Category: Notre Dame History

Skiving

“Is it better to have ‘skived’ and been caught, than never to have ‘skived’ at all?” [Scholastic, 09/15/1888, page 68]

If students in the 1880s-1930s maintained a Domer Dictionary, “skive,” “skiving,” and “skiver” would be among the common terms in Notre Dame vernacular.  While “skiving” could refer simply to cutting class, it generally had a heavier connotation of a French leave from campus with dangers of getting caught.  Since curfew was in place during these years, “skivers” at Notre Dame would sneak out of the dorms at night and headed into town without permission.

A student “skiving” out of a Corby Hall dormitory window, 1914-1915

Once in town, students would frequent popular hangouts such as Hullie and Mike’s Cigar Store or Jimmie and Goat’s restaurant or take in a vaudeville show at the Orpheum Theatre.  The typical punishment for skiving seems to be demerits, which students could work off with manual labor such as shoveling snow.

Skiving was so common-place it was often the subject of short stories, poems, Scholastic news items, and tall-tales of the alumni.  The following sonnet was published in the 1913 Easter issue of Scholastic (page 382):

Sonnet on the Skiver

WHAT is a skiver? He is one that knows
Each alley, lane, and back street in town;
To him the campus scenes are dingy brown,
And all routine of class is driest prose.
His is the poet’s spirit that arose
Triumphant o’er the prefect’s sternest frown,—
That hies him off, to view a game, a gown.
To eat at Mike’s, or see the nickel shows.

‘Tis true a haunting fear lurks in his eyes.
And drives him oft within the handy door.
‘Tis true he’s never known to win the prize
Of scholarship—or e’en acquire its lore.
What will he do when life’s great tasks arrive?
Prophetic voices answer, “He will skive!”

W. H.

Dome yearbook 1920:  Floor plan of Sorin Hall with the best routes for skiving

 

Sources:
Scholastic
Dome yearbook
GMIL 2/08

Bengal Bouts

“Strong bodies fight so that weak bodies may be nourished”

The 2012 Bengal Bouts final matches will be held Saturday, March 3rd, at 7:00pm in the Joyce Center.  Bengal Bouts is an annual intramural boxing tournament that raises money for the Holy Cross Missions in Bangladesh.  While the first student tournament was  in 1932, charity boxing matches for the Bengal Missions date back to the 1920s.

Advertisement for the first annual Scholastic Boxing Show (Bengal Bouts) from the January 1932 issue of The Juggler

In the 1920s and 1930s, sporting matches of all kinds were organized as a means to raise funds for deserving causes.  This was no less true at Notre Dame and a favorite charity among the students was the Holy Cross work in Bangladesh.  In 1921, the students of Brownson Hall organized a smoker that featured “boxing, wrestling, a tribute to Coach Rockne, and a talk by Father O’Donnell,” and raised $150 for the Bengal Missions. In 1922 and 1923, Brother Alan arranged the Bengalese Boxing Bouts with exhibitions of outside boxers.

February 12, 1932, marked the first annual “Scholastic Boxing Show,” organized by the student magazine Scholastic with Notre Dame students making up the contenders.  This first tournament was set up more like an interhall match, with representatives from each dorm making up the contestants.  Nearly two thousand people from the University and surrounding communities made up the audience, which was a record attendance for a boxing match at Notre Dame.

Interior view of the Fieldhouse set up with the Bengal Bouts Boxing Ring, 1952

The continued success of Bengal Bouts would not have been possible without the oversight of Dominick “Nappy” Napolitano (1907-1986).  Nappy trained and mentored nearly every student boxer for more than fifty years.  He made sure the fights were clean and fair, which was often in contrast to the culture surrounding professional boxing.  As Budd Schulberg witnessed in 1955, “You’ll see boys battling harder for the University championships than some heavyweights have fought for the championship of the world. You will see contestants beautifully conditioned and boxing under rules of safety precaution that have precluded any serious injury in the quarter-century history of the bouts. Here are boys who will fight their hearts out in the five-day tournament for pride and the pure sport of it” [Sports Illustrated].

