KU CENTENNIAL
Pep is a tradition
(Editor's Note—The following is an excerpt from the writer's book, "For Alma Mater's Sake." To be published by Prentice-Hall early in 1967, the entire fifth chapter is devoted to a history of pep and spirit tradition at the University of Kansas. The university student at KU, the writer is a former Director of Cheerleaders for the American Football League, and is presently director of the American Cheerleading Foundation, Inc.)
Who builds a university? Certainly a broadthinking state legislature, or wealthy alumni, or the academic-minded administration. Even a strong athletics program has done it all for some schools. In growth, every university arrives at the "make or break" turning points.
KU reached such a turning point in 1920. It was three cheerleaders who met the obstacle and led the student body into the Jayhawks' greatest era. For four decades prior to 1920, KU's football teams had played in the undersized McCook Field. In its waning days, more than $2,000 was being spent annually to keep the rickety structure in condition.
IN ORDER TO EXPAND into a football era that was only in its embryonic stages, KU had to have a full-fledged stadium with a multi-thousand spectator capacity. At the same time, the growing student population practically demanded a recreational union facility. But such construction required a million-dollar fundraising program. This was a feat never tried on Mount Oread. Some of the old stalwarts adamantly said, "It can't be done!"
Spirit incentive for the Jayhawks, as was virtually standard on the KU campus for five decades, always came from Dr. Forrest C. "Phog" Allen. "Mr. Can't-Be-Done was buried when I came here," said Dr. Allen. "A concrete stadium will be a monument and memorial to our war heroes."
"Phog" Allen goes on to say:
"We played Nebraska at Lincoln on November 13, 1920. The Cornhuskers outweighed us $27_{1/2}$ pounds per man, and by half-time we were down, 20.0.
"In those days, they used blackboards and chalk for scoreboards. I went into the dressing room, gave the boys a little revised strategy, then walked out and told the scorekeeper that he would need plenty of chalk for the second half. To us, Nebraska was a cocky bunch . . . kind of a cross between bulls and elephants.
"We scored four touchdowns, but the officials called back the last one. We incredibly achieved a 20-20 tie"
SCHOOL SPIRIT TOOK OVER from that afternoon on. Monday morning, November 15, 1920, three KU cheerleaders . . C. K. Winsor (captain), Erwin E. Glenn and Shirley W. Peters . . presented a proposal to a student convocation in Robinson Gymnasium. "The alumni and people of Kansas hesitate on a building program. Will you act?" Three mighty Rock Chalk yells and the 4,000 KU students, themselves, pledged $160,000 of their own money to start the Memorial Stadium-Union campaign.
They pledged $160,000. They ended up giving $280,000.
Here was the power of the
Eastern Stars give scholarship
A new $300 scholarship open to juniors for use in their senior year has been announced by Doug Henning, assistant officer of Student Financial Aid.
cheerleader. Here was the massive influence of organized school spirit. The entire school year of 1920-21 was a funeral for Mr. Can't-be-Done. Recently, on April 30, 1966, "Phog" Allen said, "Give me some good cheerleaders and they will spark and organize acumen for everything at KU."
The Jayhawks gave pep and spirit history two more colorful contributions that eventful year. One was a certain paragraph in the "Jayhawker" yearbook, the other a special day in KU's own history.
THE ANONYMOUS STUDENT on Mount Oread who poured out these words gave us a vibrant definition of school spirit's zenith: "CAMPUS IMPRESSIONS - THE FOOTBALL RALLY: Armistice night in Paris . . . Sousa's band in a telephone booth . . . Spartacus to the gladiators . . . a Jayhawk with claws . . . an Irish wedding . . . the charivari where the groom got mad . . . a Bolshevik peace conference . . . an insane Fourth in Pumpkin Center."
More than 4,200 students and faculty participated in "Stadium Day" at KU on May 10, 1921. They laid the cornerstone for all future years of Crimson and Blue school spirit. In one hour and 18 minutes, rickety McCook Field was torn down. Even Chancellor Lindley was in on the "destruction."
The day ended with an enormous picnic and snake dance . . . the latter led by cheerleaders, Windsor, Glenn, and Peters.
Sparked by pepsters, an era of building progress was begun. On Armistice Day, 1922, the initial 30,000-seat Memorial Stadium was dedicated before a near capacity crowd. Funny thing . . . Nebraska was the foe.
Cravens will head alumni Chairman of Mercantile Trust Company elected president; Edwards takes vice president
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Kenton R. Cravens, chairman of the board of the Mercantile Trust Company of St. Louis, Mo., was recently elected national president of the KU Alumni Association for 1966-67.
Roy A. Edwards Jr., president of the Rudy-Patrick Division of W. R. Grace and Company in Kansas City, was elected vice president. Both will take office immediately after Commencement June 6.
CRAVENS, WHO GRADUATED from KU in 1925, is a trustee of the Endowment Association. In 1955 he received the University Distinguished Service Citation. A native of Salina, he is married to the former Vivian Crouch, a member of the class of 1928.
KENTON R. CRAVENS
Daily Kansan Tuesday, May 24, 1966
He became vice president of the Cleveland Trust Company
ROY A. EDWARDS JR.
in 1938, after working with several commercial financial companies. He served as administrator of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and directed its liquidation. In 1962 he became chairman of the board of Mercantile Trust.
Edwards recently retired as a member of the Greater University Fund advisory board. He is a former director of the Alumni Association and member of the Athletic Board.
HE WAS Y.M.C.A. "MAN OF the Year" in 1962, and he is the
president of the Central Industrial District Association of Kansas City, Mo., and a member of the Kansas City, Kan., board of education.
Edwards was named "Phi of the Year" by his fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, in 1955 and is a past president of the American Seed Trade Association and of the Field Seed Institute of North America.
He is married to the former Joan Darby of the class of 1942, and two of the Edwards' three children are KU students. Barbara is a freshman and Roy A. III is a sophomore.
Haugh gives principal talk at conference
A KU expert on the teaching of reading at junior and senior high levels gave the principal address Friday to the national invitational conference on reading at Syracuse University in New York.
Oscar M. Haugh, professor of education, spoke on "Ideas, New and Old, about the Teaching of Reading." This was the eighth major university at which Haugh has been invited to lecture this year.
The conference was attended by 250 reading specialists from over the nation. A feature was the first showing of 10 films on the teaching of reading in the secondary school, financed by the U.S. Office of Education.
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