The history of Colby College, Part 64

Author: Colby College
Publication date: 1963
Publisher: Waterville, Colby College Press
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Waterville > The history of Colby College > Part 64

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

After the death of Harold T. Pulsifer of Portland, his widow gave his dis- tinguished poetry library to Colby. That too will eventually be placed in a Pulsifer Poetry Room. The collection of classical works in deluxe bindings, assembled by Henry F. Merrill of Portland, is displayed in a room on the third floor.

With the acquisition of the Vernon Lee letters the Treasure Room became a distinguished depository of autograph letters and unpublished materials. A col- lection of the letters of Sarah Orne Jewett was edited and published by Professor Richard Cary. Scholars come from many places to consult these unpublished items. Two Ph.D. candidates at Harvard have worked on the Vernon Lee letters; a young man from the University of Pittsburgh has earned his doctorate by work in the Hardy collection; scholars from Toronto, from London and other parts of England, have called or written about Hardy items. The total holdings of all the collections reached in 1960 the amazing number of 16,854 books and 10,279 manuscripts.

Very few liberal arts colleges can boast of a regular library magazine. Such a privilege is usually reserved for the large universities. In 1943, however, Pro- fessor Weber was able to start the Colby Library Quarterly. In the course of sub- sequent years, the Quarterly made known to the outside world the nature of the Treasure Room's rich contents. For its pages Weber was able to secure articles from some of the nation's leading bibliophiles.

Closely allied to the Library has been the Colby College Press, another of Professor Weber's creations. The printer, both of the Colby Press imprints and of the Colby Library Quarterly was for many years Maine's distinguished typographer, Fred Anthoensen of Portland. Some of the works produced under the Colby imprint have been:

Carl J. Weber: Hardy Music, 1944

Carroll Wilson: Descriptive Catalogue of the Grolier Club Centenary Exhibition of the Works of Thomas Hardy, 1946

Eight Hundred Years of Fine Printing, 1946

Carl J. Weber: Annotated Edition of Housman's A Shropshire Lad, 1946

493

THE LIBRARY

Carl J. Weber: The Jubilee of Robinson's Torrent, 1947

Clara C. Weber (with CJW): A Bibliography of the Published Writings of Sarah Orne Jewett, 1949

Ernest C. Marriner: Jim Connolly and the Fishermen of Gloucester, 1949

Carl J. Weber: A Thousand and One Fore-Edge Paintings, 1949

Sarah Orne Jewett: Lady Ferry, 1950

James Humphry: The Library of Edwin Arlington Robinson, 1950

Carl J. Weber: Hardy and the Lady from Madison Square, 1952

Kenneth Roberts: Don't Say That About Maine! 1951

Harold T. Pulsifer: Poems, 1954

Ernest C. Marriner: Kennebec Yesterdays, 1954

Carl J. Weber: Letters of Thomas Hardy, 1954 American Heritage Collection of Paintings

Presented to Colby College by Edith K. and Ellerton M. Jette, 1956

Richard Cary: Sarah Orne Jewett Letters, 1956

Israel Newman: Interim of a Question Mark, 1957

Ernest C. Marriner: Remembered Maine, 1957

Carl J. Weber: The Rise and Fall of James Ripley Osgood, 1959

When Professor Weber retired in 1959, his English Department colleague, Professor Richard Cary, succeeded him as Curator of Rare Books and Manu- scripts, Editor of the Colby Library Quarterly, and Director of the Colby College Press.

The College enters upon its fourth half-century confident that it has in the Colby Library not only the materials and the service to make its teaching most effective, but that it also has a collection of rare books and manuscripts, as well as a list of publications, that have attracted favorable attention far beyond the college walls.

CHAPTER XLIV

The Healthy Body

A LL over the nation attention to physical exercise in our schools and colleges has followed two roads: one through athletic sports, the other through what is today called physical education. Both roads were laid out to reach the same destination, the health of the student, and both were prompted by student, not faculty demand.

In our church-founded colleges there was a puritanical attitude toward play of any sort. Pious, pulpit-bound students should not indulge in frivolous pursuits. But youth, even pious youth, must somehow vent their exuberance, and on every campus in the land there never was a time when some sort of unorganized play did not go on. Such play gradually developed into impromptu competitive games. With the rising popularity of baseball, immediately after the Civil War, there sprang up intramural organized teams, from which it was only a step to varsity teams and intercollegiate competition.

