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friday, october 17, 2003
homecoming
the university daily kansan
FOOTBALL GETS A PASS 4.28.1910
7B
The Board of Regents votes in favor of retaining intercollegiate football, following three months of spirited debate about abolishing the game and replacing it with rugby.
The dawning of the 20th century brought along many firsts to a nation much more primitive than what we know today. Teddy bear
THE "BIG TOOTER"
— 3.25.1912
The campus power plant steam whistle begins marking the end of each hour's classes.
The Men's Student Council establishes KU's first student union - for men only - in a rented house at 1200 Tennessee Street.
FIRST UNION — 3.5.1914
TANK FOR THE MEMORIES 4.28.1919
Four thousand KU students and Lawrence residents watch a US Army tank destroy the walls of abandoned Old North College as part of a demonstration of firepower in behalf of
the Fifth Liberty Loan drive.
came in 1902, and Crayola Crayons in 1903. In 1904 two more new famous products were introduced to Americans at the
University Archives, Spencer Research Library
University Archives, Spencer Research Library During World War I,the Second Detachment bunked together in a building on campus.
St. Louis World's Fair as ice cream cones and ice tea became huge hits with Americans. Even on the University of Kansas campus many firsts were occurring.
In the year 1906, Forest C. "Phog" Allen played his first game for Kansas basketball. The first game that he started for Kansas was against a rival from the North, Nebraska. Allen scored 23 points and led the Jayhawks to a 37-13 victory over the Cornhuskers. At the end of the season Allen played a game that made him the star of the team. Against Emporia State Allen scored 26 points, a record that stood for nearly 10 years. After that game, his teammates voted Allen the captain of the Jayhawk basketball team for the next season.
Allen had to withdraw from the University because of financial considerations, and he coached at Baker University. Allen's team
enged out a 39-24 victory over Kansas that season. From 1907 to 1909 Allen returned to the University of Kansas, not as a player, but as a coach. His first game as head coach was a 44 point victory over Ottawa University.
The KU women were also making a great start for themselves in sports. In the late 1800s, the University started to let women participate in physical activities. In 1912, KU women created the first Women's Athletic Association because they were sick of watching the men play from the sidelines. The women participated in activities such as hiking or being a volunteer score keeper at a local sporting event. The women would gain points for participating in such activities. After gaining a certain number of
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6
'Boxcar Bard' known for oddities
By Erin Wiley correspondent@kansan.com
Kansan correspondent
In January 1906, a train rolled into Lawrence carrying a future Kansas poet.
Harry Kemp had one reason for visiting Lawrence. While in preparatory school in Massachusetts, Kemp read a German textbook written by Herbert Carruth. Carruth was a vice president and former Alumni Association president at the University of Kansas. Kemp was so interested in finding this professor that he rode in a boxcar to Lawrence to meet him. Carruth immediately liked Kemp and enrolled him at the University, paying Kemp's tuition and book fees. While at the University, Kemp studied Greek, Latin and German.
sor of English, said.
Kemp did many strange things that made him a campus icon.
Kemp had very strange living arrangements while in Lawrence, according to an article about him in the 1984 Kansas City Times.
"Artists are bohemian figures living on the edge of society, and Kemp was particularly eccentric. He did some very strange things." Brian Daldorph, assistant profes-
Until the cold winter months rolled around, Kemp lived naked on a sandbar in the Kansas River. When the winter months came, Kemp relied on the
Kemp
generosity of the wealthy people around Lawrence to lend him a warm bed.
William Allen White, former owner and editor of The Emporia Gazette, was Kemp's idol. In 1906, Kemp walked the 90 miles from Lawrence to Emporia to meet him. White heard of Kemp's visit and prepared for his arrival. According to an article in a 1986 Kansas Alumni newsletter, White liked Kemp right away and provided him with money to help further his poetry.
While in Emporia Kemp met Ida Tarbell, the first American female journalist, who was launching a new national literary magazine, and she wanted Kemp as its feature poet.
Even though Kemp did many odd things while at the University, poetry was what would make Kemp most famous. Writing for the 1908 edition of The Jayhawker and in various newspapers and magazines, Kemp wrote about Kansas and tramp life. While in Kansas he was given many nicknames such as "Trump Poet," "Boxcar Bard," "Stowaway Poet" and "Poet of the sand dunes."
"His poetry was finely crafted," Daldorph said. "You can tell that he cared about the basic techniques of poetry. He knew what he was doing."
he was doing
Heading east by boxcar, Kemp left Lawrence in 1911 the same way he arrived. After a short stay on the East coast, he stowed away on a ship to England in 1913. He returned to the United States after a stint in prison, which he
received for stealing passage.
Upon returning to the United States, Kemp stayed on the East coast. He ran a theater in Greenwich Village, N.Y., where he presented many one act plays.
In 1922, Kemp published his autobiography, Tramping Through Life. Somewhat this novel to be controversial because of the accounts of Kemp's bizarre behavior, but White said he thought it deserved to win the Pulitzer prize. Kemp also had poems published in The New York Times in the 1930s and 40s.
For the last 30 years of Kemp's life, he lived in a coastal cottage in Provincetown, Mass. Kemp became the president of the Provincetown Pilgrims Association. The group's goal was to have Provincetown, not Plymouth, recognized as the landing spot of the Pilgrims.
Kemp continued to live on the shore and write poetry until his death in 1960 at the age of 76.
— Edited by Katie Beam
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