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University Daily Kansan Monday, January 17, 1955
The Kansan Feature Page
Don't You Believe It!
You Think It's Nature We Call It Espionage
By TED BLANKENSHIP
We wouldn't want the wrong people to hear about this, but we have it from reliable sources that the Communists have done something sneaky with the weather.
It seems that a certain country that makes Russian MIGs sent secret agents to this country with instructions to wreck our weather system. Of course officials at the Pentagon hushed up the whole affair, but what with one thing and another, someone relaxed and there was a leak. We don't want anyone to get in trouble, so we won't mention any names.
Anyway, this reliable source told us that counter-intelligence has been working feverishly in an attempt to combat this crafty plot against peaceful coexistence.
They first suspected something shifty when New York City was blanketed with an abundance of foul odors. You may have heard some half-baked theories about updrafts, wind currents, factory smoke, and smog, but don't be taken in. That smell was manufactured, and you know as well as we do that nobody in Washington made it.
As if this weren't enough, the earthquakes came. Again you probably accepted the scientists' explanations of what caused the quakes. Don't be a sucker. Why do you suppose those quakes occurred only in the U.S.A.?
We don't see how they expect to get away with it. They surely know that if they persist in these mad schemes, there will be no alternative but retaliation. Think what could be done with Siberia! All that is needed is to reflect a little Florida freezes, free wastes, and melt enough ice to drown every third member of the proletariat.
They do have the advantage of a head start in research, but did you know at this very moment gigantic stock-piles of thermometers and weather vanes are being accumulated here? It might interest you also to know that while slave labor is manufacturing one weather balloon, five are being turned out here
We still maintain they can't get away with it, but we know what causes these cold Kansas winters.
Spare-Strike! In the Union
A stranger going past the door of the sub-sub basement in the Union might wonder, because of the noise, if a construction job is being carried on. Really, the only construction in this part of the Union is the knocking down and setting up of bowling pins. The sub-sub basement has six bowling alleys, three billiard tables, and various other recreational equipment.
By DARLINE MONTGOMERY
Regularly scheduled bowling matches are rolled among several leagues five days a week. At the present time there are eight mens' leagues, with six teams in each, and three women' s leagues. There is also a mixed league.
Directing the various phases of bowling and billiards is Bascom C. Fearing, recreational manager of the Memorial Union. Mr. Fearing is a KU graduate and was a field representative of the Extension division of the University for three years.
After he left the Hill he studied for a year at the National Recreational School in New York and later he received his masters degree in physical education from New York university. He returned to the University two years ago.
43 Years Ago the UDK First Appeared on Campus
Bv KAREN HILMER
Forty-three years ago on Jan. 16, 1912 the first issue of the Daily Kansan appeared on the campus—the first student daily printed in Kansas.
Professor E. M. Hopkins, then head of the department of Rhetoric and English Language, was asked to care for the new experiment and to be in charge of the newswriting courses. However, it seemed impractical to have such courses with no connection with a newspaper, and so the new journalism department asked the University publishing association to transfer to that department the management of the student newspaper—the Kansan. The newspaper was then turned over to the classes in journalism.
The Daily Kansan was not always a daily. In fact before there was a Kansan, the University had no printing plant, no newspaper, and no money for this purpose. A handful of students put out several issues of a publication, but as these proved unsatisfactory, efforts were made to improve the situation. A University association was formed which was a general organization of University students. It chose the members of the newspaper board who put out the paper.
The first classes in journalism consisted of only a dozen or more students. The first year this handful proved satisfactory for the publication of the paper. However, the second year a volunteer section of reporters from the freshman rhetoric classes was called for. These reporters met regularly with the junior and senior newspaper students and this body together produced the paper.
About 1902 the country began to discuss schools of journalism. Officials of the University considered the idea and decided that KU should have such a department if at all possible. Leading newspapermen of the state were consulted and as a result, the first classes in journalism were begun as an experiment.
The Kansan organization, as handed down to them, proved to be inadequate and the new board as then constituted compared the constitutions, plans, by-laws, of several of the leading publications of Eastern colleges and drew up a new plan of organization, based on the systems in use at Yale, Harvard, and Princeton. Thus was laid the foundation of the present Kansan board,
the governing body of the student newspaper.