Dominick “Nappy” Napolitano instructing students for Bengal Bouts boxing matches, February 1975

In the end, the Bengal Missions are the perennial winners of the Bengal Bouts.  For over eighty years, these boxing matches have helped the Congregation of Holy Cross to provide service to the poor of Bangladesh by establishing and maintaining medical dispensaries and educational institutions.

 

Sources:
Scholastic
Dome
Juggler 1932
“The Bengal Bouts:  On the campus, boxing is still a sport,” by Budd Schulberg, Sports Illustrated, April 4, 1955
GPHR 45/1573
GPHR 35m/04025

Remember the Maine and Shilly

On the night of February 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded and sank in the Havana, Cuba, harbor.  Tensions between the United States and Spain over the fate of Cuba led many to believe that Spain was behind the sinking of the Maine.  While multiple investigations have been unable to definitively identify the culprit, “Remember the Maine!  To hell with Spain!” became a rallying cry that helped to launch the Spanish-American War.  The Maine suffered 266 fatalities and most of the 94 survivors sustained some kind of causality.  Among the fatalities was John Henry Shillington, yeoman, third class.

Survivors of the USS Maine, 1898/0222.
Caption: “Roll Call of the Gallant Maine Boys at the Barracks Key West, Florida, Feb. 22, 1898. Washington’s Birthday. Maine blown up Feb. 15, 1898. Crew of 360 men, 266 perished, +L. Moriniere saved. Pennant of the Maine”

John Shillington of Chicago was a popular student at Notre Dame who was involved in many campus activities, including theater and athletics.  He played varsity baseball and was captain of the 1897 basketball team.  Rumor has it that Shillington was expelled for not returning to South Bend with the baseball team after playing at the University of Chicago in May 1897.  He then joined the Navy and ended up on the doomed Maine.

Portrait of John Henry Shillington, c1897

The February 19, 1898 issue of Scholastic reported on the death of their friend:

“John H. Shillington was of a nature which won him many friends, and when, last year, it was deemed necessary for him to sever his connection with the University he went away with the best wishes of all his friends and of all his professors.  He was a manly boy, and he did not complain. ‘I often think of Notre Dame,’ he wrote to a friend from the ill-fated Maine.  ‘I can picture her daily, and in my reminiscences of her a tear is often brushed away . . . . I suppose ‘Shilly’ is forgotten by people at the old college, and I don’t blame them.  Though forgotten, I shall always hold Notre Dame near and dear to me.’

“No; ‘Shilly’ is not forgotten at Notre Dame, but remembered with affection and mourned with sincere grief.  He shall have a share in the prayers of students and professors who will not fail in the only service which friendship can now render him.  God rest his soul!”

On Memorial Day 1915, a monument was dedication in the honor of Shillington just north of Science Hall (LaFortune Hall).  The Secretary of the United States Navy Josephus Daniels gave an address at the dedication and much fanfare surrounded the event.  The monument consists of a shell from the Maine on a base of red Wisconsin granite.

Shillington Monument, c1915-1916.
“To the memory of John Henry Shillington of Brownson [Hall] who went down with the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor, February 15, 1898. This marker is raised [1915] by the men of Brownson as a symbol of their sorrow and their pride. Requiescat in pace.”

Between 1925 and 1930, the monument was moved closer to the Bronson Hall wing of Main Building.  Many students had since forgotten Shillington or knew anything about the reason for the memorial.  In 1930, Scholastic reported that the Brownson Hall residents had taken to calling the monument “The Bullet,” as do some students even today.  The Shillington Memorial was moved further into obscurity to the south side of the Joyce Center near Gate 8 in 1989.  The Shillington Monument finally found a prominent home on the south side of the ROTC Pasquerilla Center in the 2000s.

