Baylor History Review

A Baylor Fish Tale

2010-10-08T14:12:00.000-07:00

Frosh Believe Tale
Story of Whale in Lake Waco Not True

Daily Lariat
January 14, 1941

Freshman co-eds: there positively isn't any whale residing in Lake Waco, regardless of how persuasive your date might be, and if there is it certainly doesn't have an electric sign on its back with which to warn co-eds when 10:30 o'clock arrives on week-end nights.

Saturday night two innocently green co-eds from Alexander hall journeyed to the Lake with their escorts to see the wonderful animal rise to the surface with an electric sign warning all dormitory dates to "start home."

When time came for the whale to give the warning, the co-eds became suspicious, but the men passed it off by saying "It must have a short in the electric wiring, but we will be glad to return next week and wait for it," and with that they made a mad dash back to Alexander hall just in time to keep from being late.

Coming Home: Selected stories from 100 years of Baylor Homecomings

2009-10-15T07:26:00.001-07:00

By Randy Fiedler

Since Baylor University first held a Homecoming celebration back in 1909, this cherished tradition has brought excitement, heroism and widespread good feeling to Waco. At the same time, Homecoming has been the source of pranks, humor, strange behavior and sometimes even tragedy.

What follows are some selected looks back at Baylor Homecoming events collected from the 100 years of its history.

1909

Baylor’s first Homecoming celebration took place during Thanksgiving week in 1909. The railroads furnished special trains to bring in the thousands of alumni, and downtown Waco was decorated with the Baylor colors displayed on pennants, bunting and store window displays.

Homecoming began with a concert by the Baylor band the afternoon of Wednesday, Nov. 24, that featured a performance of “The Homecomers March,” written especially for the occasion by Baylor band director Charles Parker.

At 5 p.m. on Wednesday, all businesses in Waco that had an operating steam whistle were requested to blow them for three full minutes in a gesture of welcome to Baylor alumni. The noise was deafening.

Other events on Wednesday included an afternoon gathering featuring an address by Rev. George W. Truett, a Baylor alumnus, and an evening bonfire. As the flames soared skyward, Baylor’s male students circled around the bonfire in an imitation war dance, beating time with gongs and rattles.

The next day, Thursday, Nov. 25, was Thanksgiving Day. The first Baylor Homecoming Parade began at 2 p.m. in downtown Waco, led by the Baylor band in their white uniforms with their 6-foot-6-inch-tall drum major wearing a bearskin cap. Dr. I.L. McGlasson served as chief parade marshal, and he and other dignitaries as well as Baylor alumni followed the band in 60 decorated automobiles. Waco businessman R.T. Dennis had possibly the most striking car, as it was covered entirely in yellow chrysanthemums.

Student groups in automobiles and horse-drawn buggies followed, all vehicles decorated in Baylor colors. The entire procession extended for 25 blocks and ended at Carroll Science Building on campus.

About 5,000 people were on hand to see Baylor play Texas Christian University in the Homecoming football game. At the time, TCU was located across town in Waco, and the two schools had already met twice in football that year, TCU winning both contests. This time, however, Baylor beat TCU 6-3. The star of the game was Baylor quarterback and team captain T.P. “Robbie” Robinson, who scored Baylor’s lone touchdown. In those days, a touchdown counted for five points, and Robinson’s extra point gave Baylor its six-point total. Robinson’s mother attended Baylor at Independence, and his granddaughter, Kathy Robinson Hillman, now works for Baylor’s University Libraries.

There were no Baylor mascots at the football game or shouts of “Go Bears!” because Baylor would not choose the bear as its mascot until 1914.

1915

During the early years, Baylor’s Homecoming celebration was not an annual event. The next official Homecoming after the 1909 event didn’t take place until 1915, when the University celebrated its 70th birthday. Once again, the celebrations took place during Thanksgiving week, and once again the football opponent was TCU, although by this time TCU had moved from Waco to Fort Worth.

The 1915 Homecoming Parade was the first at Baylor to feature floats. There were many inventive float designs that year –– one made to look like a football field, another designed as a tennis court with students playing a set of mixed doubles. Another float carried a large model of Old Main, while possibly the strangest float was one featuring the “steam piano,” two dozen Baylor boys wearing colored pipes for hats in imitation of the big steam pianos used by circuses.

The theme of the parade was Baylor’s move from Independence to Waco in 1886. One of the vehicles was a reproduction of the wagon that Baylor President Rufus Burleson used when he left Independence in 1861 to become president of Waco University. A special guest at Homecoming was Reddin Andrews, the last president of Baylor at Independence.

The 1915 Baylor Homecoming football game was more of a track meet. Baylor completely dominated TCU, winning by a score of 51-0 before 4,000 fans on Carroll Field.

1919

Legendary Baylor Professor Guy B. Harrison remembered well an incident that took place during the 1919 Homecoming celebrations, which featured a game against the Bears’ traditional rivals, the TCU Horned Frogs.

Just before the football game, Harrison said Baylor students gathered in the parlor of Burleson Hall before a large casket decked out in purple and white, the TCU colors. Inside the casket lay the body of a dead horned frog, “freshly passed away.” Elaborate memorial services were held over the deceased reptile, after which Baylor students carried the tiny carcass to Carroll Field, where a burial took place behind one of the goalposts.

The ceremony might truly have worked, since Baylor ended up shutting out TCU, 7-0.

1924

Baylor’s 1924 Homecoming football game was played Nov. 1 during Waco’s Texas Cotton Palace fair, which drew visitors from across Texas and other states. The game was played on the Cotton Palace gridiron, and the attendance of 25,000 was the largest crowd that had ever packed a football stadium in Waco up to that point.

Baylor’s opponent was Texas A&M, and the Aggies were led by legendary coach Dana X. Bible. During a hard-fought contest the Bears beat A&M, 15-7. The loss rubbed some Aggie students the wrong way, because after the final whistle all but about 200 members of the Texas A&M cadet corps left their seats and rushed the Baylor student body, apparently trying to gain revenge for the loss. There were reports of hitting and kicking, and some A&M students tried to steal Baylor colors. The disturbance was soon stopped by Waco police.

1926

At a meeting held prior to the 1926 Homecoming game, the Baylor Chamber of Commerce formed an alumni association, choosing John S. Tanner as president and major league baseball star Ted Lyons as secretary.

Once again, Baylor’s Homecoming football game was played on Waco’s Cotton Palace field during the annual Texas Cotton Palace fair. New head coach Morley Jennings led the Bears, and once again the opponents were Coach Dana Bible’s Texas A&M Aggies, who had won the Southwest Conference championship the year before.

Unfortunately, there once again was friction between Baylor and A&M students during the game, but this time it took place during halftime. According to the account in the Lariat, at halftime an open Ford car filled to bursting with Baylor coeds was driven around the field. The girls were dressed in old-fashioned costumes and held placards showing all the scores from the previous Baylor-Texas A&M football games when the Bears had emerged victorious.

When the car approached the front of the Texas A&M grandstand, an Aggie corpsman “rushed out toward the car, jumped headlong upon the car striking the girls. One girl fell from the car and was wounded about the head –– other girls were injured though not seriously.”

The sight of an Aggie knocking a Baylor girl to the ground caused an immediate response. Students from both sides rushed to the car, and what the Lariat called a “fierce free-for-all fight” broke out, with Baylor and A&M students throwing metal folding chairs and other objects at each other. One of these chairs hit an Aggie corpsman, Lt. Charles Sessums, in the head. Baylor cheerleaders frantically tried to quiet down the crowd, but it was only when the Baylor band struck up “The Star Spangled Banner” that some degree of order was restored.

Baylor went on to win 20-9, but the aftermath of the fight at halftime was the game’s more enduring legacy. Lt. Sessums died of his injuries the next morning. Both school presidents made a joint statement deploring the incident, and A&M students steadfastly maintained that they had believed the Baylor girls in the car were actually men dressed as women, taunting the Aggies.

A petition quickly made the rounds of the Baylor campus, with more than 500 students signing the first day in favor of ending athletic relations with Texas A&M, with the Lariat supporting the idea in an editorial titled “Through!” A similar caucus of Aggie students revealed that they didn’t care one way or the other if the two schools ever played each other again.

Finally, on Dec. 8, 1926, the presidents of both schools issued another joint statement, this time announcing that they had agreed to temporarily suspend athletic relations between the two schools. They agreed not to compete against each other in any athletic events for four years, and it was not until 1931 that Baylor and A&M would meet again on a football gridiron.

1927

Baylor’s most distinguished literary alumnus, novelist and folklorist Dorothy Scarborough, came to campus for Homecoming week 1927 and spoke to Dr. A.J. Armstrong’s English classes.

One thousand pounds of barbeque were prepared for the traditional Homecoming barbeque lunch that up to 2,000 people were expected to attend.

One of the players on the 1927 Homecoming football team was Weir Washam, the student whom football team captain James Clyde “Abe” Kelley had given his life to save from the oncoming train that killed 10 Baylor students in Round Rock the previous January, the students known today as the Immortal Ten.

1928

In 1928, the Baylor band ordered new uniforms to replace their old ones, which featured green cloth with gold strips down the pants. The new uniforms, by contrast, were dazzling, with bright gold cloth and lots of green braid, including gold caps to match. One observer said the golden uniforms could be seen “for a mile.”

The plan was to debut the new uniforms at the 1928 Homecoming football game against Texas. However, by the time of the game, only 28 of the 50 uniforms had arrived from the manufacturer. The remaining 22 were being remade because of problems with a bad grade of cloth. So, the new golden uniforms didn’t make their debut until the Baylor-SMU game.

The spiffy new uniforms, of course, were the ones that would soon garner the Baylor band its new permanent identity as the “Golden Wave Marching Band.”

1932

The 1932 Baylor Homecoming football game was the first time in six years that the Bears and the Texas Aggies had met on a gridiron in Waco. To make sure that the A&M students knew they were welcome in Waco, a group of six Baylor students, led by head yell leader Caso March, traveled to College Station a few days before the game to personally invite the Aggies to town.