Such indeed was the beginning of athletics at Colby. At first there was a separate association for each separate sport. Even when those were combined into a general athletic association, control of all athletic matters - scheduling, financing, coaching, and eligibility - was completely in student hands. As time went on, increased expenses brought association debts. The students turned to alumni for help. As the graduates came to be persistently tapped for donations, they became inclined to demand some voice in control of the sports. The result was the Colby Athletic Council, on which the alumni had powerful representation.

It became apparent that only when one person could oversee finances for a period of years could any assurance be given of proper control; hence the selection of a permanent member of the faculty to serve as treasurer and as custodian of equipment. He and another faculty member sat on the athletic council and acted as liaison between that council and the faculty.

Finances also provided a powerful reason for eventually bringing athletics under control of faculty and trustees. The athletic council, especially with alumni stimulation and support, often called upon the corporation for financial assistance. Would the College pay for a new cinder track? Would it build a new fence? Would it pay for portable stands? Would it maintain a hockey rink? Would it pay for a coach, if he would devote part time to physical education? The answer was not always No, and the result was chaos in athletic administration.

Meanwhile traffic was developing along the second road, that of physical education. As early as 1845, the frequent boisterous "blow-offs" of student ex- uberance caused the faculty to give attention to the need for physical exercise in

496

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

some less obnoxious form. Curiously enough, it was abandonment of the college workshop that accentuated the need. Students had been expected to work off sur- plus energy in that shop. After the shop had been closed as an unprofitable ven- ture, the students asked for use of the building as a place for gymnastic exercise, and they agreed to supply the furnishings. The faculty consented, with the pro- vision that the students must be responsible for any damage to the building.

Apparently no student organization was formed and no equipment was fur- nished. Interest subsided, for George King recalled that, when he entered the college in 1853, there was no gymnasium and during his four years as a student he never heard of "physical culture."

After the Civil War came the development of "Swedish gymnastics." No sooner had classes resumed after the conflict than the boys clamored for a gym- nasium. In 1869 the Trustees at last heeded the plea with an appropriation of $1200 to erect a building. That there was some thought of systematic instruction is seen by the trustee vote "to assess each student one dollar per term for the use of the gymnasium, or two dollars in case a teacher should be employed." When the tiny wooden building, scarcely bigger than a shed, was finished, the Oracle said:

The Gym, so long discussed, has at last become a realized fact. The Trustees, in August, 1869, made the necessary appropriations, and Presi- dent Champlin with his well known energy immediately set about the erection of the building, which was ready for occupancy when the spring term began [1870]. That the Gym meets a great want in American col- leges is certain. It is in this country one of the greatest modern im- provements. The pale, thin, dyspeptic student will soon be a thing of the past; the idea of true scholarship combined with a healthy body will prevail.1

No instructor was immediately employed, no apparatus was installed, and students were left free to use the gym as best they could without supervision. The only resemblance to gymnastic exercise was voluntary military drill, introduced as a result of the Civil War. A group of students formed themselves into the "Colby Rifles," drilled by an upperclassman. Rifles were furnished by the state, and the company had the reward of a place of honor in the Decoration Day parade. But most of the students cared little for organized drill, and in a few years the "Colby Rifles" disappeared from the scene. The boys preferred the laissez faire style of exercise in which the period abounded. Nevertheless campus and gymnasium were scenes of activity, each in appropriate season. President Robins' insistence on "harmonious development of body, mind and spirit" did give impetus to gym- nasium use in the late 1870's, but not even he suggested that the College make it compulsory. In the early years of that decade, the gymnasium got such rough treatment that in 1875 the College agreed to repair it only if the students would form an association to prevent its further abuse. The renovation, made in 1876, caused the Oracle to say:

The Trustees, at their last annual meeting voted to rebuild the Gym. As a result we now have a fine brick building much larger than the old one, and in every way suited to student needs. It is 70 by 65 feet, with all necessary height. A fine bowling alley is connected with the main build- ing. A rubber course for running has been put down, and other appar-

497

THE HEALTHY BODY

atus will soon be added. A large number of students engage daily in gymnastic drill under the direction of Dr. Wilson, our popular instructor. We now have the best Gym in the State, and the students are justly proud of it.2

How far the College was from compulsory physical education is shown by the new provision in the 1879 rules of the Gymnasium Association that "none but members of the association will hereafter be admitted into the building." Al- though any student could become a member by signing the constitution, a sig- nificant number were not interested.