 

Sources:
“The Destruction of the USS Maine,” Department of the Navy, Naval History and Heritage Command
Scholastic
PNDP 02-Sh-01
GSBB 2/05
GPOR 17/02
GMIL 1/03

Sorin Hall Porch

“It was not like that in the olden days, in the days beyond recall,
When everybody got ducked that lived in Sorin Hall.”
[1906 Dome yearbook]

In the latter part of the 19th century, enrollment at Notre Dame continued to swell.  Sorin Hall was built in 1889 and expanded in 1897 to accommodate the collegiate students whose population was outgrowing the living space in Main Building.  Sorin Hall was Notre Dame’s first dormitory building to offer private quarters, and a certain level of freedom, for the collegiate students.  However, Sorin’s famous porch was not added until 1905.  The need for the porch went beyond pure architectural aesthetics.  It was built as a deterrent of student pranks.

Sorin Hall exterior, c1890s

Pranks are inevitable in a close-knit setting among college students.  In the early 1900s, students would amuse themselves by throwing water out of upper-level windows of Sorin Hall, much to the chagrin of passers-by entering the dorm.  The final straw was when the beloved “Colonel” William Hoynes, dean of the Law School and Sorin Hall professor-in-residence, supposedly fell victim to this popular prank.  Immediately thereafter, construction of a porch began on the eastern facade of Sorin Hall to protect visitors from an unexpected deluge of water.  The porch was completed in April 1905.

Sorin Hall residents posed on the front steps of Sorin Hall, c1890s. “Colonel” William Hoynes is in the center with a top hat.

The water pranks did not completely cease with this addition, as students could crawl out on top of the flat-roofed porch.  However, the pranksters had to be slier as they were more exposed to getting caught.  Stories of the Hoynes incident lived on in the inaugural 1906 Dome yearbook and for a few years there after.  As a happy accident, this stately porch has become a significant part of Sorin Hall’s identity as a place to gather and as a stage for concerts, speeches, and the annual talent show.  Even Colonel Hoynes himself, who had a flare for the theatrical, often entertained alumni and visitors on the very porch that might not exist if it weren’t for a fateful prank.

Sorin Hall exterior with an American flag and blue banner on the porch that reads “God, Country, Notre Dame,” August 2002

 

Sources:
CNDS 14/29:  Sorin Hall histories by Philip Hicks, 1979-1980
Dome yearbooks 1906-1907
GGPP 2/16
GGPP 2/11
GMDG 7/21

Swim Team Bus Crash

Early morning January 24, 1992, the Notre Dame women’s swim team was returning to campus from a meet at Northwestern University.  Just a few miles from the Notre Dame exit on the Indiana Toll Road, the bus carrying the team hit a patch of ice, skidded off the road, and flipped onto its side.

Front page of the 01/27/1922 issue of The Observer
after the Women’s Swim Team bus accident

Freshmen Margaret (Meghan) Beeler and Colleen Hipp died on the scene.  Fellow freshman Haley Scott sustained a severe spinal injury, which left her temporarily paralyzed.  Most of the swimmers and staff aboard the bus also suffered injuries, though not as severe as the three freshmen.  Scott recently wrote a book, What Though the Odds, recounting the tragic accident and her long, painful recovery.  Production of a movie of Scott’s story is currently underway.

A memorial mass for Beeler and Hipp will be said at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at 8:00pm.

Tactile Campus Map

In the spring semester of 1978, fifth-year Architecture student Leroy Courseault developed a tactile map of campus for the visually impaired.  Courseault distinguished the buildings, roads, and terrain with different types of materials with different textures, such as various grades of sandpaper, wire, and rubber.

 Dr. Stephen J. Rogers Jr. explores a textured campus map as Architecture student Leroy Courseault, who designed and constructed the map, looks on, 1978/0515

Courseault consulted on his project with Dr. Stephen J. Rogers Jr. of the General program of Liberal Studies, who was the only blind faculty member at the time.  Rogers “found that the mental picture of the campus he had developed over the years turned out to be fairly accurate.  ‘But with Leroy’s map, I learned some things I never knew before,’ he said.  ‘It’s a marvelous success as a tactile instrument'” [UDIS 211/23].

Courseault also intended to add audio effects to the map to help orientate the visually impaired.  He planned to link sounds such as the Basilica bells, ducks at the lakes, or street noise, which are unique to certain areas of campus.