The night before the Homecoming game, Baylor fans took part in the traditional pep rally and torchlight parade through downtown, and students guarded the campus against Aggie tomfoolery.

The day of the game, a special train pulled into Waco and disgorged 1,800 uniformed Aggie cadets, who made their way to the stadium. The game itself was a bit of an anticlimax –– another 0-0 tie. Special guests at the game were the players from the Baylor football team of 1922, the team that won Baylor’s first Southwest Conference championship. Also present was Miss Margaret McCollum, the very first sweetheart elected by the Baylor band.

Newly elected Baylor President Pat Neff did not get to attend Homecoming because of previous speaking engagements out of state. In a greeting he asked to be read to the Homecoming audience, Neff said, “Tell the students I am with them 100 per cent in their efforts to get acquainted with each other this week. In the years to come this acquaintance will prove itself to be their greatest pleasure and one of their most valuable assets.”

1933

A famous portrait of poet Robert Browning painted by William Fisher was presented as a gift to Baylor’s Browning Collection at Homecoming 1933. It was a gift from the Class of 1937.

1934

Junior Elaine Cross of Gatesville, representing the Senior Class, was voted by the student body as Baylor’s first “Homecoming Princess.” She was officially proclaimed at the Homecoming game against Texas A&M in a ceremony at halftime. Her escort, freshman football player Mitchell Parks, was on crutches after an injury he received in the previous week’s game against TCU.

1935

At Homecoming 1935, a temporary tradition was begun of having the Homecoming Queen honor be given to the nominee of the winning parade float. The 1935 Queen was University Urbanites nominee Marguerite Joyce of Waco.

1936

Two days before Baylor’s Homecoming football game against Texas A&M, the Aggies snuck on campus during the early morning hours and planted a number of pro-A&M signs while Baylor slept. They used red paint to make the campus flagpole into a barber pole and inscribed the score “A and M 50, Baylor 0” on the doors of Waco Hall in 10-foot-high letters. When chapel hour arrived later that morning, Baylor’s senior class staged a mock trial with a lawsuit against A&M for assault and battery. President Pat Neff told the group that if Baylor beat A&M on Saturday, there would be a full holiday for students the following Monday.

After that, the Homecoming celebrations were somewhat anticlimactic. A third straight day of almost constant heavy rain forced officials to cancel the Baylor Homecoming Parade on Saturday. And even though Baylor was able to play the Homecoming football game, its first contest ever in Waco’s new Municipal Stadium, the game was a muddy, slippery mess, with the Bears and the Aggies settling for a scoreless tie.

1940

One of Baylor’s best athletes and most famous graduates, Chicago White Sox star Teddy Lyons, returned to campus for Homecoming. The famous pitcher was honored on Nov. 23 as the day was officially declared “Teddy Lyons Day” at Baylor. President Pat Neff presented Lyons with a gold plaque.

1941

Homecoming in 1941, held just weeks before the Japanese surprise attack on Peal Harbor, was a time of giving gifts. The Baylor Chamber of Commerce presented the football team with a “water wagon,” which was purchased with the money raised from ribbon sales sponsored by the Chamber. The same day, a bronze bust of President Pat Neff sculpted by famous artist Pompeo Coppini, was presented to the Texas Collection "as a loving tribute" as a gift from the Alpha Omega Club. Coppini had earlier created two of Baylor’s most cherished campus landmarks –– the statue of Rufus Burleson on Burleson Quadrangle and the statue of Judge R.E.B. Baylor across the street from Waco Hall.

Visiting campus during Homecoming were 15 members of Baylor’s first aviation cadet unit. They arrived from Goodfellow Field in San Angelo with the full blessing of the Air Force.

1942

In the only Baylor Homecoming Parade held while World War II raged, all of the vehicles and floats were required by the Baylor Chamber of Commerce to be pulled by horses and rubber tires were prohibited, in an effort to conserve gas and rubber for the war effort. To find appropriate transportation in what the Chamber dubbed the “Victory Parade,” Baylor students spent weeks searching Waco junk piles and stables and visiting area farms to secure buggies and horses.

The 1942 Homecoming Queen, Martha Alexander of Alvin, rode in her horse-drawn carriage dressed as a belle from the Old South and received a $25 war bond and a wristwatch for being selected.

After a tough game against the Texas A&M Aggies that featured the Baylor team “making so many goal line stands that the tax collector was about to go out and assess the Bears property tax down on their own 10-yard line,” Baylor scored a late touchdown and won, 6-0.

1943-1945

For three years, Baylor suspended official Homecoming observances because of World War II. There was some consideration of resuming Homecoming in the fall of 1945 since the war had just ended, but a vote of the faculty decided that due to crowded housing and lodging conditions in Waco and the fact that many alumni had not yet returned to the United States from wartime service abroad, Baylor would wait until 1946 to continue the tradition.

However, even though there was no official Homecoming Queen crowned in 1945, the Baylor Chamber of Commerce sponsored a contest to elect a football sweetheart. A huge pep rally on a “pre-war scale” was held in Marrs McLean Gym to introduce the 10 sweetheart candidates, and then Elaine “Rusty” Bush of Clinton, Wis., was chosen and presented during halftime of the game Baylor played against Doak Walker and the mighty SMU Mustangs. Bush received a diamond-studded wristwatch and a new fall suit of her choosing for being selected.

1946

The 1946 Homecoming, the largest in Baylor history up to that point, was a special one, as the beloved tradition was renewed after a wartime hiatus. As part of the celebrations, a memorial service was held to honor the 125 Baylor men and women who gave their lives in service in World War II. Paul F. Geren, the dynamic 1936 Baylor graduate who wrote the popular book Burma Diary, delivered the principal address.

A dedication service also was held in Waco Hall for the new memorial lampposts on Founders Mall, honoring Baylor’s war dead. Families of the students honored were on hand for the service and were presented with leather-bound citations. At dedication time, 84 of the memorial lampposts had been erected, with 41 remaining to be put up.

The 1946 Homecoming Bonfire featured the burning of the timbers of the historic old rickety bridge that once spanned Waco Creek between Brooks Hall and the campus, which had been the favorite target of campus arsonists for years.

Baylor students guarding the new bear mascot, Chita, weren’t taking any chances before Homecoming. Several nights before the celebrations began, they placed Chita in the custody of Waco police to protect her from possible molesting by marauding Texas A&M Aggies.

1947

Demonstrating the quickness of Baylor’s campus news operation, a special football “extra” edition of the Daily Lariat was issued 30 minutes after the end of the 1947 Homecoming game against TCU.

1949

Special guests at the 1949 Homecoming included three distinguished Baylor alums –– U.S. Sen. Tom Connally of Texas, Texas Attorney General Price Daniel and major league baseball star Ted Lyons.

In what would be Baylor’s final Homecoming football game played in Waco’s Municipal Stadium, the Bears beat TCU 40-14.

The day after the win over TCU, the Baylor football team was invited by employees of Waco’s Owens-Illinois glass plant to enjoy 600 pounds of barbequed buffalo meat. Baylor Coach Bob Woodruff at first was hesitant to let the players eat barbeque in the middle of the week, but relented, saying, “It might toughen ‘em up for Texas” the following week.

1950

As they had so many times, students from Texas A&M University were busy in the weeks before their big Homecoming showdown in Waco against Baylor. Aggie students broke into the Bear Pit and made off with Baylor’s two young bear mascots, Barney and Bailey, in an automobile. Within a few hours Bailey was discovered trying to get back into his pen, and Barney was returned later “after scratching up the six Aggie Bandsmen in the raiding party.” The Aggies had wrapped Barney in burlap and taken him to College Station, where he was confined in a dorm room and “clawed his captors vigorously,” prompting his return to Waco.

The Aggies also snuck on the Baylor campus one morning to paint “Beat the Hell out of Baylor” on automobiles and street paving, and snuck into the new Baylor Stadium, then under construction, to plant oats in the gridiron grass in an attempt to have the sprouting plants spell out the letters “A and M.” Baylor President W.R. White called the Aggie students’ pranks “just an expression of school spirit,” and told Baylor students, “The only kind of retaliation we want is that which will be shown on the scoreboard Saturday.”

Baylor was not going to let the little matter of construction on its new Baylor Stadium not being completed spoil plans to hold the 1950 Homecoming football game there. Only 37,000 of the total 49,000 seats in the stadium were completed at game time, but that was sufficient to handle the record crowd of 34,000 that saw Baylor beat A&M, 27-20, for the third time in a row.

1952

The woman who served as Baylor’s 1952 Homecoming Queen, Pat Barfield, proved to be a good choice.

Later in 1952, Barfield beat out 100 other American homecoming queens in a nationwide contest sponsored by the United States Eighth Army, in which the troops serving in Korea chose her as “The Homecoming Queen We'd Most Like To Come Home To.” Thousands of letters addressed to Barfield eventually poured in from Korea and across the U. S., sometimes 50 a day, and she had to enlist the Baylor Public Relations office as well as her friends to help her answer them. Besides being featured in a number of advertisements, the popular Barfield was chosen as a Baylor Beauty and also earned the titles of Queen of the 1952 Baylor Rodeo, the Rose of Delta Sigma Pi fraternity, and “Miss Trainee” of the 17th Division at Fort Hood.

The 1952 Homecoming football game attracted some national attention. First of all, photographers from Life and Look magazines, as well as from national newsreels and WBAP-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth, were on hand to record the first appearance of Baylor’s new card section. Three thousand 11x14 cards had been ordered, and were displayed in different combinations by 720 Baylor students sitting in the stands to produce large words and images.

Unexpected national attention also came after one of the Baylor bear mascots, Topsy, picked up a penalty flag thrown down by a referee during the Homecoming game and would not turn it loose until the game was over. The story of the “fabled fabric” was carried by the Associated Press and printed in newspapers across the country. Topsy was so famous, in fact, that he even got his photo taken with Pat Barfield.

1953

Fans who attended the 1953 Baylor Homecoming football game had to contend with temperatures that dropped as low as 52 degrees. In its coverage of the game, the Waco Times-Herald noticed that the Homecoming Queen and her court braved the cold in their dresses, only one of them resorting to adding a warm parka to her ensemble.