The long awaited apparatus consisted of four rowing machines, two chest and shoulder machines, two inclined ladders, a pair of parallel bars, a pair of breast bars, two sets of horizontal bars, a vaulting stand, two suspended rings, eight flying rings, a peg pole, a climbing pole, three climbing ropes, a striking bag, two mats, three dozen wands and a like number of Indian clubs and dumbbells.

When, in the 1890's, physical training under a faculty instructor became a curricular requirement, it is astounding to learn that it was the result of student, not faculty demand. Since 1879 the Echo had persistently called for the require- ment. In 1881, welcoming the advent of an instructor for optional work in the gymnasium, the Echo said: "We believe that our efforts to establish a system of compulsory gym work will soon be rewarded." Although the reward did not come soon, it did come a dozen years later. And then what happened? Before 1900, and repeatedly in the subsequent half century, student demand was com- pletely reversed. No sooner did the students win their struggle for compulsory gym classes than they wanted to get rid of them. For many years the most hated requirement at Colby was "P.T."

After gymnastic instruction became regularized, there was usually some link between "Gym classes" and athletics. In 1889 a public exhibition was held in the City Hall for the benefit of the Athletic Association. On a blustery February evening it drew a good audience and netted over three hundred dollars. The pro- gram included an item called "hitch and kick" and others more easily understood today, such as sophomore dumbbell drill, work on the horizontal bar, Indian club swinging, fencing, tumbling, pyramids, wand drill, and running high jump.

In 1907 President White recommended that "a physical director for men be employed at a salary of $1000, of which $200 shall be paid by the Athletic Association." When, finally, the decision was made to combine in one person the office of Director of Physical Education and Director of Athletics, that change was promoted by appeal of the alumni, not by the administration.

As long as Colby remained on the old campus near the Kennebec, its only improvements on the obsolete gymnasium of 1876 were modest remodeling within the existing walls and the building of the Field House in 1929. The latter had been intended as the first step in a campaign for a complete athletic plant, including a new gymnasium. A previous chapter has already pointed out that the decision to move to Mayflower Hill turned that campaign into one of more extensive de- velopment.

The Field House was the result of the determined zeal of the chairman of the Trustees, Herbert Wadsworth. With its glass roof, its huge interior space, its su- perior accommodations for basketball, and its regulation indoor track, it remained the most useful facility for athletics and physical education until the new field house was opened on Mayflower Hill.

498

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

What facilities, in toto, were gradually developed for physical training and sports on the old campus? There was the athletic field described in the Student Handbook of 1900 as "situated on the college campus by the side of the gym- nasium, and containing the baseball diamond, football grounds, a quarter-mile running and bicycle track, a grandstand, and an uncovered stand." The Hand- book proudly added, "The cinder track is the only one at present in the State." When a wooden grandstand was built on the west side of the field in 1885, seating three hundred persons, the Echo had remarked that the necessity of taking seats from the classrooms and returning them after games had now been eliminated.

For some time a bowling alley was maintained in the basement of the gym- nasium, at one time a wooden track encircled the gym floor during the winter, and at other times basketball held sway, although the room was too small for a regu- lation court. Tennis courts were built, both by the College and by individual fra- ternities, but it was not until after 1920 that two excellent clay courts near Coburn Hall made it possible for Colby to offer facilities for the Maine Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament comparable to such courts elsewhere in the state.

In the following chapter we shall consider the development of various athletic sports at Colby. In this chapter it is appropriate that we confine our attention to athletics in general. A few words may well be said, however, about Colby's earliest competitive games. Believe it or not, the first intercollegiate sport at Colby was croquet. The game had become popular in the 1850's, and intramural contests became popular between the classes. In 1860 Colby students received an invitation from a group at Bowdoin to contend in a momentous battle at croquet on the Brunswick campus. Unfortunately we have no record of the names of the players or of the outcome of the battle, but William Smith Knowlton, who was a Colby freshman in 1860, remembered distinctly that the contest occurred.3

Baseball came also in the 1860's, and the story of its development will be told later. What many Colby graduates do not know is that boat racing was a Colby sport of the 1870's. It is first mentioned in the Oracle of 1874, which lists a boat crew for each class, and two rival groups, the Colby Boat Club and the University Boat Club. There is doubt whether any of the clubs owned a regulation rowing shell, such as Harvard crews then used on the Charles River. The Colby craft were probably very simple boats, and there is evidence that the number of men in a crew did not exceed four. The scene of activity was the Messalonskee Stream, and there it continued, at least in some form of boating, into the 1880's. No Colby boathouse was ever built on the Kennebec.

