8B the university daily kansan
homecoming
friday, October 17, 2003
[1920-1939]
Provided by This Week in KU History, www.kuhistory.com, a project of the KU Memorial Unions.
FRENCH'S TOAST 6.9.1924 KU unveils a full-length bronze statue of Law School Dean James W. "Uncle Jimmy" Green sculpted by Daniel Chester French.
Memorial Stadium, amidst construction in 1921, honors students and faculty lost in World War II. The stadium was completed and dedicated in the following year.
University Archives, Spencer Research Library
But perhaps the biggest individual donor to the building boom during this period was Elizabeth Watkins. In the course of 20 years, Watkins would donate over half a million dollars to the establishment of Watkins and Miller Halls for women, Watkins Memorial Hospital (now Twente Hall), and Watkins Nurses' Home. She would also donate 26,000 acres of land and her house to be used as the chancellor's present residence.
In the case of Memorial Stadium, a big push was made for it in the early 1920s, as evidenced by a report that $30,000 was once
Following the upheaval in Lawrence due to World War I, the University of Kansas started a decade that would prove to be a boom time for the campus. Increases across the board in enrollment, buildings, activities and funding fueled a growth that expanded the scope of the University and be essential to riding out the storm of the Great Depression.
raised in just three hours for the construction of the stadium. Phog Allen led the project to raise funds for the arena, which was to be modeled after Princeton's, by saying, "Rome had her Coliseum. Kansas must have a stadium!" On Armistice Day, now Veterans Day, in 1922, Memorial Stadium was dedicated with only two sides, while Kansas lost that day in a shutout to Nebraska. The bowl would not be completed until 1927 after enough funds were gathered to finish the building.
RADIO DAYS — 12.15.1924 KFKU, the University's first radio station, makes its inaugural broadcast.
- Changing the landscape of Mount Oread were the additions of Strong Hall, Hoch Auditorium, Watson Library, Corbin Hall, the Memorial Union and Memorial Stadium. The original Snow Hall was razed and replaced by the building that bears the name today.
Meanwhile, the jayhawk basketball teams played in the new Hoch Auditorium, which would
necessitate splitting season tickets. Because of limited space due to the temporary court that had to be installed, ticket holders could only go to every other game. Allen, who took over as coach at the beginning of the decade, would lead the Jayhawks and the Athletics Department until 1956 and have only one losing season during the 1920s and 1930s, in addition to two Helms National Championships. But in 1936, Allen almost found himself kicked out after an incident with The University Daily Kansan over remarks regarding student spirit with the football team.
The Dove newspaper began
its appearance on campus with its signature pink paper in 1925. Challenged by many as a "subversive" publication because of its leftist views on the side of labor, it would prove to be a sticking point in the minds of the Board of Regents who didn't want radical politics to be espoused at its flagship university.
Chancellor Ernest Lindley defended the paper against those on the board because of his belief in intellectual freedom in academia, and the paper continued its run until 1951. The existence of The Dove highlighted the students' freedom of political thinking and irreverence for authority, as pacifism and to some extent socialism gained a foothold in Lawrence.
In 1937, though, a KU student died fighting with an American brigade of leftists in the Spanish Civil War, an incident that further antagonized those of all political beliefs at the University.
— Story by Ryan Scarrow.
Edited by Shane Mettlen
Additional material for this article was supplied by This Week In KU History, www.kuhistory.com, a project of the KU Memorial Unions.
By Gaby Souza correspondent@kansan.com Kansan correspondent
Hobo-mania.swept campus
Hundreds of students, dressed in rags with corn cob pipes in their mouths, paraded down the streets of campus and Lawrence, sixty years ago. Dressed as street bums, they were a rowdy crowd taking part in a now abandoned University tradition.
From 1923 to 1939, Hobo Day took place the Friday before each Missouri-Kansas football game. Classes were canceled as students prepared to cheer on the Jayhawks as they took on their archrivals. It was a celebration of community and solidarity among students.
"Hobo Day was just a part of the thrill of being an undergraduate," said Henry Fortunado, director of kuhistory.com, the KU history Web site.
The event was just one of the numerous traditions that challenged authority on campus and created rowdiness and vandalism.
"They look like a way for the students to release their inhibitions and enjoy themselves," Elizabeth Cusimano, Dallas freshman, said of the hobo apparel.
Some students protested these activities by refusing to take part. One year, the law students dressed up in formal garb to protest the raucous event.
The dress-up tradition brought
University Archives, Spencer Research Library Students dressed head to toe for Hobo Davie. The picture dates from the 1920s.
with it small acts of vandalism and criminality. Because of this and a scheduling conflict with a cornhusking competition that would cancel yet another day of classes, Student Senate put an end to the event in 1939. Even though numerous attempts were made to begin the tradition again, Hobo Day was never revived.
But the solidarity and community-building seen through Hobo Day isn't lost.
"Student rowdiness is not a new thing." Fortunado said.
A look into the past can make some students yearn for the lost traditions.
"I wish Hobo Day would still go on," Cusimano said. "Students need as many opportunities to have fun as they can get."
- Edited by Katie Nelson
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