Members of Baylor’s 1923 Southwest Conference champion baseball team were honored guests at the game and watched from the sidelines at the football game. Also present on the sidelines was 19-year-old polio victim Clint Floyd of Kerens, Texas, a special guest who watched the game with the aid of a portable iron lung.

1954

Sometime between the Wednesday night and Thursday morning of Homecoming Week 1954, Baylor’s young mascot, Nip, disappeared from a local veterinary hospital were the bear cub was being treated for acute gastritis. Also missing was Nip’s cage trailer.

Officials at Texas A&M, Baylor’s Homecoming opponent, assured Baylor officials that they were unaware of any bear cub being taken to College Station. There was no word on where Nip was until the Waco veterinarian received a mysterious telephone call Thursday night, telling him that the cub would be returned during the next 24 hours. Sure enough, Nip was discovered the next day inside his trailer under a bridge on the highway to Bryan, both the bear and the trailer painted red.

The Tidwell Bible Building was dedicated the Friday of Homecoming in a ceremony featuring a dedicatory address by Baylor President W.R. White. The building, which had taken almost 20 years of work by many people to plan and fund, was the dream of the late Dr. J.B. Tidwell, one of Baylor’s most beloved religion professors.

1956

As Homecoming 1956 approached, hotel and motel rooms in Waco were all quickly reserved for the big weekend. Baylor officials made a public appeal to Waco citizens, asking them to consider renting spare bedrooms to Homecoming visitors from out of town to handle the crush.

Every now and then a big rumor sweeps a college campus, and during Homecoming week a rumor made the rounds that overzealous Baylor boys guarding the campus from the Aggies had been put in jail. But the rumor turned out to be just that –– a rumor.

At Homecoming, another famous painting of poet Robert Browning –– this one done in 1881 by Browning’s son, Robert Wiedemann “Pen” Browning, was on display at Armstrong Browning Library for the first time. It had been donated to Baylor by a California woman earlier in the year.

The 1956 Baylor Homecoming football game almost didn’t happen. Just a few days before the game, all but 10 of the Baylor players came down with food poisoning. By game time the Baylor players were ready to go, but the Bears ended up losing to A&M, 19-13.

1958

Pigskin Revue made its debut at the 1958 Baylor Homecoming. It was established by Marie Mathis, director of the Student Union Building and the person who had founded All University Sing five years earlier. Mathis saw Pigskin as a way to increase the quality of Sing acts and showcase winners from the previous year’s performance.

In the Homecoming Parade members of the 1948 Baylor basketball team, which won the Southwest Conference and was the NCAA national runner-up, were the featured guests. Team member Jackie Robinson, who also represented the United States in basketball in the 1948 Olympics, was one of those in attendance. Also riding in the parade was Texas Gov. Price Daniel, a Baylor alumnus.

During the Homecoming football game against Texas A&M a Baylor alumnus, Brian Hooks of Oklahoma City, suffered a heart attack in the opening moments of the game. His wife and others called for help, and respondents used oxygen from the Baylor football team’s portable tank to treat him, a move that was credited with saving his life.

1959

Members of Baylor’s 1922 football team, the first Bear squad to win the Southwest Conference championship, were the special guests at Homecoming celebrations. Weta Timmons, Baylor’s first female yell leader who cheered for the 1922 team, was also a special guest. She was introduced at a pep rally but declined to lead any cheers, explaining that college yells had changed a bit since her day. Timmons did ride in the parade along with the 1922 team.

Members of the Baylor Ex-Debaters Association took time during Homecoming to present debate coach Glenn Capp with a new car, honoring his 25 years of service to Baylor. Capp said it was the first good car he’d ever owned, and that he will use to drive students to speech tournaments.

1962

During the Homecoming parade a fire broke out on a Baylor float that featured a space rocket with the message "Orbit The Aggies." No one was injured, and the parade continued after firemen extinguished the blaze.

1966

Crowds gathered at Homecoming for the groundbreaking of one of Baylor’s most anticipated buildings, Moody Memorial Library, the successor to the 64-year old Carroll Library.

The day of the Homecoming football game against Texas A&M was a warm one, and during the game four people ended up at the Baylor Stadium first aid station with reported heart attacks, blamed on the warm afternoon and the excitement of the game. A Waco attorney and a Baylor professor both collapsed at the game and were reported in satisfactory condition later in the day at Hillcrest Hospital. The two other people were taken to Hillcrest and were treated and released. After the first victim fell early in the second quarter, stadium announcer George Stokes implored the fans, “Settle down, we’re having a hard day.” He remarked later, “The Red Cross nurses didn’t see one down of the game.”

And the game itself? When all was said and done, the Aggies ended up winning, 17-13.

1968

Members of the Nose Brotherhood, who had been banned from campus and hadn’t been seen at Baylor functions for a year or so, were spotted at both Pigskin Revue and the Homecoming Parade.

For the first time since Miss Weta Timmons served a season as a Baylor yell leader back in 1922, women were allowed to serve as Baylor yell leaders starting in the fall of 1968, following a vote of the student body earlier in the year. The three female yell leaders on duty during the 1968 Homecoming football game were Patsy Foster, Peggy Pate and Mary Matthews.

1971

In the 1971 Baylor Homecoming football game, the Bears once again faced their longtime rivals, the Horned Frogs of TCU. Early in the first quarter of the game, TCU quarterback Steve Judy looked to the sidelines for instructions, and saw first-year TCU head coach Jim Pittman laying on the ground. Judy hurriedly called a timeout and rushed to his coach’s side.

The 46-year-old Pittman was a survivor of three previous heart attacks, and he’d just had his fourth on the sidelines of Baylor Stadium. Unable to revive him, medical attendants took Pittman out of the stadium on a stretcher. The young coach was pronounced dead soon afterward at Providence Hospital.

Word of Pittman’s death was transmitted to the TCU assistant coaches with about 8 minutes left in the first half. They intended not to tell the team until halftime, but team members overheard the news. The TCU team rallied from tragedy to pull ahead of Baylor late in the game and won, 34-27.

Surprisingly, Pittman was not the only TCU official to experience medical problems during the game. Only minutes before Pittman’s collapse, TCU assistant athletic director Buster Brannon collapsed in the Baylor Stadium press box and was rushed to Providence Hospital. Brannon was treated and released a few minutes after his head coach had been pronounced dead in the same hospital.

1972

At Homecoming 1972, the men's Freshman Mass Meeting and the women's Freshman Mass Meeting, which previously had been separate events, were combined. From then on, Freshman Mass Meeting would be coed.

In the week before the Homecoming game against Texas A&M, someone dyed the water in the Fountain Mall fountain red, and left a sign nearby that read “Aggie Blood.”

The 1972 Homecoming football game was the first Baylor Homecoming contest overseen by new Bears coach Grant Teaff. It was also the first Homecoming game played on Baylor Stadium’s new AstroTurf field, which had been installed the previous summer. Baylor beat the Aggies, 15-13.

1973

At the 1973 Baylor Homecoming pep rally, Caso March, a 1933 Baylor yell leader, demonstrated one-arm pushups, and Delta Alpha Pi put on a skit about football Coach Grant Teaff and his coaches called “Cinderbear.”

The 1973 Homecoming Parade ended up getting some unexpected national news coverage. Well before Homecoming, Baylor Law School alumnus Leon Jaworski had been named parade grand marshal. Jaworski had enjoyed a distinguished legal career, prosecuting Nazi war criminals after World War II, representing Vice President Lyndon Johnson in legal cases, serving as a counsel to the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of President Kennedy and serving a term as president of the American Bar Association.

The Watergate scandal surrounding President Nixon was in the forefront of the news in the fall of 1973, and two days before he was to appear in the Baylor Homecoming Parade, Jaworski was appointed special Watergate prosecutor by Nixon, succeeding the recently fired Archibald Cox.

So, when Jaworski arrived in Waco to lead the Baylor parade, he had spent the previous two days in the glare of the media lights. Asked why he didn’t stay in Washington that weekend, Jaworski told the Lariat, “I put Baylor very high on my priority list. I had committed myself to the parade several months ago, and I decided this (new job) wouldn’t stop me from coming.”

The Noze Brotherhood took advantage of Jaworski’s newfound celebrity by following his car in the parade, holding up a sign asking spectators to “Clap if you think he’s guilty,” referring, presumably, to the embattled President Nixon.

1976

The Hughes-Dillard Alumni Center on University Parks Drive was dedicated during Homecoming.

1977

During Baylor Homecoming 1977 the Steve Hudson Bear Plaza was dedicated. It was named in honor of the late Steve Hudson, who attended Baylor from 1966-1971. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Doug Hudson of Harrison, Ark., who donated $50,000 of the new facility’s total cost of $125,000. The improved home for Baylor’s bear mascots was three times as roomy as the previous one. Its first residents were the black bears Kelli, a two-year-old, and Judge, a four-year-old.

1979

On the Friday of Homecoming 1979, freshmen in the Baylor Line were busy building the traditional bonfire pyre when a group of sophomores captured the spirit flame (a construction torch painted green) and attempted to light the bonfire early. To try and prevent this, the Baylor Line members formed a human circle around the bonfire, but somehow after several attempts the sophomores were successful in igniting the piled wood, although the fire was quickly extinguished.

Fire also played a role in the Homecoming Parade. A huge float resembling a whale entered by the Taurus Society won the grand prize, but was destroyed after the parade while parked on Fountain Mall by what the RoundUp later called a “disputed fire.”

1984

For the first time ever, Baylor’s Homecoming celebration in 1984 featured “Extravaganza,” a party for the entire Baylor family sponsored by the Baylor Chamber of Commerce. The event included bands playing downtown at the Suspension Bridge in Waco’s Indian Spring Park.

For the first time, the five-year-old group known as the Baylor Black Alumni Club sponsored a Homecoming dinner and dance, in recognition of the 75th anniversary of Baylor Homecoming. Guests included Barbara Ann Walker (BA ’67), the first black woman to graduate from Baylor.

