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BOOKSTORE
13th & Kincaid
Mon-Fri 8:15-5:30
Sat 10:00-5:30
Textbooks MS-3520
General Books MS-3S10
Supplies MS-4331
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• Orders To Go
• We now have sandwiches too!
Across tro«n Oregon Hall
1809 Franklin Btvd.
Eugene, Oft 484-2799
Track Town Pizza
Under new management
THE ONLY THING THAT SURPASSES
OUR PIZZA IS
OUR PERSONALITY.
Bose 601 Series II
Direct/Reflecting
Page 8
7m
The good ol' days
Spirit revival: get your rah-rahs out
The bonfire was touched off on the dot at
6:30 p.m and in five minutes was a sheet of
flame Half an hour later pandemonium broke
loose as shouting, puffing monsters rumbled,
clanged and shrieked their way into the streets,
followed by trucks of squealing females
Later on the women were permitted to have
fireworks and on the whole remembered to
shoot them at the heavens and not at the
crowd
— Emerald homecoming edition, 1923
By the 1920's, homecoming was an estab
lished campus event: a kind of academic
holiday when students, alumni and even stuffy
Emerald reporters were permitted to go a little
crazy
The first offical homecoming occurred in the
fall of 1914 with "Alumni Day." a time when
grads were invited back on campus in a
"spontaneous effort" to keep them "interested
in their alma mater " With only a formal party
and reception for alumni and students, the first
homecoming was actually quite dull and
devoid of any rowdiness that marked later
celebrations
Years later and until their demise in the
mid-sixties, homecomings evolved into bois
terous occasions with spirited pep rallies,
marching bands, fireworks, noise parades with
37mm cannons, homecoming hostesses, for
ty-feet-high bonfires and sign contests dis
played all over town The day before the big
homecoming game classes were dismissed
Most Eugene stores closed their doors for the
occasion
When the Webfoots played against Oregon
Agricultural College, now Oregon State, the
event resembled a war Freshmen or "trosh"
were enlisted to guard the big "O" on top of
Skinner Butte all night before the game from
OAC vandals In 1952, however, a few ma
rauders from Corvallis managed to destroy the
sacred "O" with a few well-placed dynamite
sticks
This annual upwelling of "school spirit”
manifested itself most dramatically in the
volume of noise produced at the Homecoming
games At the 1927 contest, the cacophony of
sounds reached such a loud volume that a
reporter attributed it to Oregon's victory over
the "aggies" from OAC
"(T)he game was won last night if noise,
noise, more noise and a revived Oregon spirit
can possibly have anything to do with it The
racket machines came forth in a riotous
display of deafening noise, racked from
machine guns, saws, steam whistles, all the
deafening noise ever devised by man," the
reporter wrote
Ray Hawk vice president for administration
and finance and a University regular for more
than 30 years, says homecomings in the 50s
were extremely noisy events with “the beating
of drums and wailing of sirens only a few
blocks from the hospital "
The 1959 Webfoot homecoming committee dutifully sparks spirit from the student body
W!W
He also notes that the bonfires assembled in
the '50s rose 50 to 75 feet skyward Enthusi
astic students built them with cranes
Those old fogies had a wonderful time back
then," Hawk says with a smile
So where did all the school spirit go?
Enthusiasm for homecoming began to wane
in the mid-60s as increasingly radical students
stuck their clinched fists into the winds of the
times and found exploitation of migrant
workers, oppression of blacks and a war of
attrition in Southeast Asia
By 1967, cynical Emerald editorials criticized
homecoming as trivial and politically mean
ingless
One editor opined: "We suggest that those
people who have time to work on homecoming
should get involved in more meaningful
programs The logical argument against this is
that no one would be working on homecoming
and thus it would die on campus Wouldn't that
be just too bad7"
A few years later, the great celebrations that
transformed the whole city for days were
nothing more than dusty memories recorded
on yellowed newspaper in the University's
archives
Today, however, some see a renewed inter
est among students for traditional campus
events Hawk believes school spirit is "cy
clical" and predicts a lot of student support for
this fall s homecoming
Hawk says 10 years ago students were
"nonjoiners" who "had turned sour on the
world." Today, by contrast, students seem
"happier” and more inclined to participate in
group activities, he adds
Mary Hutzikiewicz, director of the Student
University Relations Council and one of this
term’s homecoming organizers, says she has
noticed an increase in student interest in
traditional school activities She says last
spring's Canoe Fete — a fraternity-sorority
competition in float decoration with canoes
that began over 75 years ago — was more
successful than anyone had expected She
also points out that calls have been streaming
in all week from students asking questions
about this fall's homecoming
"Ten years ago, any traditional event like this
would have been boycotted," Hutzikiewicz
says
Story by Stephen Knight
Photos courtesy University Archives
1
Back in 1921, the freshmen class gathered wood throughout homecoming week for a bonfire.
The stack shown here rises about 35 feet. According to University archivist Keith Richards, this
stack burned for three nights and two days. i,
,-emu
Cultural Forum & Ribbons Presents
A Special
Northwest appearance
by
Available at
• EMI Main desk
• Meier and f rank
• (verybody's Records
in Eugene & Corvallis
Ticket Sales Subject
to service i barge
David Crosby
& Band
Sunday Oct. 18
8 p.m.
EMU Ballroom
Tickets:
$8.00 lor UO Students
*9.00 for General Public
Oregon Daily Emerald
Were helping to Improve
your quality of life.
The West University neighbors
is an association of people who
live in the area between frank
lin Blvd. and 19th, and between
Willamette and Kincaid. We co
ordinate a variety ol programs
that affect the West University
neighborhood. We are involved
with Mousing Preservation, Bi
cycle Marking, Crime Preven
tion, Community Gardens, and
neighborhood Beautification
programs. Call us, and find out
how we can help yoU!
Funded by Community
Development Block Grants
Friday, October 16,1981
A thread runs through Jesus' teachings:
“Hooted and grounded in love," they were
meant to bring healing when understood,
loved, and lived.
The Science Of
Christian Healing
A free lecture, given by
, Jack Edward Hubbell, C.S.B., member of the y
Christian Science Board of Lectureship.
Gerlinger Alumni Lounge
Sunday, October 18,
4:00 p.m.
jponiored^MhpJ^^O^hnstjan^cignce^Ora
SALE
BRIDGESTONE
BICYCLES
Chro-moly frames (23-25 lbs)
Starting at $259.95
Bring this ad and get $5 worth of accessories with
purchase of your new bike
(good through Oct)
687-1775
PEDAL POWER
245 E. 6th Ave. Mon-Sat 10-6
Right behind 5th St. Market Sun 11 -5
... and to think we met
through an
ODE PERSONAL
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