University of Virginia - Corks and Curls Yearbook (Charlottesville, VA)

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iiI believe you are sadly mistaken? chimed in Rhett Cleghorne. 8The true story about the school colors dates from 1888. Before then, gray and red, representing the Confederacyis gray, dyed by her heroes, blood, had been the Universityis col- ors. In 1888 the question of colors came up at a student meeting, and the colors were very arbitrarily chosen. It seems that one student pulled a striped silk handkerchief from another studenfs neck and waved the handkerchief with the suggestion that its blue and orange stripes be adopted as the Universityis colors. The suggestion was enthusiastically approved, and the good old colors, began their reign. The silk handkerchief responsible for the choice had been bought at Oxford as part of a boating outfit, so that the gentlemen of Virginia are indirectly indebted for the good old colors, to the boating habits of the gentlemen of Oxford? iiWell, that may be true, replied Fletcher, iibut let me tell you another story I heard of one of the early Virginia-Washington and Lee baseball games. Virginia had been the Victor in the last contest the two teams had played, and the Cava- liers offered to let W8IL seek its revenge. A big crowd was in attendance, of course expecting to see the acknowledged superiority of Virginia prevail once more. The Lexingtonians were Erst at bat and were quickly dismissed. Then Vir- ginia lined up her heaviest hitters to begin the annihilation. Strangely, at the same time W8IL began laying all the bets they could in an unexpected show of confidence - 0r foolhardiness. Of course, U.Va. men have never been known for turning down a bet on a sure thing. So they pulled out their coins, too. Virginia batters took to the plate and swung - three strikes! And so it went all afternoon for Virginia. Finally the game ended, 12-0, in favor of WESIL, and the fallen Vir- ginia team paid their debts. Only then did they learn that they had been witness- ing their first exhibition of the icurved ball: only recently discovered and itil then unknown? Martin Vandersliee said with the hint of a sneer that Fletcher failed to notice, iiThatis certainly groovy. Do you have another one to tell us?,, iiAs a matter of fact, my cousilfs father, who attended the University and was graduated in 22, related to me a great story concerning the Virginia-North Carolina football game of 1921. It was his fourth year, and as a member of the team, this Thanksgiving Day game was to be a very big event, indeed, in his college career. However, the game almost never came about and, moreover, was not such a big event after all. It seems that North Carolina that year had ac- quired a certain Bill Fetzer as the new head football coach. Fetzer the previous year had coached at Davidson and had had with him an outstanding back, Red Johnson. And as he moved to take the position as head coach of U.N.C., it seems that he also brought along Red Johnson, who, under the Southern Conference rules, was not eligible at U.N.C. until he had been there for a year. HOWever, Carolina thought this fact to be of minor importance so it proceeded to use Red anyway. ttPresident Alderman was informed of this, but stated he was certain that Caroli- na would not use Red against Virginia on Thanksgiving day. Nevertheless, Presi- dent Alderman, a. prudent man in all respects, dispatched a Carolina alumnus, Dean Ivy Lewis, to oflicially state Virginia,s objections to Red Johnsonls playing. The Carolina people, also very prudent, realizing that they were out to win the football game, politely informed Dean Lewis that Red Johnson had played the whole season, and they would not remove him from the Virginia game. Upon hearing this, President Alderman promptly cancelled the game. ttThe football squad, under the leadership of Captain Hillis Rinehart, met at the Cornerf It was the consensus that Virginia had waited too long, and the game should be played. A committee was appointed to visit one of the local banks and