1985

During their 1985 Homecoming meeting, Baylor trustees indefinitely shelved plans to build a special events center after receiving cost estimates much higher than expected. (The Ferrell Special Events Center would eventually be built and opened in 1988).

Among the most noticeable special guests riding in the Homecoming Parade in 1985 were Texas Gov. Mark White and Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox, both Baylor Law School graduates.

1986

During Pigskin Revue, Houston secondary education major Beth Nance was announced as Baylor’s 1986 Homecoming Queen. Nance had been diagnosed with bone cancer in her leg and had to endure bone replacement surgery and a year and a half of chemotherapy treatments. When she accepted the Homecoming Queen honor on the stage of Waco Hall, the only visible sign of her cancer was that she stood on the left side of her escort instead of the right and depended on him for support, since she had not regained her full strength since a recent surgery.

The night after the Homecoming football game with Arkansas (which Baylor won 29-14), a special musical and dramatic presentation titled “So Long, Sweet Century” was performed. Part of the celebration of Baylor’s 100th year in Waco, the musical showed the spirit and the life of Baylor during the previous century. It was performed by Baylor Showtime! and was written and directed by Baylor graduate Buryl Red, an internationally acclaimed composer and musical artist.

1988

During halftime of the 1988 Homecoming football game with Arkansas, it was announced that Mr. and Mrs. Carl Casey of Dallas had made an initial gift of $5 million to expand and refurbish Baylor Stadium. It was also announced that the 38-year-old Baylor Stadium would be renamed Floyd Casey Stadium in honor of Mr. Casey’s father.

1990

Over Homecoming weekend, a newly renovated lecture hall in Marrs McLean Science Building was dedicated to beloved physics professor Bob Packard. It was given the name “Robert G. Packard Hall,” with funds for the renovation having been provided by the Carlile family of Marshall, Texas.

On the night of Nov. 10, comedian Bill Cosby performed before a capacity Homecoming crowd at the Ferrell Center.

1992

During Grant Teaff’s final Homecoming game as Baylor football coach, the Bears beat Georgia Tech, 31-27.

1995

Dedication ceremonies were held for both the Sesquicentennial Walkway in Burleson Quadrangle and Clifton Robinson Tower.

1996

Texas Gov. George W. Bush served as grand marshal of the Baylor Homecoming Parade.

1998

Professor George Stokes, the man sometimes called “The Voice of Baylor” for his decades of work as the public address announcer at Baylor football games and as master of ceremonies for All University Sing and Pigskin Revue, did the Pigskin emcee duties for one final time in 1998 before retiring.

At Homecoming 1998 a large crowd of Baylor alumni were on hand to help dedicate the newly renovated Hughes-Dillard Alumni Center on University Parks Drive. The staff of the Baylor Alumni Association had moved back into the building just before the start of the fall 1998 semester.

The coverage of the 1998 Baylor Homecoming Parade by KWBU was simulcast for the first time ever on the Internet.

During the parade, the goal posts that jubilant students had torn down and carried back to campus after the Bears’ upset win over Texas the previous fall were carried through the streets of Waco by Baylor students. The gesture didn’t help the Bears during their Homecoming game hours later against Kansas State, however, as Baylor lost 49-6.

2004

Baylor’s first new on-campus residential facility built in more than 35 years, the North Village Residential Community, was dedicated at Homecoming.

2005

During its Homecoming meeting, the Baylor Board of Regents approved amendments to the University’s articles of incorporation that provided for reducing the size of the board from 36 members to 16 members over a nine-year period.

Before hundreds of students, alumni and donors on campus for Homecoming, Baylor officially dedicated the Bill and Eva Williams Bear Habitat Complex, the newly expanded and renovated facility that houses Baylor's North American black bear mascots. Compared to the bears' previous home, the William complex added nearly twice the amount of square footage as well as a more natural environment for mascots Joy and Lady that features a waterfall, pools, caves, deadfall trees and digging areas.

The route of the Baylor Homecoming Parade was shortened and the parade was moved to an earlier time to accommodate the 11:30 a.m. start of the televised Baylor-Texas Tech game. Possibly the most striking float in the parade was one featuring Baylor men painted and posing to resemble the proposed statue of the Immortal Ten.

2007

During Homecoming 2007, Baylor formally dedicated both Brooks Village, made up of Brooks Residential Flats and Brooks Residential College, and the Immortal Ten memorial, created by renowned western sculptor Bruce Greene.

The annual Homecoming Bonfire took place on Fountain Mall after being held the previous two years near the Ferrell Center. Alumni had requested that the bonfire be moved back to a more central location on campus.

In the early morning hours before the Homecoming Parade, Kappa Alpha Theta’s float was struck by two different automobiles, the first apparently driven by a hit-and-run driver. No one in the float was injured, but the float was too damaged to be used in the parade.

2008

At their Homecoming 2008 meeting, Baylor Regents announced that the University had received a significant naming gift from Baylor alumni Jay and Jenny Reid Allison of Frisco, Texas, for the Jay and Jenny Allison Indoor Football Practice Facility, which would complete the Alwin O. and Dorothy Highers Athletic Complex.

A number of special dedications took place during Homecoming –– for official Texas Historical Markers honoring both the Texas Collection and Carroll Library, and for the stained glass Vallombrosa Window in the Cox Reception Hall of Armstrong Browning Library in memory of beloved English professor Ann Miller.

Some time early in the morning of the Friday before the 2008 Homecoming Parade, vandals destroyed the Alpha Chi Omega sorority’s float at the location off campus where it was being stored. “It looked like someone took a sledgehammer to it,” one member said. The story of the float’s destruction was aired locally on KWTX-TV, and a group of volunteers, including members of the Baylor Chamber of Commerce and the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, worked around the clock to help the group rebuild the float by the start of the parade. And that, I think you’ll agree, demonstrates the true spirit of Baylor and its Homecoming celebration.

Research sources include: Waco Times-Herald, Waco Tribune-Herald, Waco News-Tribune, Dallas Morning News, Baylor Lariat, Baylor RoundUp.

Baylor's Value To Waco in 1926

2009-03-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

Baylor Worth Much To City, Survey Shows
University Professor Shows It Is Valuable Economic Asset to Waco

Waco Times-Herald
July 18, 1926

Baylor university has become a close rival of many of the strictly commercial institutions in Waco as an economic asset to the city, as shown by a survey just completed by Dr. C.D. Johnson, head of the Baylor school of commerce and business administration. The annual money worth of Baylor to Waco is approximately $1,251,000.

The tuition alone which the students bring to Waco amounts to $324,000. Board and room bills at the university dormitories and similar bills paid by students to near-by boarding houses, cafes and rooming houses total $567,000. The remainder of the million and a quarter brought directly by students is spent for clothes, churches, haircuts, bobs, shows, special dinners, rides in cars, drug store accounts, including a rather imposing amount for cosmetics, the survey showed.

Baylor Attracts 100 Families

The estimate of Dr. Johnson shows that at least 100 families have come to Waco annually to educate their children or other relatives. These families add at least $180,000 annually to the money brought to Waco. This added to the $1.251,000 brings the Baylor economic worth to Waco $1,431,000 or nearly a million and a half. Nor does this include the summer session which brings almost $100,000 (of) new money into the city.

The cash endowment of the university is $550,000, another valuable asset to the city. This amount is being enlarged every year by gifts of both large and small amounts.

Women Buy More Clothes

Women students spend more money on the average than men students due in large measure to the budgets for clothes. One girl, a banker's daughter, bought fifteen pairs of shoes in the first seven months of the session at an average of $12 a pair. This was $180 for shoes alone. The same girl had a $12 a month bill during the same seven months or $84. One girl spent $600 for a coat.

An Arkansas man's expenses for the year ran over $2000. The tuition and board, the actual necessary expenses were far less than half the student's bill. Oklahoma, New Mexico, Tennessee and Louisiana students are found among the large contributors to the budget which comes to Waco through the Baylor university channel. There are 130 students from other states than Texas during the regular session with about forty-five from other states during the summer.

All Businesses Profit

The financial analysis showed that all types of businesses from show shining parlors to banks, from hamburger stands to Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and other city churches are recipients of money from the Baylor students.

The big ball games which are played between A. and M. and Texas university and colleges attract an aggregate of 75,000 people to Waco during the football season. These athletic fans bring business to the Cotton Palace, the hotels and to stores of all kinds.

The business survey of Baylor students is similar to that made in other university centers in the United States, said Dr. Johnson. There is this difference, he said: All northern and eastern colleges and universities show a higher expense rate than Baylor university due to higher prices for rooms, board and usually for clothes and club memberships which are seldom omitted by students in other sections of the United States.

Ten Shun!

2008-08-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

Emery On Duty

Dallas Morning News
Saturday, August 31, 1895

Waco, Tex., Aug. 30 –– Lieut. J.A. Emery of the United States army, eleventh infantry, arrived to-day, accompanied by his family, and took up his residence in the commander's quarters of the Baylor cadets. Lieut. Emery came to Waco in obedience to instructions of the war department to serve as military instructor of the cadet corps. The lieutenant has been in active service in Arizona and further west in the campaigns against hostile red men. He appears much pleased to change a while to Waco, where the Indians were driven off several years ago, and a civilized city of 30,000 people has built fine colleges and twenty-seven churches. Lieut. Emery, although an infantry officer, is thorough, as he needs must be, having graduated at West Point. He understands all about cavalry and modern artillery. He will give the cadets the complete military curriculum. He was waited on to-day by the Waco Artillery company, just forming; also by the organizers of the McLennan county light dragoons, a cavalry troop the young men are getting up. All the military organizations at Waco hope to profit by the presence here of a regular officer.

Television Debuts at Baylor

2008-02-15T15:32:00.000-08:00

Television May First Be Seen Here March 4

Baylor May Give Students and Friends Treat When Hoover Makes Inaugural Address

Waco Times-Herald
January 7, 1929

Wacoans may soon be given an opportunity to witness a television demonstration.

