THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1956

THE MCHIGAN DAILY

PAGE FET

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1956 THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE ITVX
S N


Music School To Sponsor
Student Recitals, Forum

GOOD OLD DAYS:
Instructor Recalls 'U' Hazing Days



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A series of three recitals are
being sponsored by the school of
music from November 16 through
November 19.
The first, a recital by Music
Education Students, will be r.re-
sented at 8:30 p.m. tomorrow.
Among the selections on the pro-
gram are Mozart's "The Vengeance
r Aria" from The Magic Flute,
Rhapsody for English Horn by.
Jacob, Intermezzo and Capriccio by
Brahms and Haydn's Divertimen-
to.
Cima's Sonata a tre for Violino
Cornetto e Violone, "Convienoar-
tir" from La Giflia Del Regimento
by Donizetti and Beethoven's Trio
will conclude the program.
The second event on the agenda
is a recital by Howard Travis
Sunday at 8:30 p.m. in Aud. A.
The program will include Pavane
by Ravel, Donato's Sonata for
Horn and Piano, Haugland's Suite
of two pieces and Quintet in E-flat
major by Mozart.
A composers forum is scheduled
for 8:30 p.m. Monday in Aud. A.
Among works to be performed

are Boris Blacher's Piano Sonata]
Sonatine for Flute and Piano by
Foster, Alexander Post's Sonatina
for Clarinet and Piano and Quar-
tet in F by Seymour Altucher.
A discussion will follow the pro -
gram.
Health Service
Report Given
Health Service reported yester-
day that 13,310 persons visited its
clinics last month, approximately
600 less than in October, 1955
The decrease in clinic calls was
caused partly by the fact that out-
side physicians handled all en-
trance physical examinations.
While the number of appendicitis
cases and fractures were less than
a year ago, there were three times
as many stomach upsets. Respira-
tory infections were nearly half
the number at this time a year
ago, probably due to the warm
October weather then.

THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN ANN ARBOR
OPEN DISCUSSION
THEOSOPHY - ANCIENT WISDOM
MICHIGAN LEAGUE TONIGHT, 8 P.M.
Listen to: "RADIO T HEOSOPHY"
Every Sunday 12:15 P.M.-Station WPAG (1050 kc.)

By LOU SAUER
Ann Arbor town wasn't safe for
a freshman fifty years ago.
Grey beanies branded the neo-
phyte a "freshie" and, by defini-
tion, the target of the big sopho-
mores' fall horseplay.
Those were the days of intense
hazing, a thirty-odd year period
in the University's history. Until
3912, when officials abolished the
practice, freshmen were subject
to almost any sort of prank in-
vented by the class ahead of them.
Prof. Elmer D. Mitchell, '12, of
the physical education department,
recalls a hectic first month or so
at the University.
"I was afraid to go out of my
room at night-we all were. The
minute you walked outside, a group
of sophomores yould catch you."
Sophomore Trickery
Many freshmen refused to step
out of their rooming houses, so the
scheming sophomores applied
trickery. Prof. Mitchell once got
an invitation supposedly from an
enterprising classmate, inviting
him to an organizational meeting
of his fellow newcomers.
"It was the sophomores who did
it. They were waiting outside my
house."
Once caught, freshmen usually
entered into the spirit of the thing
-that was all he could do. The
second - year - men turned his
clothes inside out, doused him with
water and made him a cooperator
in a reciprocal egg shampoo.
He would be dragged through
mud, then forced to climb a tree
with his classmates and participate
in a bird-calling contest. Some-
times he would be asked to give
school yells, or to sing school
songs. The sophomores would judge
these contests, giving an acclama-
tion prize to the best, or if caprice
so dictated, to the worst.
Marriage ProposalsI
Marriage proposals were grea t
sport to devious-minded sopho-
mores. A coed walking across
campus thought nothing of seeing
Spring Weekend
There will be a meeting of
the Spring Weekend special
events subcommittee chairmen
at 4:30 p.m. today in room 3R
of the Union. The Special
Events Committee for Spring
Weekend will hold their meet-
ing at 7:30 p.m. tonight in the
League.

HAZING DAYS-The class of 1
Arbor barn, wears the class nume
silence.
her favorite beau, dirty and glassy-
eyed, popping the question to a
passing belle.
The period from 1900-05 has
been called the "age of pranks"
by educational historians. Most
intense during those years, it had
been growing for some 20 years
and lasted through the first decade
of this century. Michigan went
along with the trend "heart and
soul," with carefree aplomb, lock-
ing teachers in classrooms, raiding
theatres, drinking and gambling
and fighting with townspeople.
In 1907, the manager of the Star
Theatre in Ann Arbor promised
students free admission if the
football team won that day's game
The Maize and Blue delivered, but
the manager didn't.
The next day the Star Theatre
was a shambles. The students had
showed they were not to be fooled
with.
Soap Box Debates
This, too, was the period of the
"soap box debates." A man called
"Railroad Jack" (an itinerant
hobo) hotly defended his position
on anything and everything
against the attacks of "The Cam-
pus Poet (One Tom Lovell, of Ann
Arbor).
Their crates were set up on the
corner of State St. and N. Uni-

I
zt
912, perched on top of an Ann
erals of the sophomores in sullen
versity, and students flocked to
hear, heckle and add their bit.
Hazing was an accepted part of
this extra - curricular bedlam.
About a thousand men would turn
out each year to victimize or be
victims. A major part of this fall
fun was the "flag fight."
Ferry Field Contest
Class flags flew high in Ferry
Field at the start of each semester.rI
Every year the freshmen attacked
and tried to lower the sophomore
flag, which the second-year-men
would defend.
This was the roughest battle of
the year. The pole would be
greased, and it was rough going
to . "shinny." Background fast-t
fights, reminiscent of an old-west
movie tavern brawl, sent many
students to the then small Univer-
sity Health Service.
It was this that caused the Ad-
ministration to end hazing in the
fall of 1912.
Spring activities between the
two classes were limited to a week
of games. In one, a push-ball was
moved from one end of Ferry Field
to the other by upraised hands of
the respective classes. In another,
students made their way through
hoops and barrels, over walls and
fences in the annual fun-for-all
obstacle race.
Tug-of-War
The highlight was the famous
Tug-of-War across the Huron
River to the "Island," in which
the freshmen invariably got
doused.
"The sophomores knew all the
tricks," said Prof. Mitchell. "Once
they even brought a team of horses
to help them pull."
With the termination of hazing
interest in the Spring games died
and relative quiet descended on
Ann Arbor.
But spirit was not dead. On dull
nights students congregated in
taverns, remembering the "good
old days" and sporadically hatch-
ing plots they knew would never
materialize.
Class spirit graduallytransform-
ed itself to school spirit, and sport-
talk soon replaced prank-talk. The
age of athletics was here, and thej
Maize and Blue proved itself some-
thing to cheer.

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