'Origin of Oregon's Victory Bell
Found Hidden in Deep Mystery
■ By JIM W ALLACE
As Oregon’s famed green and
lemon victory bell was being car
ried from Multnomah stadium last
Saturday after the Oregon Texas
clash the sportscaster who had
been broadcasting the game re
marked that although the victory
bell was one of the best known
landmarks of the Webfoot campus
no one seemed to know where the
bell had come from or when it
came to the Oregon campus.
It seems that the radio announc
er possessed as much information
concerning the bell as the average
person on the campus. Practically
all of the "old timers” who were
questioned agreed that the bell had
been around a long time but as
sumed blank expression when quer
ied about the bell’s origin.
nremen rorget
The first attempt to trace the
history of the bell was made in
1939. Under the direction of Jack
Bryant of the Emerald, several re
porters spent an entire week chas
ing down leads concerning the bell.
The sum total of their efforts was
the establishing of the fact that the
bell came to the campus some time
between 1930 and 1935.
Someone said the bell had been
a gift of the local fire department
but none of the smoke-chasers re
membered donating it. Someone
else said it had been stolen from a
rural school near Springfield. An
other person volunteered the infor
mation that it was obtained from a
country church that had burned
down.
Another Possibility
Another interesting but unveri
fied explanation was that it had
come from an historic train that
had once been in Portland.
Dean George Turnbull of the
journalism schoolr thought it
had been dragged from the base
ment of Villard hall. But no one
knew for sure.
Then two weeks later Bill Kirt
ley, for many years caretaker of
Mac court, brought forth the “au
thentic” story of the victory bell.
He said that it had been purchased
from a junk company in 1933 by
the rally committee.
Helped Paint
Bill added that he had helped
paint the iron bell in Mac court
and that the bell was first used at
the Oregon-OSC game that year in
Portland. He pointed out that this
first apparance of the bell was a
most auspicious one as the Web
foots downed a highly-touted OSC
squad.
Everyone wa^ contented. The
mystery of the victory bell had
been solved. That is for about two
weeks it was solved.
Theory Exploded
Two weeks after the story of
the bell was published Gib Schnit
zer of the Alaska Junk company
said that Aaron Frank had bought
a bronze bell to be given to the win
ner of the UO-OSC game. He main
tained that this couldn’t be the
same bell that Kirtley had told
about because if it were presented
to the winner, it would have been
impossible to paint it before the
game. Furthermore, this bell was
a bronze one and Kirtley said that
he had painted an iron one.
This started a game of bell, bell,
who’s got the bell. Evidently there
were two victory bells . . . but no
one had ever seen more than one at
a time. In the course of the argu
ment it developed there were vari
ous other bells about the campus.
Sigma Chis, Too
The Sigma Chis had a victory
bell, too. But they said they had
stolen it from OSC in 1914 and that
they had been forced to leave it in
the basement of a Portland alum in
2928.
Then it was the Pi Kaps. Yes,
they had a bell but they insisted
it had been purchased from a log
ging company near Coos Bay, and
that it was no relative of the miss
ing victory bell.
Busy, Anyhow
Thus things stood for several
yeaars. Even if no one knew which
bell was being rung at athletic
contests, no one would doubt that it
was leading an eventful life.
The Idaho football team once
succeeded in putting the bell in the
equipment trunk and taking it as
far as Portland before it was
missed. Immediately the Webfoots
went to rescue their symbol of vic
tory.
The bell was located by a dray
man who noticed an unusually
heavy trunk among the Idaho
equipment and with the help of
the Portland police the bell was re
i turned to Eugene.
ticn iu siauiuiu
Another time the bell was left on
Multnomah field after a game with
California and the Oregon squad
had to put in a return appearance
after the game to rescue it from
the Cal gridders.
Th bell has traditionally been in
the custody of the president of the
Order of the “O” who keeps it at
his house. In 1941 when Jim Rath
bun was “O” prexy the bell was
spirited from the Beta house and
an anonymous note was delivered
from Corvallis saying it had been
hidden on the OSC campus.
Found on Roof
But as things turned out the bell
was much closer to home. Rathbun
had found it on the roof of the ATO
house and with the help of some
other lettermen had brought it
back to the Beta house and burial
it in the sawdust bin.
The wartime history of the bell,
although somewhat obscured, is
perhaps the most interesting
chapter of the story. It seems that
in a scrap drive in 1943 someone
loaded the victory bell onto a flat
car and headed it on its way to the
smelter.
uis Rescue
At Corvallis the Beaver discov
ered the bell, unloaded it, and boast
ed that at last they had the Oregon
victory bell. Then a group of Ore
gon DUs went north and recovered
the bell without recoursing to ran
som. They brought it back to Eu
gene and kept it in the attic of
the DU house.
Then the bell was moved to the
DU backyard where it stayed un
til neighbors objected because ev
f- ' ... 7 ,
ery time anyone went near the bell
they would ring it.
At PI Phi House
The bell next appeared at the Pi
Phi house but no one knew how it
had been brought there. - Rumor
had it that for a time between the
DU back yard and the Pi Phi base-,
ment the bell was hidden in Hen
dricks park.
After most of then men left the
campus for the service, the bell
had a military guard rather than
the traditional Order of the “O.”
Last year the rally squad kept it
but now it has been returned to the
“O” men under the leadership of
Ed Dick.
And that's the story of the bell.
At various times there have been
four victory bells on. the campus.
No one knows which of the four is
now being used or who has the
other three. Perhaps some reader
can offer an explanation to the bell
mystery.
| CAMPUS |
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The University group of the
First Christian church will meet in
the YMCA lounge at 6 p.m. Sun
day.
Sports Staff:
Eddie Artzt
Fred Taylor
Don Fair
Elwin Paxson
George Skorney
Dick Mace
Helen Sherman
Bill Stratton
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Roy Williams
Bob Hemingway
Ralph Parker
Carolyn Withycombe
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Sherry Hawk
K. Lindberg
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Picture Schedule
October 6: Phi Kappa Alpha,
Sherry Ross.
October 7: Sederstrom hall, Sig
ma hall.
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Recapping
Repairing
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T
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o • ,
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Call
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Radio Enthusiasts
To Tryout Sunday
Tryouts for the opening Radio
Workshop drama to be broadcast
next Thursday, will be held in the
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2 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Student Program Manager John
MacDonald requests all those wltb
participated last year to attend.
Any new students in radio q?
drama are urged to audition.
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