If the inaugural address of President-Elect Herbert Hoover is broadcast by a television process. Baylor students and invited guests will probably "see and hear" the program on March 4.

At Science Hall

Only four years ago, the inaugural address of President Calvin Coolidge was broadcast [on the radio] and Baylor students assembled in front of the Science hall to marvel at such a wonder. A loud speaker installed on a tree was the means of hearing it. Classes were dismissed for an hour that this marvel might be introduced to doubting students. But this year may come another present-day miracle.

Dr. Spencer Gives Promise

Dr. S.H. Spencer, head of the physics department at Baylor, has promised his classes this event if there is any possible chance. He has ordered a final "piece" for the television apparatus, which he expects soon. The only possibility of missing the address will be failure of the broadcasters to radio by television, Dr. Spencer said Monday [Jan. 7].

"It will not take very long to put up our apparatus for television. It will work absolutely if they treat us right up in Washington. Of course, we can get it over radio, anyway, but it will be a new thing for Baylor students if we can both see and hear our president's inaugural address," he said.

Baylor bookplate

2008-02-09T09:32:00.001-08:00

This is a portion of the bookplate found in the inside covers of many older books in the Baylor library system. It features an older version of the Baylor seal, with the words "Chartered 1886, Baylor University at Waco Texas. Pro Ecclesia Pro Texana." The artwork appears to have been drawn by Esse Forester O'Brien in 1918, according to the signature on the right hand side.

Quotations from Pat Neff, Part I: Early Years

2007-02-15T13:58:00.000-08:00

I have spent some time collecting quotations from Pat Morris Neff, Baylor University's eighth president and a two-term governor of Texas. To make these easier to digest over a period of time, I've decided to divide up the quotes into three chronological sections. This, the first, includes quotes made by Neff in his days before being elected Governor of Texas in 1920. The second section will include quotes from Neff as governor, then the third section will include post-gubernatorial quotes, including some he made while president of Baylor.

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“I believe we have too much legislation. Legislators spend too much of their time and too much of the people’s money in making laws. The average legislator feels that he is acting derelict to duty should he fail to introduce a few dozen bills. Our statutes are burdened with their own weight; yet lawmaking goes merrily on, confusing and confounding the citizen, embarrassing and bewildering the lawyer, and damming up the stream of justice with conflicting ammendments, contradictions, inconsistencies and technicalities.. I believe the Malthusian doctrine should apply to the making of laws. Let us have fewer laws and better ones –– laws that will stand.”

“I believe we should vote for measures, not men; for principles, not politicians. Men may come and men may go, but principles, like Tennyson’s little brook, will run on forever. The name of Jefferson will live for all ages yet to be; not because he was Thomas Jefferson, but because he stood as a ‘watchman on the walls of Zion,’ representing the undying fundamental principles of free government, that are as deathless as the beauty of woman and as inspiring as the oratory of men.”

“Equality in taxation is the golden thread that runs throughout the fabric of this republic. It is and should be the most enduring granite block in the beautiful pedestal of American civilization. I believe that taxes should be made to fall equally upon the shoulders of all. I do not believe that any class of people should be forced to pay a heavy tax in order to fill the pockets of others.”

From Pat Neff’s speech delivered in McGregor in the spring of 1898 announcing his first bid for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives.

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“I am in favor of the law making the registration of poll tax receipts a prerequisite to the right to cast a ballot. I do not believe a bill could come up before the 26th legislature for consideration that would be as far-reaching in its effects for good as one tending toward the purification of the ballot box. The greatest evil that menaces our political and social institutions lies in the unchecked and unregulated right of suffrage. Require these poll tax receipts to be registered at least six months before an election, before the political pot begins to boil, and it will not only give us a pure and honest ballot, but will put into the public school funds thousands of dollars…I feel sure no better law could be passed by the coming legislature than one requiring votes [sic] to pay a tax and register their receipt before dropping into the box the lily-white ballot.”

New state representative Pat Neff, asked by the Waco Times-Herald to comment in its Jan. 1, 1899 edition on his views of prospective legislation.

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“I believe in education in all its forms. I believe our age demands that the hand should be educated as well as the heart and head. I believe the girls should be taught to believe in the honesty and dignity of doing domestic toil, should be taught that the music of the tea-kettle is as great a factor in civilization, and that it is not less divine than that produced by the touch of the ivory keys.”

“I vote ‘no’ on the final passage of house bill No. 322…not because I am opposed to woman extending her sphere of influence and usefulness, for without her uplifting and purifying powers, civilization would slide back into barbarism, and life, with all its lofty hopes and aspirations, would be a farce, a fraud, and a failure.”

Excerpts of remarks explaining Neff's vote in the Texas House against a bill to create an industrial institute “for the education of white girls in the arts and sciences,” as reported in the Waco Times-Herald April 9, 1899.

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“Some members are opposed to the university because they do not like the management. I am sure the management is not perfect; I am sure the students are not all saints. Do you expect 500 Texas boys to get together and then make no noise? You are going to vote against the institution because some of the boys wear red neckties and part their hair in the middle. You are going to vote against the appropriation because the boys have a college yell. Nothing is sweeter to a student than his college yell.”

“I do not believe that money is ever misappropriated that is spent for education. An educated citizenship is the hope of the country.”

“When my shoulders are bending low beneath the weight of years and I look back across the past and see the boys and girls of Texas who have gathered inspiration at this institution, I shall be proud of the fact that I lifted my voice and cast my vote in her behalf. May the University of Texas stand as immovable as the historic hill upon which it has been built, and may it continue to grow while the circling seasons onward roll.”

Excerpts of remarks made by Neff April 26, 1899, on the floor of the Texas House in support of a bill appropriating $75,000 for the maintenance and support of one of his alma maters, the University of Texas.

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“If there is any one lesson above another that I have learned in the office I hold, it is that the voice of the people is not always the voice of God, and the officer who tries to follow the fickle fortune of the shouting multitude soon loses sight of the lighthouses and the landmarks that map out the true and proper course.”

“The cringing coward who trembles before public opinion, who fawns at the feet of popular applause, who permits the passion of the passing throng to poison his purpose, ought never to be vested by the people as an officer with the authority of the law. This court knows full well that more than once I have stood here alone, as in a banquet hall deserted, and in doing so I rendered a higher and nobler service to society than when I marched with the shouting throng. If an officer desires at all times to work along the lines of least resistance, it is easy for him to go with the seething mass of humanity, but since the day that Christ stood with the minority at Jerusalem it has been no crime to stand alone, to dare to have a purpose firm, and dare to make it known.”

“I have never willingly planted a thorn in any human heart. In the investigation and prosecution of cases I have been a searcher after the truth, believing it to be my duty as much to protect the innocent as to prosecute the guilty. I believe in the presumption of innocence and the reasonable doubt as protecting shields to every citizen. I have put into practice this belief and have put myself in the jury box as the 13th juror in the trial of every case. For this reason, during five years of my administration 352 cases were tried and in 336 of this number I felt the flush but not the blush of victory. Only 14 out of the 352 escaped the penitentiary, and these 14 were guilty, although the evidence was not satisfactory to the jury.”

Excerpts from McLennan County Attorney Pat Neff’s farewell speech to the court prior to leaving office, delivered Oct. 31, 1912 in the 54th District Court room.

The Demolition of Brooks Hall: June 27

2006-06-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

I haven't taken photos of the Brooks Hall demolition in a number of days because, frankly, it's all over but the cleanup. All that's happened since last Friday is that trucks have continually been loaded up with building debris before taking that debris off campus to be dumped somewhere. As you can see from these photos shot today at 12:50 p.m. from atop the Fifth Street Parking Facility, there's not much left of Brooks but an ever-diminishing pile of rubble.

Here's some views of Kokernot Hall and Minglewood Bowl to show the continuing work going on there.

Photos by Randy Fiedler

The Demolition of Brooks Hall: June 22

2006-06-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

As of this morning, the only thing left standing on Brooks Hall is the north wing, the one closest to Martin Hall. Here's a few shots I took around 10:20 a.m. Workers are wetting down the demolition site in an effort to keep down the large amounts of dust that are created by the falling debris.

Views from Dutton Avenue:

Views from atop the Fifth Street Parking Garage:

UPDATE: 6 p.m. All that's left of the north wing:

Front views from Dutton Avenue:

Elevated views from the adjoining parking garage:

Photos by Randy Fiedler

The Demolition of Brooks Hall: June 21

2006-06-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

As of 10:20 a.m. CST, the Brooks Arch still exists, but not for long:

UPDATE: 2:55 p.m. The Arch is about to fall.

UPDATE: 5:45 p.m. Bye, bye, Arch.

Photos by Randy Fiedler

The Demolition of Brooks Hall: June 20

2006-06-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

Demolition continues on Brooks Hall. The entire south wing (the one which ran parallel to Kokernot Hall) is completely gone. Here's what the building looked like about 1:15 p.m. CST.

Here's a view of Minglewood Bowl from the Fifth Street Parking Garage. That's Collins Hall in the background at the left and the Mary Gibbs Jones Family and Consumer Sciences Building to the right of Collins.

Another view of Minglewood Bowl, this one from a different angle with Brooks Hall in the background.

Before demolition of Brooks Hall began, workers removed some of the distinctive architectural features of the building and have laid them on the ground near the construction office on Minglewood Bowl. Dr. Dub Oliver, Baylor's interim vice president for student life, told me awhile back that these stone pieces will eventually be incorporated into the new Brooks Village buildings to provide continuity between the old and the new.

Another saved architectural element -- one of the large stone urns that flanked the entrance to the Brooks Arch at the front of Brooks Hall.

UPDATE: On my way home from work about 6:15 p.m., I noticed that demolition was still in progress, including what appeared to be the first tentative whacks to the famous Brooks Arch. Here's a few more shots I took at that time.

Photos by Randy Fiedler

The Demolition of Brooks Hall: June 19

2006-06-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

Today began the demolition of Brooks Hall, once the oldest men's residence hall on the Baylor campus.

