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

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WHU WE ARE THE comns The Universityis school colors were selected in 1926 by a com- mittee consisting of Ruth Bryan Owens fdaughter of famed attorney and founding father of UM William Jennings Bryanl, Harry Provin fthe first athletic directorl, and Bertha Foster, the founder of the Miami Conservatory and the first dean of the School of Music. Coral Gables architect Denman Fink was commissioned by the group to submit a proposal. He chose three colors, similar to the colors of the city of Coral Gables - burnt orange, Biscayne green fa dark green color he createdl, and white. The group approved Finkis proposal. At the time, Owens, who was a member of the first Board of Regents, suggested the colors were appropriate because they rep- resented one of the states symbols: the Florida orange tree. Orange symbolizes the fruit of the tree, green represents the leaves, and white stands for the blossoms. The University has a living source for these colors in the Spirit Tree, a 15-foot valencia orange tree that was planted in front of the Ashe Building during Homecoming 1991. THE HUBBIBANES No one is sure how it started. Some reports say the 1927 football team held a team meeting to select a nickname for their young team and University. Supposedly, they chose the name Hurricanesf, hoping they would sweep away opponents just as the devastating storm on Sept. 15, 1926, nearly swept away their school. Another version says that Miami News columnist Jack Bell asked end Porter Norris of the 1926 team what the team should be called. Told that local dignitaries and University officials wanted to name the team for a local flora or fauna, Norris said the players wouldnit stand for it and suggested fiHurricanesf since the opening game had been postponed by such a storm. From time to time, opposition has arisen to the name that would freinforce the Miamiis negative reputation as a weather-beat- en community living constantly under the threat of destruction? But as one UM official rationalized in the 19608, fiDoes anyone think Chicago is overrun by bears just because the town has a football team by that name?'i SEBASTIAN THE IBIS The University chose the ibis as its symbol of fighting spirit in 1926. The word fibis literally means waiting bird. The ibis is the Egyptian symbol of knowledge. Traditionally, it is also the last bird to leave before a hurricane and the first to return after the storm has passed. Proposed by Student Union Director Norman fChink Whitten, the first ibis costume made its debut at a football game on Oct. 30, 1958. It was created by two students, Charles Nomina and John Stormont, with the help of Mrs. Stormont and Mrs. Ben Alter fthen the house mother of the San Sebastian Dormitoryl. He was origi- nally named icky, but later he was renamed Sebastian after the dormitory in which he was first created. Sebastian is the official mascot of Hurricane football. Over the years, students have given Sebastian a personality and watched him evolve. He was married to his longtime girlfriend Violet at a ceremony during a football game in 1962. Their first child, Falstaff, was hatched a year later. The English insurance company Lloydis of London was asked to insure his head after after it was cracked in a fight with Florida State University band members following a foot- ball game in 1962. At one time, the Undergraduate Student Government pur- chased a live ibis for use as the Universityis mascot. However, that did not last long. Members of USG apparently were unsure of how to properly care for an ibis, and the bird took ill two weeks later. On Dec. 14, 1962, The Miami Herald reported that he was given to the Crandon Park Zoo, where he was treated for malnutrition. UM, Miami share a colorful history By ROBERT MILLER City? was little more than a settlement until an enterprising woman named J ulia Tuttle sent industrialist Henry Flagler a crate of orange blossoms. Flagler was building a railroad to West Palm Beach and Tuttle wanted to convince him to extend his East Coast Railway further south. The rest of the state had been frozen -ice was reported to be an inch thick in some parts - and the flowers proved Miami was below the freeze line. Impressed with Miamiis weather, Flagler extended the rail lines, forever marking the place as a haven for snow-bird tourists from the Northeast. The railroad was finished April 15, 1896. On July 28, 1896, Miami was incorporated as a city. But it took awhile for Dade County to lose its frontier look. The people that lived here then were pioneers settling an untamed region filled with mosquitoes, poisonous snakes and plagued with continual land-clearing dif- ficulties. But this was a placefor dreamers. One pioneer named George Merrick dreamed of a Spanish- Mediterranean city in Floridals tropics - Coral Gables. Another developer envisioned an Arabian Nights idyll on the edge of the Everglades - Opa Locka. Neither man was as successful as he wished - Miami has never been an easy place. But the tourists kept coming down on Flagleris trains - except the time the entire city was quarantined because of an outbreak of yellow fever, and they fueled theconstruction of Miami and Miami Beach, Coconut Grove and Hialeah. Many stayed or returned later. Residents weathered devastating hurricanes and the Great Depression - both booms and busts - to live here in what non-natives called aParadisef, But the city grew up quickly. What was once a tiny seaside trading post had grown into an international trade and hemispheric business center in less than 100 years. It all began with a crate of orange blossoms. Miami, -The Magic Alma Mater fwords by William Lampe and music by Christine Asdurianl Southern sum and sley-blue water Smile upon you, Alma Mater,- Mz'sfress 0f floz'sfmz'zful land, With all knowledge at your band, Alwaysjusf, to honor true, All our love we pledge to you. Alma Mater, standforezjer, On Biscaynefs wondrous shore. The University in Paradise South Florida's pioneers always believed their woul-be metropo- lis needed a university to make it truly metropolitan, but it would prove to be just as difficult to create a university here as it was to build a city. The University of Miami really began to take shape in 1916, when former Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan - one of those pioneers - proposed that a training school for students from all the Americas be located in Miami. 20 The Year- n1 Review

