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

Page 12 text:

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

Page 11 text:

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

Page 13 text:

held every Sunday afternoon, and colorful they were, with the girls dressed up in their fancy dresses and carrying parasols. Unfortunately, the Rivanna did not prove to be the best waterway for shell races. Most of the shells were too long to negotiate some of the Rivannas tricky hairpins, while others drew too much' water to make it over the rapids. Despite the frequent portaging and occasional salvaging, however, a good time was had by all. After the race, of course, every- one settled down to a glass of Blue-Ribbon beer, as that was the fashionable thing to do in the Gay 905. This is one part of the sport Yd like to see continued? iiTraditions are fine? H. T. Liner said, iibut I am certainly glad they did away with some of them. Believe it or not, things used to be very regimented at the University. Students were required to wear starch-stilf, grey uniforms on many special occasions. But I suppose the most hated regulation was having to get up at a designated time each morning. Eight oblocks were fashionable in the old days tat least in the faculty,s opiniony, and a janitor would make the rounds each morning to make sure that everyone had unracked soon enough to get to class on time. This system wasn,t hard to beat, however. The first person to spot the jani- tor would run around and wake up everyone else. They usually had time to get to their closets and hide. The janitor could tell when he was being tricked. So, whenever he found an empty bed and spied a few toes sticking out from under the Closet curtain, he would come in and stretch out in front of the fire. The stu- dent, left shivering in what amounted to a homemade refrigerator, would sooner or later have no Choice but to come out and get dressed. In his usual unpredictable fashion, and with no seeming reason for changing the subject, Richard Cotts began to speak. iiYou know, one of the most interesting spots around the Grounds is that little group of buildings next to Cabell Hall. The oldest building was built around 1850. It was the house of a farmer named Daw- son. Dawson,s property was separated by a large ravine from the University and was considered by the students of the day to be in the iboondocksf Dawson do- nated his house and nearby barn to the University. It was then taken over, sur- prisingly enough, by a group of students known as the Temperance League. They decided that the University should have a chaplain, so they got together with the four Churches in town: the Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Baptist. They all agreed that each church would alternately sponsor a minister for a three year period. After a while, however, the churches began to squabble among them- selves, and for a long time there was no chaplain at all. The chaplain never got much business from the students, anyway, it seems, if you know what I mean. So in 1895, Dawson,s old house and barn were turned over to the students for livinfbr quarters. For many years this was really the place to live, I mean, it was where all the wheels lived. The University decided to build some more houses there. Eventually, there were eight in all, by this time it was called Dawsonls Row. The houses were pretty nice, too. They were red brick with white columns. They looked a lot like fraternity houses do now, only smaller. Cows and goats were kept in some of the outbuildings, and the University had to build a fence across the Lawn to prevent them from grazing there. When the grass got too high, though, they would open the gate and let them in. Gradually, however, the Uni- versity began to build other things like the amphitheatre and Maury Hall, and part of Dawson,s Row had to be torn down. The remaining houses became facul- ty residences and still are today. The rest of Daws01fs Row is goianr to be torn down to make room for a parking garage. Itls too bad, but inevitable, I guess. An important part of the University will be lost? An embarassed silence followed this story. Grant Sayers walked over to the fire and, grasping one of the pokers, kindled the Hame of the waning fire. He began to speak in his own careful succinct manner. iiAlthough fraternity houses and cars