in Bob McDowell and Bob Smith. Exciting is the tale hoopsters tell as the basketball season closed with four teams so close that neither Occidental nor Redlands regretted too much their tie for third place, over- whelmed as they mutually were by the two behemoth machines of San Diego State and Whittier College. Occidental 39 Pomona 22 Occidental 31 Redlands 35 Occidental 38 Loyola 42 (non-conference) Occidental 65 Santa Barbara 36 Occidental 76 Santa Barbara 45 Occidental 58 Cal. Tech. 27 Occidental 43 La Verne 29 Occidental 44 La Verne 19 Occidental 43 Pomona 41 Occidental 38 Redlands 36 Occidental 42 Whittier 43 Occidental 28 Whittier 42 Occidental 46 Cal. Tech. 30 Occidental 42 San Diego 46 Occidental 40 San Diego 43 On the team that raced down some fourteen floors to fine glories and small despairs played four seniors who will be sadly missed. Captain Hershy Lyons, forward; Art Hagen, all-conference guard; Bill MacDougall, guard; and Herb Tweedy, center. Crowded for space, some is taken here to give recognition to the fast, smooth-playing of Ivan McCloskey, junior, who managed too often to miss picture appointments for La Encina. 25