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Miami 3 worId-famous True COlOI'S beach lights up with neon Art-Deco at night. Preston Mack J.C. Ridley Frank Jimenez, left, Clayton Randall and Peter Christiaans, members of Iron Arrow, sing the Alma Mater during Homecoming. Every once in a while, it is necessary to stop and take a break from everything. Jim Gibson The Year In Review 19

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True Colors Some of the first students in UM's marine studies pro- gram participate in underwater class- es. Bobo, below, was the Hurricanes' first official mas- cot. He posed for this photo in 1951. Over the following years, several com- mittees formed to plan such an institution. Each tried and failed. Finally, efforts by two residents led to the issuing of the Universityis charter by Dade County in 1925. George Merrick donated the land U60 acresl and provided a large part of the fund- ing for the construction of the campus. His plans for Coral Gables, his -Venice of the West? had included a college and a high school. Merrickis donation of $5 million was to be matched from other sources. The cornerstone for the first building on campus, the Solomon G. Merrick Building, named for George Merrickis father, was laid on Sept. 4, 1925. Despite great enthusiasm, however, financial difficulties began to arise. Merrickis donation could not be matched and work on the building was transferred to the recently-leased Anastasia Hotel, which was also not completed, to ensure students would have classrooms to sit in when the time came. tThe skeleton of the Merrick Building would be left untouched for 23 years, however, until construction could finally resume in 1949.1 A Stormy Start Nothing came easily in Miami at that time, and events seemed to conspire against the young University. Just before the first classes were to begin, disaster struck. On Sept. 18, 1926, a devastating hurri- cane swept through South Florida, taking lives, destroying property and killing the -Florida Land Boomll and most of the devel- opersl dreams. The University,s major sup- porters were suddenly broke, and the yet-to- built University was now suffering under the weight of a heavy debt load. But despite seemingly insurmountable, the Universityis Board of Regents battled through great adversity behind the leadership of UMis first president, Bowman Foster Ashe, and managed to open the University, though in the leased facilities of the Anastasia Building, on Oct. 15, 1926. Five hundred and sixty students regis- tered for the Universityls first year. At the front of the line on the first day of registra- tion was Francis Houghtaling, UMis first student. Those students, and many that came after them, had their classes in the -Cardboard College? the name given to the University because, in order to hold classes in the Anastasia Building, cardboard separa- tions were erected to make partitions for the classrooms. Despite adding the School of Law in 1928 and the School of Business The Year kl Bcview Photos courtesy of the UM Archives Administration in 1929, the University found itself undergoing severe financial problems. Debts piled up and salaries could not be paid. At one time President Ashe had to pay the faculty out of his own pocket. In 1932, the University was forced to file for bankruptcy. But the Universityls supporters Were determined to keep the school going. President Ashe and others formed a new corporation, and in 1934, at an auction, they bought back most of the Universityis proper- ty for $15,758.84. After that, things began to get better and the University began to steadily expand and prosper, along with the rest of South Florida. 21