There is a good photo feature on today's demolition activity here on the Baylor Public Relations website. Also, I met a technician today who was installing a webcam on Pat Neff Hall which he said would soon provide daily views of the Brooks Village construction progress on the main Baylor web page. I'll post a link here to the webcam as soon as it's available.

I took photos of the demolition myself, about 11:30 a.m. CST today. Here's some of what I saw:

There was a pile of large stones on the ground in back of Brooks Hall, and it appeared that a weathered metal plaque was attached to the largest of these stones:

At first I was puzzled by what this could be, since I didn't recall any such plaque being attached to Brooks Hall. But then I looked closer and realized that this was the demolished remains of the Confederate soldiers' monument which stood until recently in front of the small parking lot next to the ROTC building, in what used to be known as Harrington Park. The monument was erected back in the 1930s to honor local Civil War veterans. I hope, but don't know for sure, that it might be erected in a new location at some point in the future.

I'll be taking more pictures of the Brooks Hall demolition as it progresses throughout the week.

Photos by Randy Fiedler

The Demolition of Brooks Hall: June 9

2006-06-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

There's not been much dramatic change visible at Brooks Hall since I last posted photos. Crews are still busy clearing the land around Brooks and removing things from inside the building. I'm getting ready to go on a one-week vacation, and I think it's entirely possible that when I next view Brooks Hall on June 19, it might no longer be standing.

Here's a few photos I took today of the progress.

A view of the back side of Brooks Hall

A closer view of the back of Brooks Hall

Minglewood Bowl

The north side of Brooks Hall, just across from the back of Martin Hall and with the Alico building visible in the background

Photos by Randy Fiedler

Baylor's First Women's Gymnasium

2006-06-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

Sturdy Oaks, Once Only Gymnasium for Baylor Girls, Appear About Ready to Relinquish Their Lengthy Vigil
Waco Times-Herald
July 10, 1927

By Vernon McGee
Walden Journalism Scholar,
Baylor University

Many years ago the gymnasium for girls in Baylor university consisted of a swing which hung from the limb of an oak tree. Dr. Rufus C. Burleson, who was president of Baylor at that time, caused the old fashioned swing to be built in order that the coeds might have some form of recreation, for in those days girls were not alowed to speak to boys on Baylor's campus. The same tree which supported the swing still maintains its faithful vigil over the university campus, aided by three other oaks of about the same age.

These leafy sentinels are rather intimately connected with Baylor history, for they were flourishing long before the institution was founded. Dr. E.H. Jones, head of the Botany department at Baylor, has estimated the age of the oaks to be between 150 and 175 years.

Brooks on Billy Sunday

2006-06-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

In 1925, Baylor President Samuel Palmer Brooks got the chance to hear Billy Sunday, the famous professional baseball player who became a fiery evangelist. In this account, Brooks gives his opinion of Sunday's signature preaching style.

BROOKS TELLS OF PREACHING BILLY SUNDAY

Baylor Head Heard Noted Evangelist in Nashville Last Week

Waco Times-Herald
Feb. 9, 1925

The gymnastical religion of Billy Sunday, world famous evangelist, was described to Baylor students at Monday morning chapel services by President S.P. Brooks, who heard Mr. Sunday preach several times last week in Nashville, where Dr. Brooks attended the meeting of the American Association of Religious Colleges.

"Truett and Sunday are both classed among the leading preachers of America," Dr. Brooks said. "But these two men are as widely different in their methods as men could be.

"Billy Sunday has perfect physical control, and a wonderful physique. It is said that he carries along his own physical instructor. He uses gymnastics in his gestures, and he uses them like he did when he was a big league baseball pitcher before he was converted. When he extends his hand in pointing toward some object, he winds up like he was throwing a ball, and when his hand comes forth, it does so with a great deal of force and vigor."

Dr. Brooks said that when Mr. Sunday was in the midst of some of his sermons he would climb into a chair, put one foot in the chair and the other in the pulpit and from there shout at the top of his voice his appeal. He said that when Mr. Sunday prayed he tilted his head back, stood erect, and at the top of his voice shouted his supplications to God.

He spoke in the city auditorium at Nashville, and according to Dr. Brooks great crowds heard him nightly. Mr. Sunday took up collections in tin wash pans, Dr. Brooks said.

Dr. Brooks declared that although Mr. Sunday had done, and was still doing a marvelous amount of good, he believed that the old way of telling the plain gospel story would in the long run prove more effective than the sermons supplemented with feats of gymnastical skill.

Dr. Brooks is the president of the American Association of Religious Colleges, and is serving his second term in this capacity. He said that while away, he was ill for a short time.

The Demolition of Brooks Hall: May 31

2006-05-31T20:02:00.000-07:00

The wrecking ball has yet to begin knocking down Brooks Hall. During the past week, crews have been busy clearing the surrounding land, digging trenches for utilities and removing furnishings and asbestos from Brooks Hall itself.

PHOTO #1: Here's a shot of the back of Brooks Hall, taken from the top level of the adjacent 5th Street Parking Garage. Construction machines are busy taking metal fixtures removed from inside the building and placing them in large dumpsters for eventual removal.

PHOTO #2: Furniture removed from the rooms sits by a dumpster under the Brooks Arch.

PHOTO #3: Warning signs and tape and the presence of exhaust hose indicate there's asbestos abatement going on inside.

PHOTO #4: Minglewood Bowl, until very recently the site of pickup football and baseball games and other student events, is almost unrecognizable as the open field it was. It now serves as a space to store equipment, locate construction offices and provide parking space for workers.

PHOTO #5: Seventh Street in front of the ROTC Building, looking east toward Pat Neff Hall. It's readily visible that this is no longer a through street, as it has been bisected by the large trench being dug to hold utility pipes.

PHOTO #6: Another view of Minglewood Bowl, this time looking west from Waco Creek toward Kokernot and Brooks.

PHOTO #7: The current state of the remodeled Centennial Fountain, at the base of the bridge over Waco Creek on the Minglewood Bowl side. Some day soon, water will again flow here as it did when the fountain was first put into service in 1945.

PHOTO #8: Plaques at the front of the fountain. The one on the left dates from 1945; the one on the right is brand-new.

Photos by Randy Fiedler.

The Demolition of Brooks Hall: May 24

2006-05-24T14:12:00.000-07:00

Work continues on clearing the pavement, trees and other items that must be removed to make way for Baylor's new Brooks Village. These photos were taken Wednesday, May 24, about 4 p.m. CST.

PHOTO #1: This view of the front of Brooks Hall (with the famous Brooks Arch) shows the chain link fence which has been erected around the building to restrict entrance only to authorized persons. A large dumpster sits out front, ready to handle any debris.

PHOTO #2: Another view of the front of Brooks Hall.

PHOTO #3: The asphalt and concrete that made up the parking lot and sidewalks adjacent to Kokernot and Brooks Halls and Minglewood Bowl have been dug up, for the most part, and the debris is slowly being taken away in trucks. Some of the parking lot asphalt can be seen piled up at center. Kokernot Hall is to the left, Brooks Hall to the right.

PHOTO #4: Today the mammoth oak tree that stood on the north side of Brooks Hall, facing the parking lot adjacent to Martin Hall and the Fifth Street Parking Garage exit, was taken down. In this photo, a workman with a chain saw is busy cutting the large tree trunk into smaller sections for easier removal.

PHOTO #5: Much of the parking lot next to the Air Force ROTC building (the former Student Health Center) has been closed and put into service as a storage area for construction equipment and supplies. In addition, today I discovered that a large trench has been dug between Waco Creek and the east side of the ROTC building. I'm not sure just what types of pipes or other items might eventually be buried in here.

Photos by Randy Fiedler

The Demolition of Brooks Hall: May 18

2006-05-18T11:34:00.000-07:00

Brooks Hall, the oldest residence hall still in use at Baylor, has said goodbye to its last residents to make way for the university’s newest development in student living, Brooks Village.

At its Feb. 3, 2006, meeting, the Baylor Board of Regents authorized the construction of Brooks Village, a 700-bed residential complex, at an estimated cost of $42.8 million. Regents also authorized construction of a $8.3 million parking complex on the southeastern part of campus and approved the issuance of up to $63.5 million in bonds to finance both projects in full.

Named for Baylor’s seventh president, Samuel Palmer Brooks, the five-story Brooks Residence Hall was constructed in 1921.

Groundbreaking ceremonies were held May 12, 2006, for the new Brooks Village, which will consist of two separate facilities. Brooks Flats will be similar to Baylor's North Village Residential Community in terms of design, and will include 316 beds in a combination of four-person apartments. Each unit will have two bathrooms, a kitchen and a living room.

Brooks College, meanwhile, is a 384-bed residential college for freshman as well as upper class students, based on the classic Oxford or Cambridge model of an interdisciplinary residential experience. Brooks College will include spaces that lend themselves to group socializing, including an interior courtyard, junior and senior commons rooms, a Great Hall, a library and a small chapel. The architecture of the residential college will incorporate many of the external features of the current Brooks Hall, including the landmark Brooks Arch and the bust of namesake Samuel Palmer Brooks.

The 800-car parking garage will be built between Eighth and Ninth streets across from Ruth Collins Hall and Mary Gibbs Jones Family and Consumer Sciences Building, and will include about 10,000 square feet of retail and office space. Both Brooks Village and the parking complex are expected to open by the fall 2007 semester.

Demolition of Brooks Hall to make way for Brooks Village started almost immediately after the groundbreaking on May 12. I intend to shoot photos that detail the process of the demolition and construction at different points throughout the next 15 months. These first photos were shot on Thursday, May 18, 2006, at about 1:15 p.m.

PHOTO #1: Bulldozers, water pipe and lots of dirt have taken over the once empty lawn of Minglewood Bowl behind Brooks Hall.

PHOTO #2: Today, construction machines were in the process of removing the asphalt parking lot adjacent to both Minglewood Bowl and Kokernot and Brooks Halls.

PHOTO #3: The view from the Centennial Bridge over Waco Creek looking toward Brooks Hall shows the removal of the parking lot and the steel fencing that has been erected around the construction area.

