Page 4
University Daily Kansan, October 17, 1980
1
Annual riots, Hat Rush fueled class rivalry
By GREG RICHARDS Staff Reporter
LAURA NEWMANN/Kansan staff
Turn-of-the-century students at the University of Kansas probably weren't much different from those of today. The football team of 1901 won two of eight games, and the students, as in modern sports, owned own social diversions for amusement.
In 1801 students threw themselves into partying with the same enthusiasm
The 1900s
But what students had a passion for
is largely ignored now; class
rivalry.
of today's students, Clifford S. Griffin,
in "The University of Kansas—A
History," observed the administration's dismay at the rise in use of liquor and tobacco, fraternity abuse and indulgence of 'fornication' among the youth.
Class, squabbles, however, were everyday occurrences. One such scrap, of March 1901, is known as "The Hat Rush" and marks a period in KU history characterized by black eyes and torn clothing.
LEADING UP TO the event were years of class conflicts, most notably the May Day Rifid of 1891. The freshmen and junior classes of that year erected a totem pole on Mount Oread bearing the proclamation that sophomores should be allowed to chop down of the pole by the sophomores, who hoisted its tattered flag from the top of Fraser Hall before the faculty could intervene.
It was not until 1905, when the diplomatic Chancellor Frank Strong convinced all parties to pledge peace, in an annual May Day brawl was averted.
The Hat Rush fight, was between the junior and senior classes. However, the most violent activities traditionally used by sophomore repression of freshmen.
The 1901 Jayhawker yearbook defined these conflicts as "The Education of the Freshmen Class."
The senior staff wrote that freshmen were not considered enrolled until they proved themselves to be of proper inward and spiritual owers.
"In order that they may become thoroughly versed in all matters of college curriculum and precedent, it is the duty of the faculty to expose sophomores to put them through a
course of training which will fit them to meet all future emergencies."
the training, according to the Jayhawker, included being coerced into wearing bizarre clothing to football trousers, russels, a smoking jacket, and skates.
"Anything that will make him an
man of character or proper thing,
wrote the yearbook staff.
It was ritualistic attire that caused the Hat Rush of 1901. The senior males that year, much to the distress of the senior females, shunned the traditional
springtime cap and gown campus dress and wore gray felt hats with loud blue ribbons around the hatband instead
ACCORDING TO a report in the 1901 Jayhawker, the junior class vehemently objected to the mark of distinction and took every opportunity to snitch the blue bands from seniors' hats.
Minor skirmishes took place throughout February and March, but the seniors persisted. This led to a proclamation, appearing in the
University Weekly of March 9th, by the junior class.
"Whereas, it it continued, "they have
forgotten their honor and their chivalry
"Whereas," the document read, "the said Class of 1901 has departed from the immemorial custom of their ancestors and immediate predecessors in other Senior Classes, by discarding the funeral cap and gown which alone is considered sedate enough for the omniscient and omnipotent Senior Class, and substituted the aforesaid blue band.
to the ladies of their class . . They have thought to show their superiority and seniority by flaunting the same before the eyes of the Class of 1902."
The juniors then threatened that upon publication of the notice, "All the hatbands mentioned above will be liable to confiscation."
The Lawrence Daily Journal took an interest in the affair, and reported that evening, Saturday, March 9, that the law would pay no attention to the notice.
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MONDAY, MARCH 11 came and went without violence on campus as the seniors ignored the notice. The Journal reported that the senior women approved of the ultimatum, because they were the men to wear caps and gowns.
The only unusual event they reported for March 11 in the Jayhawk was: "Professor Burdick dismises class one minute early."
But the next entry on the year's calendar signals the onset of war:
"March 12. Senior Hat Rush. Juniors play the baby act."
"The scrap was good-natured for the most part, though there were instances in which blows were struck, rocks were broken and-buttle encounters took place.
"The members of the junior and senior classes acted more like a lot, of freshmen this morning than anything else," it said.
The Journal saw the event differently.
"There were some minor injuries, a great deal of damage to hats, and some wounds."
The Journal reported that the seniors climbed Mount Oread that morning seeming to believe the affair was called off, and 'straggled up the hill singly from the bottom of it' on '6 little trouble.' But at the top of the hill the juniors were gathered.
"Every blue hat-band seen was a signal for a rush, and the wearer was soon despoiled of his ornament," wrote the Journal. The article said that the men were investing the bands from the seniors, though many of them lost their hats.
"The girl members of the two classes stood apart from the trouble," reported the Journal, "and were not molested in any way. The seniors now declare that they have ample reason for retaliation."
They attempted to mount a counterattack at noon that day. The junior class had gathered for a regular meeting at Fraser Hall. The entire senior force stood outside the building waiting for them to be released.
Before mayhem could result, however, Chancellor W. Spangler intervened, locking the juniors in the room until they would go until they rescued the ultimatum.
According to the Journal, the juniors negotiated with the chancellor, promising not to take any more bands from the seniors and to allow them to take their own. The headmaster of the year. But they were not required to relinquish captured bands.
The seniors were told that the disciplinary committee would enforce the juniors' guarantee, and both forces disbanded.
Although violence had been temporarily averted, May Day was not far off. Nor was the regular fall riot. A pattern of non-violence was not established until the latter part of the decade, when Chancellor Strong organized a comprehensive program of moral reform with the cooperation of local ministers, faculty, and the campus chapters of the YMCA and YWCA.
The pacification of the student body was gradual but distinct, and according to Griffin, not due entirely to administration efforts. The student body then began to organize with more sophisticated recreations, accompanying a rise in student wealth.
Examining the students of 1909, Frank R. Whittel asked the editor of the Graduate Magazine of December 10, 1910, "What's the matter with KU?"
The May Pole scrap is gone, or emasculated into 'Ring around the Rosy'; the junior prom and senior prom dresses are seen in sea in an Old Ladies Home," he said.
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