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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1949
Requests To Elbel Run From Lost Pals To Coroner
DY FRANCIS KELLEY
"Please assure Mrs. Smith from Emporia that her oven has been turned off."
This is one of many requests which have confronted Dr. Edwin R. Elbel, chief of the University public address staff, at home football and basketball games. However announcements of this kind are not used.
Dr. Elibel has handled the public address since its first use in the early 1830s except four years during the war. He has received many requests for announcements ranging from humor to pathos.
"Our most frequent request stems from the confusion at a football game," Dr. Elbel said. "A group of people come to the game together. One gets lost from the others and the plea comes to us to 'Please help find John.'"
Dr. Elbel said few announcements not pertaining to the game or ceremonies in progress can be made. Most of these will be of an emergency nature and must be cleared through the telegraph or telephone office. In all cases, the copy must be brief, clear, and to the point.
A request during the Missouri game was not read because its 55 seconds reading time was too long. It came from a law student and explained a tradition of the laws. The last paragraph said:
"The coeds' of the University love the lawyers for their spirit and the 25-year-old tradition of wolf-like whistles. The lawyers whistle whenever a pretty girl goes by as a show of approval, while the engineers, the traditional enemies of the law school, yell and scream that the lawyers should be disbarred before they even get a chance to pass the tough bar tests which they take when they graduate."
An air of mystery was added to the Homecoming game when Dr. Eibel asked for a doctor in section EE. After another quarter of the game had been played, he requested both a doctor and a policeman to report 16 section EE. Twenty minutes later he called for the coroner, but not for section EE, as most of the crowd anticipated. The coroner was wanted for another case.
As the game neared the end, Dr. Elbel announced that, as a part of the Homecoming festivities, coffee and doughnuts would be served at the Union and everyone was invited. "Some optimist," he appended. "Inviting 40,000 people to have coffee and doughnuts."
The University was one of the first in this part of the country to recognize the value of the public address system at basketball games, Dr. Elbel said.
"It adds a personal element to the game," he said. "One of our chief duties is to keep the spectators reminded that it is just a game they are watching."
Keeping the crowds informed is a mechanical sort of process now, he said. Two men helpers, one for offense and the other for defense, relay information to Dr. Elbel. The chief difficulty in spotting players is making out the numbers.
"Accuracy is more important with us than with radio announcers, because people can see whether or not we are right." Dr. Elbel said. "Sometimes the announcements are resented by the crowd."
James Gillispie, pharmacist of the health service, and Fred Six, college junior, have helped Dr. Elbel the past two football seasons. Donald F. Powell, director of intramurals, will help him during basketball season.
Summing up his 13 years of announcing home football and basketball games. Dr. Elbel stressed the need for accuracy.
"There's an old adage in football! 'When in doubt, punt.' In announcing over the public address system, this changes 'When in doubt, don't say anything.' "
High School Puts Stop To Free Football Seats
Falls City, Neb., (U.P)—A colorful pre-game ceremony started at high school football games this year has been discontinued.
The ceremony provided for doucing all the lights during band maneuvers, with miniature lights on the caps of band members outlining various formations.
Officials stopped the practice for financial reasons;
When the lights went out a near-avalanche of non-paying fans streamed over the walls and dashed for seats.
Stork Makes Double Entry
The Bus- (Adv.)
Middlebury, Yt.—U(R.P.)—Twice on the same day Mr. and Mrs. Duane Sprague became grandparents as sons were born to a son and a daughter.
NewsmenNotFooled By Dead Man's Sign
"Reginald's Bus has been a mighty popular mode of transportation lately."
Fond Du Lac., Wis. —(U,P)— A black-frocked widow insisted that a "glowing cross" on the wall of her farm home was a "miraculous" sign from her dead husband, but three newsmen decided it was a reflection from a mirror.
About 1,000 persons have flocked through the small residence of Mrs. William Mulder to view the phenomenon. The widow, along with many of the spectators, regarded it as a miracle.
"Maybe the cross did come from the mirror," said Mrs. Mulder in a heavy German accent. "But I don't know who I didn't see it before my husband died."
"I still think it was the work of God."
Three newsmen who visited the home recently said they saw the cross, an outline of light on the faded pink wallpaper in the dwellings living room.
They traced the source of the light to the bevelled edge of a mirror in the adjoining bedroom. The light came from a lamp, reflected against the mirror edge, and made the cross shine on the wall in the next room.
When they placed a piece of paper over the mirror edge, the cross disappeared.
Mrs. Mulder, a strong and handsome 65-year-old farm wife, wasn't convinced, however.
For one thing, she said, the furniture in the house—including the lamp and mirror—hadn't been moved from their positions for seven years.
Yet, she said, the cross never was noticed until the week after her husband died Oct. 22.
Barber Also 'Sells' Trees
Brevard, N. C. — (U.P.)—John Smith is following in the footsteps of Johnny Appleseed except that he's no specialist. The barber plants trees through the propaganda he pours into his customers' ears. And before they go out the door, he hands them a tree seedling application blank from the supply he gets through his county farm agent.
It's going to be a white Christmas in shirts and if you're going to do your home town up right you'd better be well supplied. Popular daytime shirt is the wide-spread Van Britt with French cuffs. For evenings, it's Van Tux with French cuffs . . . white pique front and attached widespread or regular collar. Look your best this Christmas in Van Heusen shirts!
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Van Heusen shirts "the world's smartest" PHILLIPS-JONES CORP., NEW YORK 1, N. Y.
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