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'The faculty, 3 little stuffy towards this remark, gave the following punishment to Mr. May: He could only keep liquor in his room if it was four feet above the ground, and that after a certain hour he would have to retire, and after which he may not touch the floor to retrieve any liquor; it was meant to keep Mr. May to a limited amount of indulgence. This punishment was later removed; it was de- cided not to interfere with Mr. Mayls habits. This decision was brought about because of the ingenuity of Mr. May. To circumvent his punishment, Coleman took a mule into his room, put a bottle of liquor on the mantlepiece, tied the rnule to his bed-post, and got into bed. When he felt thirsty, he untied the mule, mounted from his bed, rode to the mantlepiece, took a drink, rode back, tied the mule and got into bed. He did this repeatedly with his feet never touching the floor? Phelps spoke up at this point saying iiVVell, Cleghorne, you talk about students drinking here but you don,t hear too much about the old time faculty boozers. One of the deans had an impressive reputation for nipping whenever he got the chance. As he was short on secretaries, he hired a student to work part-time in his oilice. One afternoon the student assistant came barging in just as the dean was pulling a flask out of his desk drawer. Not in the least taken aback, the dean exclaimed, iBest damn hair tonic in the world; as he vigorously rubbed it into the few remaining hairs on his head? After this story Phelps came out with a loud laugh and slouched back into a listening position. Cary Randolph seemed to take this gesture as a cue. As he stood by the roaring fire he boasted that the incident of whiskey on the Deans head couldnlt match the time bourbon anointed the noble skull of the President of the United States. uLate one November, President Coolidge was witnessing a heated Virginia- Carolina brawl on an unusually cold afternoon. Fellowship and ferociousness, however, were not enough to combat the bitter forces of Old Man Winter, and some of the Virginia partisans were forced to take stronger measures. With only seconds remaining a guy named Swyback scored for Carolina to win the game. The play was run on fifth down, and the ball carrier stepped out of bounds in the process of scoring, but the final score stood. The Virginia fans erupted, Coolidge was hit in the head by an errant bottle, and the Carolina football team barely escaped to its dressing room without loss of limb. Recently, fans of other schools have been known to throw unopened beer cans, but let it be said that VVahoo fans have never been known to hurl an unemptied container. You might be in- terested to know that this scene took place during the prohibition era? nIs that right? Thatis amazing? For the first time that evening Fletcher showed some sign of life, and, as everyone in the room well knew, these stirrings 0n Fletcherls part were induced by that magic word iifootball. iiYou know, I re- member reading somewhere that football, as we think of it, was first played at the University around 18873, : Yeah, Fletch, is that something that all the grant-in-aid boys have to learnPT, Vanderslice remarked with a sardonic smile. Nevertheless, F letcher continued undisturbed. uBut the games were not very popu- lar with the student body. Realizing a dire need for some sort of stimulus at this stage, a guy named Leny from the Law iDepartment, suggested erecting:r a wall around the playing field and charging a gate fee. Sure enough, curiosity soon won the day, and a marked increase in attendance guaranteed the games future status. About a year later an athletic association was formed to organize and to coordinate the different sports activities. Leny deservedly was made its president. It was at this juncture that Virginia athletes first began wearing the orange and navy bluef'

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t h V tagwwyg row? i V- E; mW borrow the money for the sole purpose of playing the game. Thereupon Hillis lit , fxnz-i Rinehart telegraphed the captain of the Carolina team and said, The Virginia TZTTV; 3i- T : team is on the way to Chapel Hill to play you with or without Johnson, prefera- bly without Johnsonf The team left on a special train. The coaches, for some unknown reason, rode in a rear car separated from the team. Many students and alumni, hearing of the game, boarded the train enroute to Chapel Hill, but in their haste many forgot one of the necessary essentials for a good train trip. An honest porter, noting the dilemma that many were confronted with, offered to be of assistance and collected money to obtain the so-called refreshments at the next stop. The porter returned with a heavily laden bag which he hurriedly placed in the car, then promptly disappeared. The bag, however, was not what they had expected, for many did not know exactly what to do with a bag of bricks. An in- genious few tprobably baseball playersy did something constructive with the bricks, while improving their throwing arms. Nevertheless, a few managed to make a very good time of the trip, as my cousins father observed upon waking when he fOund a drunk in his berth. By the time they had reached Chapel Hill, President Alderman had decided the game would be played. At the appointed time, the Virginia team appeared on the field and found the stadium overiiowing with people, most of whom were cheering vociferously for the Virginia team. The game was played with Red Johnson, and, unfortunately, Virginia was so busy watching Red that they somehow forgot to watch Runt Lowe, especially when he scored the winning touchdown? Cary Randolph interjected, iiYou realize there,s always a traditional rivalry between Virginia and Carolina. TiYea, I wish they had not discontinued the tradition of Carolina Try-Outsf Phelps Lambert said. iiCarolina Try-Outs, the story goes, were held on the East Range, where duels had been held in the University,s earlier days. The iTry-Outs , consisted of several crap games, and every student pledged to drop out when he had lost ten dollars. The five surviving members of the TTry-Outs, had to bet their winnings on Virginia in the Carolina-Virginia game that weekend. TiOn one occasion the University had a new professor who had formerly taught at West Point and consequently believed in strict discipline and administrative con- trol. University students, on the other hand, favored individual freedom. Anyway, the new professor was quite shocked at the Carolina Try-Outsf and he undertook to gather evidence to present to Dean Page. The professor found some torn Checks, pieced them together, and reported to Dean Page the names of the guilty. Calling the students to his office, Dean Page reprimanded them, reminded them of the Universityis regulations against gambling in the open, and suggested that in the future the students should be more careful in the disposing of their checks. Phelps, sitting up in his chair, downed the last swallow of beer which came right back up in the form of a boisterous belch. Excuse me, that one slipped? Lam- bert said apologetically. iiMy Cod, youire crude? said Rhett as he swirled his whiskey sour. itVVhat I was going to say, Lambert answered, uwas that the University should revive the crew team. Before intercollegiate athletics had become a permanent part of the University, students were apt to try anything to develop their athletic ability. One group of Visionaries became interested in boat races, and sent letters off to various wealthy people in the state asking for money to form a crew. The response, though not overwhelming, was adequate, and a boat house and terrace were erected on the banks of the Rivanna River. Students took up the sport with great enthusiasm, and soon a University Boat Club was established. Races were