The tactile map located in the Main Building.  It is unclear when it was removed.  The most recent reference to it is 1984 in the University Archives’ online finding aids.

Sources:
UDIS 211/23
GPHR 22/4224

 

Charles “Lefty” Smith

Charles “Lefty” Smith, a long-time fixture at Notre Dame, passed away Tuesday, January 3, 2012.  In 1968, the club hockey team, then coached by students, was on the verge of becoming varsity, after a long history oscillating through non-existence, club, and varsity status.  Notre Dame snagged Lefty Smith as the first varsity hockey coach in the modern era.  He was coaching the South St. Paul High School team and was “considered the top high school coach in the state [Minnesota], and has produced teams with impressive records” [Dome yearbook 1968, page 197].

Hockey Coach Charles “Lefty” Smith, c1970s

Lefty coached the varsity hockey team for 19 seasons, racking up a number of accolades.  His demeanor was relaxed and approachable, yet he held high expectations on and off the ice.  It was important to Lefty that his student athletes earn a college degree, more important than winning games.

Hockey Coach Charles “Lefty” Smith teaching techniques to a group of boys on the ice during a youth sports camp, 1978/0720

Lefty was also instrumental in facilitating youth hockey camps, which opened the world of hockey to a new generation of athletes in the South Bend community.  Undoubtedly, he instilled in them the same virtues of sportsmanship, competition, discipline, and respect that he left with many of those with whom he interacted.  In a 1974 interview with Scholastic, Lefty said, “You know the old, shopworn cliches between sports and life; well, it seems to me there is a definite correlation between the discipline and attitude which good competitive sports breed and the principles by which I wish to live by.”

 

Sources:
Dome yearbook
“More than a Hockey Coach,” by Bob Kissel, Scholastic, 12/13/1974, pages 16-28
GASI 6/33
GPHR 35m/05511

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Students have not always had the luxury to travel home or to other destinations over Christmas break.  Whether due to financial circumstance or University regulations, students and faculty who remained on campus held proper Christmas celebrations — from the traditional midnight mass to ice skating and gift exchanges.  Below is an account from the first volume of the student publication Scholastic of the 1867 Christmas activities at Notre Dame.

Scholastic, December 28, 1867

The University Archives, along with all other Notre Dame administrative offices, will close for the Christmas Celebration on December 23rd and reopen on Tuesday, January 3rd.

“John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!”

Earlier this week, actor Harry Morgan passed away.  While he is probably best known for his role as Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H, Morgan also appeared in a campy movie with Notre Dame ties.  John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! is a farce, inspired by the Francis Gary Powers incident, in which a United States spy crash-lands over enemy lines.  In this movie, “Wrong-Way” Goldfarb, a former football player, ends up in the fictitious Middle Eastern country of Fawzia.  Goldfarb and the U.S. Department of State are strong-armed into arranging a football game between Notre Dame and Fawz University to smooth over the incident.  The King of Fawzia is no fan of Notre Dame, who cut his scrawny son from the football team.  The CIA  schemes for Notre Dame to throw the game in the name of international relations.

Sports Illustrated magazine cover, issue 07/20/1964.
Actress Shirley MacLaine running with the ball in a football game against Notre Dame in the movie John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! To see the full article, visit the SI Vault.

Notre Dame officials balked at the idea of the movie, which portrayed Notre Dame football players “as undisciplined gluttons and drunks … dressed in the uniforms of the University, led by a violent and vulgar coach, befuddled by the previous evening’s revelry” [affidavit by Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh as quoted throughout the clippings listed in the sources below].

In December 1964, Notre Dame brought forth a defamation lawsuit “to prevent the distribution of the novel and its movie version” [Scholastic, 12/11/1964, page 34].  Notre Dame argued that 20th Century Fox commercially used its name and symbols without consent and violated the privacy rights of Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC, whose name was specifically used in the book.  Fox claimed the First Amendment right to free speech.  The lawsuit did delay the premiere, which was scheduled for Christmas 1964.  The New York Court of Appeals sided with Fox, allowing them to distribute the film, which was released March 24, 1965.  Fox won the lawsuit primarily because the film was clearly a lampoon and far from reality.  The film was a critical failure and remains an obscure title today, which has become nearly as effective as a court ban.