Photos by Randy Fiedler

Pat Neff, Practical Joker

2005-09-15T05:03:00.000-07:00

Pat Neff, the former Texas governor who served as Baylor's president from 1932 to 1947, was often characterized as puritanical, stern and humorless. But as this example from 1940 shows, he indeed had a sense of humor, albeit one that sometimes required others to be scared to death first before it revealed itself.

This story began weeks earlier when Neff announced to the student body that their upcoming Christmas holidays would begin earlier than first announced. A group of Baylor boys, overjoyed at the news, did the unthinkable and in their exuberance lifted Neff to their shoulders and carried him around campus in celebration.

Once the excitement had died down, I'm sure the boys were wondering how Neff would react to his treatment. He was famous for calling out students during daily chapel services whom he had found guilty of smoking or drinking or other prohibited conduct, and ordering them to leave Baylor immediately as punishment for their sins. So when these boys were called to Neff's office, I'm betting they feared the worst.

Waco News-Tribune
January 5, 1940

Neff Scares Six Boys Who Lifted Him to Shoulder

Kidnaping Charge Hurled at Speechless Students Before Autographed Pictures Presented

Six Baylor university boys, who two weeks ago raised President Pat M. Neff to their shoulders and carried him across the campus amid shouts of praise from the student body on the occasion of an earlier-than-scheduled Christmas recess, Thursday were tributed by the executive but only after he scared them out of their wits.

Neff announced in sternest manner at the Thursday chapel for the boys who "kidnaped" him on the previous occasion to report to his office at 4:45 p.m.

Six Timid Lads

Six timid lads showed up, afraid of the consequences but more afraid of a refusal to obey a presidential summons. They were Robert Nelson, Bryan; James Drury, Calvert; and W.B. Godbold, Quanah, all football men, and R.P. Watson Jr., Marshall; Bryan Glass, China, and Scott Hunter, Wichita Falls, equally as husky.

The president asked them if they did not feel they should be punished for kidnaping the institution's president.

No one spoke.

"All right," he barked, "who's going to be the spokesman?"

More silence.

"If you had to kidnap somebody, why did you pick on me?" Neff continued questioning.

"We figured that while we were at it, we'd better get the biggest man around," a brave soul ventured with an idea of possibly incurring some favor.

Face Their Doom

Neff persisted in his idea that the boys had committed a grave offense against the dignity of his presidential office. Nothing would do except that the boys be punished severely. The boys were white, knowing full well now that their dooms were sealed.

And then at the tensest moment, Neff's thin-lipped expression twisted into a smile. He drew from his desk six photographs of himself and presented one to each of the boys. Autographed across the bottom of each were the words:

"In memory of a triumphant ride. Pat M. Neff."

Jaworski Becomes a Noze

2005-07-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

Watergate special prosecutor and Baylor alumnus Leon Jaworski is made an honorary member of the Noze Brotherhood prior to ceremonies dedicating the Jaworski Wing of Baylor Law School in 1974. Jaworski was given the Noze name of "Brother Water NoZe Jaworski."

Photo by Chris Hansen of Baylor Photography.

Photo Archive: Pat Neff Hall

2005-06-15T05:03:00.000-07:00

Construction of Pat Neff Hall, Baylor's administration building. The cornerstone for the building had been laid on Dec. 7, 1938, and the building was in use by late 1939. Named in honor of Baylor's president at the time, former Texas Governor Pat M. Neff, Pat Neff Hall originally housed the president's office and other administrative offices, the John K. Strecker Museum, a memorial room containing mementoes of university namesake Judge R.E.B. Baylor, The Texas Collection and eight classrooms. The photograph was taken by famous Waco photographer Fred Gildersleeve. Courtesy of The Texas Collection.

Early Radio Training

2005-06-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

Waco Times-Herald
October 13, 1935

Untrodden Field is Being Explored by Baylor Class

Few Textbooks on Radio Speaking, So Paul Baker and His Students Go on Their Own

With only 10 or 20 books so far written in the United States on radio, Paul Baker and his radio speech class of 22 at Baylor university are having to make their rules as they proceed on what to do to be a radio success.

"Some of the people who are having radio careers now know what they're doing and why they please audiences," says Baker, "but most of them don't. The general rule is, try out and if you have a good speaking voice, go on with your career. If you don't, stop. We want to find out what makes pleasing voices, how to train them, and what to do after we get them."

Consequently, he is having all 22 students write skits, chiefly concerned with the humor, drama and sweep of college life and these are presented in the old Baylor chapel -- the one practically forgotten on the third floor of the main building, one of the cupolaed oldest buildings on the campus. Until a few years ago, this auditorium -- once large enough to accommodate the entire student body, now scarcely able to hold a fraction of it -- had old-fashioned mottoes in Latin painted on the walls, gravely informing students that "dulce et decorum est mori pro patria" and reminding them that Baylor was "pro eccesia, pro Texana."

Baker had a decorator from New York suggest plans for refinishing the auditorium. The class furnishes its own performers, skits, audience and critics in programs broadcast no further than the auditorium now, but later will broadcast by remote control from station WACO.

Long on Baylor Pranks

2005-06-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

During his more than 40-year tenure as university handyman, Arch Long knew where most of the bodies were buried when it came to pranks on the Baylor campus.

Waco Times-Herald
December 17, 1935

TODAY’S YOUNGSTERS ARE NOT PRANKSTERS

Arch Long, Starting His 44th Year With Baylor, Hasn’t Led Cow From Building in Years

Young people, it seems to Arch Long, don’t prank about as much as they used to.

Arch begins his forty-fourth year of service with Baylor University today. He hasn’t led a cow out of the president’s office in years. It may be that lack of a horse is responsible, but it appears to him that even if there were one in the stables at Baylor now, the boys wouldn’t be so sure to shave his tail every April Fool. He thinks the ways of young people are a little different from when he started work for the institution in 1892.

Born of Slave Parents

A 6-foot-2 negro born at Chilton of slave parents freed during the Civil war, Arch was in his early thirties when he applied for a job with Dr. Rufus Burleson, president of Baylor whose statue now stands on the campus. Arch, incidentally, has pulled many a beer bottle out of this statue’s stone hat, but even that sort of fun hasn’t appealed to the students lately.

He has been with Baylor ever since; has never taken a vacation; has hardly ever missed a day’s work from illness; has raised three sons on the campus, two of whom went to college at Prairie Hill themselves; has never had a quarrel with a student and has never been taken to task by an official. In fact, President Pat Neff last year made him the guest of honor at a chapel service commending his faithful service.

He’s Near About 74

“I guess I must be 74, near’bout as I can get at it,” he says. “I been here under Dr. Burleson, Dr. Cooper, Dr. Brooks and Mr. Neff -- and a lot of substitutes between times.”

Dr. O.H. Cooper was the president who excited the most “pranking” among the students. In those days, there were only two buildings on the campus, the two brick ones now designated as Georgia Burleson hall and main building, with a servants’ house for the dormitory cooks behind.

Arch went in one morning to unlock the main building and the president’s office, and he knew right away something was wrong. It unquestionably was. A cow had spent the night in the president’s office. “She must a knowed me,” he recalls, “way she bellered. I got her out fo’ Dr. Cooper ever come down.”

April Fool Target

A horse belonging to Mrs. A.H. Newman, herself matron and wife of a one-time professor in the university, was the special target of April Fool pranks of old-time students. His tail was not only shaved plain, tufted and in stripes, but was dipped in vari-colored paint that only time could wear away. Arch used to be requested to participate in some of the stunts, but his answer was “I can’t be in dat kinda fun.”

He has worn cowboy boots for 60 years, and his present pair has its original high heels worn down almost level with the ground. White boys where he was raised up, he explains, wore them and he liked their looks. When he got older he bought a pair, and has had the same kind ever since.

Despite nearly a half-century with a Baptist institution, Arch is a Methodist.

“Looks like dey both pretty good churches,” he says.

Baylor Integrates

2005-06-10T13:59:00.000-07:00

These stories tell of Baylor University's 1963 decision to racially integrate its student body..

Baylor Votes to Integrate

Waco Times-Herald
November 2, 1963

The Baylor University Board of Trustees Friday [Nov. 1] voted to integrate the school, the world's largest Baptist institution of higher learning.

It approved the majority report of a committee named a year ago which said that "neither race or color be a factor to be considered in the admission of qualified students to Baylor University."

The university, which has an enrollment of approximately 7,000 students on its campuses at Waco, Dallas and Houston, will put the new policy into effect under the direction of President Abner V. McCall.

Hilton E. Howell, chairman of the board, issued this statement:

"Consideration of the motion began with prayer for divine guidance. The action of the Baylor University Board of Trustees was taken after full and free discussion. While the final vote of the board adopting the new policy was not unanimous, the decision was reached by amicable discussion and democratic procedure."

President McCall said in a written statement:

"University officials will devise a procedure to put the new policy into effect, and anticipate complete cooperation of the students and faculty. I feel confident that this will be done with little or no disruption of the educational program of the university."

This is the text of the report of the committee, headed by Earl C. Hankamer of Houston:

"Whereas, Baylor University as a private school has the right to select its students, and may exercise that right of selection to serve best the purposes and policies of the university and the denomination which owns it; and

Whereas, Baylor University has no official written policy either in its charter or by-laws concerning race or color as criteria for admission of students; therefore

Be it resolved that neither race nor color be a factor to be considered in the admission of qualified students to Baylor University. The Board of Trustees hereby directs the president of the university to implement this policy by practical means designed to cause minimum disruption of the educational program of the university."

The trustees agreed that only the offical statements of the chairman and of the president be made public, and that the numerical result of the vote taking the historic step not be announced.

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About three weeks later, on the same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Baylor formally announced it would integrate its athletic teams

BU Athletics to Integrate

Waco Times-Herald
November 24, 1963

Baylor University's athletic council Saturday [Nov. 23] announced integration of all athletic teams, effective with the opening of the spring semester, Jan. 30, 1964. The school's announcement was termed a "clarification of policy" by school president Dr. Abner V. McCall, who is also president of the athletic council and Baylor faculty athletic representative to the Southwest Conference.

