University of Toronto Engineering Society - Skule Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

Page 23 text:

them how wicked her husband was and how she was the only person who would stand up for the people against him. They were so impressed by her virtue and courage that they rose up and played loud and long, ringing her praises for all to hear — this was the first time their music was appreciated by the crowd that had gathered! The next day they had to set sail for Canada but they did not forget Lady Godiva and the ideals she stood for; and in her honour they decided to call their group of musicians the Lady Godiva Memorial Band. Those who did not play instruments in the Band were dubbed Blind Dogs in memory of Tom Skule and this was the beginning of the organization known as the Blinded Dog Society. No one ever heard much about this Society which being led by a blind man never did very much — it now has the reputation of being a secret society. ir k k Over the years the Lady Godiva Memorial Band has had moments of greatness, as when, with thirty members it marched into Varsity Stadium and drowned out the combined bands of Toronto and Western with its rendition of Godiva — the song that tells of Lady Godiva and the gallantry and capacity of all Engineers. In this year of 1960 the Band has had more great moments; — Last fall the Globe and Mail ran an illustrated article on the band using the Blitz Campaign as an excuse. The Producer of the Home Coming Show begged the Band to appear to save the show at the last minute. The organizer of the Ice Frolics would never have had a capacity crowd without the promise to present the L.G.M.B. — and they weren ' t disappointed, in fact the Blue and White Band got up and left as the competition from the South End was too good. However, perhaps the Greatest Moment for the Band this year was when a big-time professional promoter asked them to appear professionally at Varsity Arena. This was something the L.G.M.B. had never done before, and it is hoped that it will not be the last time. Besides the enjoyment given to its listeners the members of the Band had a great time socially this year at the Cannon Ball and especially at the At Home in the Royal York where their suite was visited continually by devoted fans. Noble Members this year were: — Leader: John Coggins. Trombone: Jim Ferguson. Trumpets: Duncan Blachford, Doug Gordon, Bill Van Iterson, Barry White. Cornets: Phil Brown, Bill Strang, Ed Slater, Roy Frayne. Clarinette: Jim Skeaff. Side Drum: John Van Iterson. Bass Drum: Duff Steele. 21

Page 22 text:

(Left to Right) — Phil Brown, Ed Slater, John Van Iterson, Jim Ferguson, John Coggins, Doug Gordon, Duff Steele, Dune Blachford, Jim Skeaff, Bill Van Iterson, Barry White. Lady Godiva Memorial Band For the benefit of the past year ' s Freshmen who have had their first year of pleasure listening to the Lady Godiva Memorial Band but are perhaps puzzled by the glorious name, and for the benefit of any Skulemen who even after two or three years are still in ignorance, an attempt will be made to sketch the History of this fine band of musicians. Since turning Professional this year the band has been able to establish a foundation fund known as the Lady Godiva Research Foundation. The principal is invested in Uranium stock and the income is used to feed, clothe and house one research student in the lower basement of the Archive Building on Queen ' s Park. This student ' s main task is peeping through dusty records and gleaning any information he can about the L.G.M.B. and its members. The results of his research serve as the basis of this brief sketch. In the early days of Engineering at the U of T (it wasn ' t called Engineering then but it was just as bad) a group of lab-report-ridden students decided to get away from it all and take a trip to Europe. They bought an old coach, and as a number of them had considerable musical talent and some instruments, they decided to play to raise money for food and hay. While traversing the beautiful Midland counties of England they came to ye olde city of Coventry, but to their surprise it was deserted. Nailed to an old hitching post they found a notice declaring that on that very day Lady Godiva, the Mayor ' s wife, would ride naked through the streets in fulfilment of a bargain with her husband. He apparently had promised not to levee a crippling tax if his wife would ride naked through the city — he never thought she would! However being a strong minded woman with only the welfare of the citizens at heart she took him up on his promise. To cause her as little embarrassment as possible he decreed that every citizen should stay in his house with his windows shuttered and further that the first citizen to look at his wife would be struck blind on the spot. Suddenly hearing the sound of horse ' s hooves in the distance, the Engineers ran for the nearest Pub for cover. But one engineer, Tom Skule, whom the girls on the con- tinent had not gone crazy over as they did for all other engineers, and who had not seen a copy of Playboy for months, just couldn ' t resist the temptation to peep through the letter-box. First he saw the horse, a beautiful white stallion, but as his eyes focussed on the Lady all went black — he was blinded, the dog! After this act of sorcery the spell was broken and out poured the Engineers — was Lady Godiva ever glad to see them. She beseeched them to take her to a bar and proceeded to tell 20

Page 24 text:

ENGINEERING DEBATES CLUB With the words Friends, Engineers and Countrymen; Lend me your ears, the Engineering Debates Club em- barked on its most ambitious program in the past decade. An attempt was made to hold one debate per week this year, and if attendance is a criterion, then this idea has met with great success. A healthy sign this year is that although the debates which featured sex and or women were well attended, a great deal of interest was shown in more serious topics. This led to a great improvement in the quality of S.P.S. debaters; indeed, several members of the Hart House Debating Team also spoke for the Engineers. Dick Jones and Ozzie Schmidt of Skule in debate against Nursing (plus one hungry engineer in the middle). As in the past, this year saw Debates with Nursing, P OT and Household Science, and the topics ranged from Canadian Women lacking passion to a condemnation of low moral levels on campus. Memorable on these occasions were George White ' s development of the makeout factor for Household Science girls, and Dave Rutenburg ' s grudg- ing admission that he had been dating one of the immoral speakers from Nursing. On the more serious side of the ledger, debates were held with Trinity, as well as several of the other faculties. Topics ranged from religion, with St. Michaels, to Parlia- ment, with the speakers from Victoria. As is usual, the value of debating for the engineer was pointed up strongly in the 4th year job interviews. Those men who could express themselves clearly and logically, those men who could sell themselves, were the ones who received the best job offers. A conversation with one of the interviewers led to his commenting that a person with a background in debating was always of value, for he was used to speaking and thinking on his feet, attributes of great value in the executive positions to which most engineers aspire. So at the end of this, the Debating Society ' s most successful year, I would thank the Executive of the Club, especially Dave Rutenburg, Vice-Chairman, and Ian Middleton, Publicity Director and all those who spoke in or attended the debates. I would urge that more students develop an interest in and possibly participate in Engineering Debates, for the benefits to themselves and the Faculty are great. 22 TONY SIMMS, Chairman.