Sources:
PATH 1-m-Gol
UDIS 16/31
UDIS 94/22

Frank C. Walker

Frank C. Walker entered the Notre Dame Law School in 1906 and began an affiliation with the school which lasted throughout his life. He graduated in 1909 and later served on the University’s Board of Lay Trustees, worked for the Notre Dame Foundation, and was a member of the Notre Dame Club of New York. He was given an honorary degree in 1934 and the University’s Laetare Medal in 1948.

He supported Franklin D. Roosevelt’s campaigns for governor in 1928 and the presidency in 1932. During the 1932 campaign he served as Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee. President Roosevelt appointed him executive secretary of his President’s Executive Council in 1933, and he subsequently acted as executive director of the National Emergency Council.

Post Master General Frank C. Walker, Notre Dame Law School Class of 1909, and Miss Helen Richards of Hazelton, Pennsylvania (PA) work the USO-NCCS overseas Christmas Mailing Booth, National Catholic Community Service, Washington, D.C., c1943

In 1940 he was appointed to succeed Jim Farley as Postmaster General of the United States, in which position he served until 1945. In 1946 he was appointed by President Truman as alternate delegate to the first United Nations General Assembly session in London. He returned to his business interests in N.Y. as director of W. R. Grace & Co. and the Grace National Bank of New York.

The Papers of Frank C. Walker document his life from his early days in Butte, Montana to his tenure as Postmaster General during World War II. Walker’s career in national politics was the result of his long friendship with Franklin Roosevelt. Much of the collection consists of office files from his service in the Roosevelt administrations, first as head of the Executive Council and the National Emergency Council and then as Postmaster General. It was also at Roosevelt’s behest that Walker served as Democratic Party treasurer and chairman of the Democratic National Committee. It was loyalty to Roosevelt, rather than personal ambition, that kept Walker in public service.

A full page from a Frank Walker scrapbook, c1933

Most of Walker’s papers are from the positions he held within the New Deal and the Democratic Party. The Roosevelt campaigns, the formulation of New Deal programs, the selection of Harry Truman as vice-president in 1944, and other political events of the 1930s and 1940s are all discussed in Walker’s Papers and have been of most interest to historians. But the collection also documents Walker’s early career as a lawyer in Butte, his work as general counsel and president of his family’s theatre business, and his personal interests in the University of Notre Dame and Catholic charities. These parts of his life are not represented by the extensive office files that document his days in public service, but it is clear from the Walker papers that his life included much more than politics and government service.

A good source for information on all aspects of Walker’s life are the memoirs he worked on during his retirement but never completed. The transcripts, drafts, and notes that he produced as part of the project fill in many of the gaps in his papers. This is particularly true of his college days, the time he spent as a trial lawyer in Butte, and his work with the Comerford theater business. His recollections of Roosevelt, New Deal programs and personalities, and the politics of the period offer a personal point of view that is missing from the more public office files he accumulated. The memoirs tell us much about Walker, who despite his many years in public life was still a very private man.

A full page from a Frank Walker scrapbook with newspaper clippings regarding his Laetare Medal, installation of Archbishop Spellman, and United States delegates at the UNO Assembly, c1939-1949

Frank C. Walker donated his papers to the Archives of the University of Notre Dame in 1948, although the entire collection was not transferred at that time. After his death in 1959 the Walker family gave additional material to complete the donation. Walker’s books, photographs, and record albums have been taken from his papers to form separate collections, each with its own finding aid. His books cover a wide variety of topics, although politics and the New Deal dominate. The photographs are largely from his tenure in government service, particularly with the Post Office; they include portraits of Walker with many of the political figures of the 1930s and 1940s. The record albums that came with the Walker Papers include a few of his speeches. In 1990 an oral history was conducted with Thomas J. Walker and Laura Walker Jenkins, Frank Walker’s son and daughter. The transcript and tapes from this interview are also available.