McCall said the decision on athletic integration was actually embodied in the Nov. 1 announcement of university desegregation by the Baylor Board of Trustees.

"I told Mr. Bridgers (Baylor head football coach and athletic director John Bridgers) at the time that's what it meant," McCall said Saturday, "but it hadn't been spelled out, and we were having a lot of inquiries. This announcement is primarily to put a stop to the inquiries."

The council statement: "The Baylor athletic council has voted unanimously to permit all qualified Baylor students to compete on any Baylor athletic team participating in intercollegiate athletics."

Attending the meeting were council members McCall, Dr. Monroe Carroll, Dr. Emerson O. Henke, Dr. J.W. Dixon and Dr. James W. Parsons Jr., plus Bridgers and assistant athletic director Bill Henderson.

"It's the policy of the university to take in students regardless of race or color," McCall elaborated on the council statement. "We're not telling the coaches whom to put on their teams. We're saying everybody that's eligible can take part in athletics, as they can in any university activity, as long as they remain eligible."

McCall said there are no Negro students now enrolled at Baylor, other than in the school's hospital training program in San Antonio, a graduate division.

Bridgers said the athletic department "right now has no specific plans" for recruiting Negroes. "To tell the truth, we just haven't had time to think about it," he added. Bridgers' football team still has games remaining with Rice and Southern Methodist, the latter contest originally scheduled yesterday but postponed until Dec. 7 (see separate story) because of the death of President Kennedy.

"We don't know of any Negro athletes right now that we're interested in," Bridgers continued, "but there may be some we will want to look at and investigate." As for long-range future plans, Bridgers said he and his staff will "recruit anyone who we think will fit in and meet our standards, Negro and white."

Asked if he thought the addition of Negroes would benefit Baylor or any previously all-white school in athletics, Bridgers replied: "I think the Southwest Conference has improved anyway since I've been here, and I think it will continue to improve. Of course, there are some tremendous Negro athletes all over the country."

Bridgers said he personally agrees with the action of the trustees and the athletic council. "I feel it's something that should be, from a standpoint of being right."

Bridgers' Baylor football team ended up being the first Southwest Conference squad to field a black player in a game. That player, halfback John Westbrook, carried the ball twice in Baylor's victory over Syracuse on Sept. 10, 1966. Westbrook beat SMU's Jerry Levias by one week to become the Southwest Conference's first black player.

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Enrollment of black students was a reality within two months after Baylor's integration announcement.

Baylor Accepts Five Negroes For Enrollment

Waco Times-Herald
January 28, 1964

Baylor University has accepted five Negro students for enrollment in the Evening Division, Baylor officials said today. Four of the applicants are Waco teachers and one is a sergeant from James Connally Air Force Base.

More enrollment applications from Negro students may be processed before mid-term registration is completed Wednesday [Jan. 29].

Baylor officials said it is difficult to say exactly how many applications have come in from Negro students because all are processed in the same manner. They said they did not separate them as to race and all applications are in the same stack of papers.

University officials said one Negro student, an out-of-state applicant, had been denied admission to Baylor graduate school because his undergraduate record did not meet the university requirements.

Baylor trustees voted last fall to integrate classes at the Baptist university.

Baylor Profs Must Have Degrees

2005-06-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

Waco Times-Herald
April 5, 1935

BAYLOR RAISES PROF STANDARD

All Teachers in University Will Be Required to Hold College Degrees in the Future

Scholastic standards of Baylor University were raised through three rulings made at a faculty meeting Thursday afternoon [April 4]. All teachers in the university will be required to hold college degrees in order to teach, requirements for the master of arts degree were raised, and the pre-medic course was raised from two to three years.

President Pat M. Neff announced that, beginning next year, no teacher would be employed under any circumstances without their holding college degrees, and as far as possible all those employed with degrees shall have had previous teaching experience.

Higher Pre-Medic Requirements

The other two measures were adopted in keeping with the trend in other reputable institutions. Higher pre-medic requirements were recommended to the curriculum committee by Dr. J.F. Kimball, vice president of Baylor, in charge of the professional school at Dallas, and Dr. W.H. Moursund, dean of the college of medicine at Dallas.

The custom of using several student teachers in some of the freshman courses, which was resorted to at Baylor and other institutions as an emergency measure during the depression, has been gradually eliminated by President Neff, who announced that the institution was sufficiently out of the depression to announce that no more undergraduate teachers would be employed in any courses under any consideration.

Registration Changed

The faculty voted unanimously to abolish freshman orientation as it has been carried on at the school in the last several years. Instead of first-year students being required to report Friday morning before the opening of school the following Wednesday, completing registration by Saturday noon and having nothing else to do until classes begin Wednesday, they will report, register and classify Monday, followed by sophomores, juniors, seniors and graduate students Tuesday. Under the old program many freshmen became homesick and discouraged before they ever started their work.

The psychological test for freshmen will be given on the first Saturday of the school term, Dean E.N. Jones announced, and remaining special instruction freshmen need will be given in their special chapel period on Wednesdays.

Members of the faculty will be guests of President and Mrs. Neff on their farm near McGregor at a barbeque dinner next Wednesday evening, it was announced.

Rufus Burleson Introduces Co-education

2005-06-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

Waco Times-Herald
October 1, 1900

SOME REMINICENCES

Dr. Rufus C. Burleson Relates Some Struggles of Early Days in Waco's Educational History

To the Times-Herald: Passing by the dear old Maggie Houston Hall a few days since and seeing how hard the contractors were struggling to get it repaired and ready for the opening session of 1900, I was so forcibly reminded of the struggles of 1872 when the Hall was first built and the fearful ordeal through which Waco (Baylor) University was then passing, I had to stop and walk around and through the buildings. And as successful struggles of the past are profitable lessons for the present and future, I will relate briefly the struggles of twenty-eight years ago -- 1872.

At that time there was a fearful storm raging against co-education, not only in Waco, but throughout Texas. And as I was the pioneer of co-education in the South, and Waco University was the first co-education in the South, the second in America, and the third in the world, we had to bear the brunt of the battle.

Five wealthy and influential citizens, all good friends of mine, called to see me and to beg me to abandon that new fangled idea of co-education. I assured them I had adopted co-education after long years of earnest and profound study and that I believed from my heart that co-education was a reform the world needed. That co-education was not a new fangled idea; that Bologna University, the first and greatest of Europe, was co-education, till the pope of Rome issued a bull expelling young ladies from all universities. And all opposition to co-education was obeying the bull of the pope.

They said "Waco needs a first-class university, and believe you are the man to build one; but if you are going to convert Waco University into a mixed school of boys and girls we regret to say we will have to get up a military school and that will break you down."

I saw a powerful combination was formed extending over the state. A new president was elected to succeed the good and noble Professor Madden and then they began to erect a splendid two-story brick building for the Waco female college. A military academy with a dashing president was established. A rumor swept over that Waco University had played out, that it had no boarding hall for young ladies, no apparatus, no library and was turned into a mixed school for boys and girls.

I called our board of trustees together and explained fully the powerful combination against Waco University and to meet this combination we must complete the boarding hall for young ladies and must also have a philosophical apparatus, a new library by the opening of our fall term of 1872. I told them I had been invited to deliver an address before the National Baptist Educational society at Philadelphia and I could there secure the apparatus and library if they could complete the young ladies boarding hall, and all would be well. They said if I could put two thousand dollars in the bank we could finish the boarding hall in time. I went to work vigorously and raised a thousand dollars from my old students and friends and borrowed a thousand dollars from a friend in Bastrop by giving him a mortgage on 640 acres of Colorado land. I then hurried away to attend the National education society to procure apparatus and library and at the same time to procure $25,000 to establish a college for colored Baptist preachers and teachers for Texas. I was cordially received by the great capitalists, preachers and college presidents of the North. I readily secured the desired apparatus and library and the noble-hearted Judge Bishop pledged $25,000 to found Bishop College at Marshall.

I was also visiting the great universities of the North and also our great military institute at West Point, learning all points necessary to establish a great university in Texas; also to get in touch with millionaires looking to a grand future endowment of millions.

But I received a startling letter from my brother, Dr. Richard B. Burleson, saying the trustees had used the two thousand dollars I had put in (the) bank to pay off other debts and that work on the boarding hall had stopped. In great sadness of heart I hurried home and found there was no hope of finishing the boarding house. I immediately called the faculty together. They were all greatly discouraged and in favor of giving up Waco University as a lost cause. They said that we had published to the world that we would have a female boarding hall and we could not in honor open the session without one. I told them I was resolved to die by Waco University and co-education.

Professor Albert Boggess, one of the noblest spirits of earth who had been, first a student and then a soldier of General Stonewall Jackson, and had imbibed the heroism of his old teacher and general, arose and said, "Gentlemen. I see Dr. Burlseon is right and I will stand or fall with him. And I have $1,000 I can loan the trustees to put on double force and finish the boarding hall."

I called the trustees together and told them Professor Boggess' proposition and they accepted it and put double force to work. To inspire the workmen I packed plank till my shoulders were sore. We sent letters and circulated all over the state that Waco University would have a grand opening in September, with a splendid new boarding hall for young ladies, also a new library and apparatus. But with all our struggles we did not get quite ready. On Friday evening before the opening on Monday five elegant young ladies from South Texas came in splendid carriages as there were then no railroads into Waco. We received them joyfully. But the stair steps were not quite finished and the elegant young ladies had to climb a ladder to get to their rooms. But like all elegant ladies they accepted the situation and enjoyed climbing the ladder.

They said they came to Waco University to climb the ladder of science and fame. And this was only the introduction.

The students continued to pour in and by Monday we had the finest opening Waco University had ever had. But our dear friends soon found they were utterly mistaken. Their great military academy trustees and the dear old Waco female academy that we hoped would soon be a noble sister college, has passed away.

But I trust it will never be forgotten that the modest unpretending Professor Boggess was the stone wall that tided us over that fearful ordeal and may his noble record in Baylor University ever cheer the hearts of his noble wife and son and daughters.

RUFUS C. BURLESON