After a few years Professor Hopkins, who as an instructor in journalism was the Kansan's adviser, transferred the journalism classes to Charles M. Harger, chairman of the State Board of Education, assisted by Prof. L. N. Flint. Prof. Flint at this time was alumni secretary and as such, had charge of the establishing of a printing plant at the University by the alumni.
Mr. Fearing said that it is difficult to estimate the number of people who participate in bowling and billiards, but that since the bowling alleys were opened two years ago there has been an increasing interest in the sports. The women have shown such an interest in billiards that there is now a voluntary billiard class for them. There are also two bowling classes.
Mr. Fearing is hopeful of offering later on an advanced class in bowling for people who really want to become professional.
Athletics rode along gaining attention when in 1893 professors of physical culture were added to the facility. But the big turning point for athletics was in 1898 with the arrival of James Naismith who brought with him the thing which has brought millions together—basketball. Mr. Naismith invented the game in 1891 in Springfield YMCA college. He pointed out that basketball had not developed from other games, but was completely new.
In the middle of the spring semester one week will be reserved for a bowling Campus Tournament. "I think it will be quite popular when we get it going," Mr. Fearing said.
Fieldhouse Soon To Be Cheering Crowd Scene
Bv NANCY NEVILLE
But believe it or not, athletics were not always the center of KU life. If all goes back to the early 1880's when athletics consisted almost solely of baseball, rope pulls, class football, and track meets. No fighting, surging crowds jammed a stadium or fought over basketball tickets. In fact, indoor exercise was out of the question for many years. In 1882 on the initiation of a few students, a room was fitted in the basement of University hall with dumbbells and Indian clubs. The floor of the gymnasium was so hard that sawdust was spread over it. There were no paid instructors, but some of the officers of the gym association gave voluntary aid.
The game took hold rapidly and eight faculty and class teams were organized with the object of playing a schedule. The first game played was at Kansas City with a YMCA team. YMCA won 16-5. The first intercollegiate game was played with William Jewell college in 1899. KU won 19-3.
The long-dreamed of fieldhouse will soon be a reality. Alumni as well as students pushed the project of a fieldhouse for the University. Until now the massive structure off of Naismith road will soon be the scene of cheering crowds and exciting basketball playing.
The following year practice was begun on outside courts west of Snow hall. At this time Chancellor Strong asked the legislature for many new buildings including a gymnasium. Finally in 1905 Robinson gym resulted, and again basketball was the talk of the Hill.
Gondola-ing in Venice
A wave of public interest in athletics that followed World War I increased attendance at football and basketball games. Of course, the stadium amply accommodated the football crowd, but Robinson gym was overflowing. Thus Hoch auditorium was designed to include two balconies and a level floor parallel to the stage below it and sufficiently large to provide for a
Put yourself in this picture next summer. Take a tour to Europe and be sure and include Venice, the exciting canal city. See Tom Maupin Travel Service in The Travel House at 1236 Massachusetts for a complete selection of travel folders listing student and educational and just plain fun tours through Europe. As low as $698. Paid Advertisement.
basketball court. Construction work for Hoch began in 1906.
World War II brought an influx of students to KU and Hoch auditorium would not hold all those wanting to see the game. The all-to-familiar system thereby developed where a student purchasing a ticket could see only half the games.
Also athletics had developed to such a point that it had two phases — research and laboratory — and there was not enough space for laboratory work. Another objection raised was that Hoch had a floor laid on concrete which ruined the players' feet. It was also inadequate for space for the intramural, basketball, volleyball, and handball courts.
A new fieldhouse has been the next step in the story of the popularity of athletics.
A preview will be heard Tuesday on the BOOK- STORE HOUR, with the first chapter presented Thursday, February 3, at 6:45 p.m.
Production of THIS IS WAR is under the direction of Paul Culp, with narration by Dale Lowry and Bryon Dunning.
This is war. A sentence so short, yet so powerful that it meant a decade of destruction.
THIS IS WAR
Something new for you
On the tenth anniversary of the conclusion of the war we begin this series dealing with the past but dedicated to the future.
Gathered from thousands of books, pictures, and recordings comes material for a radio show with the simple, but expressive title, THIS IS WAR! Listen to the stories that made the headlines.
on
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630 on your radio dial