The Colby Athletic Association was founded in 1881. Its purpose seems to have been chiefly to supervise the annual field day, which we shall describe in the next chapter. In 1890 the students decided to make it truly a general association, "organized for the cultivation of general athletic spirit at Colby, and for the hold- ing of an annual field day in June, when prizes of considerable value are offered."

In 1896 the Association was placed in complete control of the athletic pro- gram. A new constitution gave it "direction and control of all athletic sports and contests, to keep in order the running track, tennis courts, and all other ath- letic properties, and in general to have charge of the college campus so far as its use for athletic sports is concerned." Association dues were eight dollars a year for men and three dollars for women. No student could be a member of a Colby team unless he belonged to the Association, and for nonplayers the reward for membership was free admission to all games. Much power resided in the executive committee, whose duty it was "to supervise all gymnastic exhibitions and

499

THE HEALTHY BODY

all athletic contests, appoint captains and managers of the teams, provide the means for carrying on athletic sports, and disburse all moneys in accordance with votes of the association."

The 1896 constitution gives us insight into the athletic program of that time. It consisted of an annual fall long-distance run (cross-country); a series of fall football games; an annual winter athletic exhibition; a tennis tournament for men and one for women; an annual bicycle meet; a spring field day; and a series of spring football games. Thus by 1896, except for the exercises in the gymnasium and the winter exhibition of gymnastic work, athletics at Colby had spread from a modest beginning in croquet to the inclusion of five sports: baseball, football, track, tennis, and bicycle racing.

It was through the Athletic Association that Colby became known as "the Blue and Gray." The official college color had long been silver gray. In its constitution of 1896, the Athletic Association declared: "The official color of the Association shall be a dark blue, corresponding to the permanent blue of Windsor and Newton's oil colors. On public occasions, when it is desirable to use the color in decorations, it shall be combined with the college color, silver gray. This use of the combined colors shall also apply to athletic uniforms."

By 1900 the alumni had come to show pronounced interests in athletics. In 1904 a committee of alumni, composed of J. F. Hill, Archer Jordan and A. F. Drummond, appeared before the Trustees with a plan to improve the athletic field at an expense of $2500, which the newly formed Colby Club proposed to raise. The committee asked the Trustees to contribute to the improvements by moving the Hersey House outside the field enclosure.

After the close of the First World War there was formed the Colby Athletic Council, which replaced the old executive committee of the association, and on that council the alumni, as well as students and faculty, awarded letters, controlled expenditures, and most important of all, appointed a graduate manager of athletics. The first person to hold that office was Robert L. Ervin, 1911, a local clothing merchant, who later became what his classmates called an "oil baron," as head of the Spring Brook Ice and Fuel Company. He was succeeded in 1920 by Prince A. Drummond, 1915. The next year saw the coming of C. Harry Edwards as head of the Department of Physical Education, under an arrangement by which that officer was supposed to take over also the duties of graduate manager of athletics. The area of authority was hazy, however, and the question often arose as to which hat Edwards was wearing and to whom he was responsible.

The Centennial of 1920 gave stimulus to many changes and improvements, and it was in the enthusiasm of the centennial year that prominent alumni deter- mined to bring the College officially into the athletic situation. At their request the Trustees appointed a committee, which in June, 1920, made the following report:

Your committee firmly believe in well-balanced physical training and athletics and affirm these should be recognized as an essential part of educational work. It is our opinion that the College should organize a Department of Physical Training and Athletics, and that the Faculty should make adequate provision for it in the schedule of classes. We recommend that a trained director be obtained, who is a man of education and character, competent to teach physiology and hygiene and to be held responsible for the gymnasium and the entire athletic equipment, and

500

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

who is also competent to supervise physical training and athletics and to give both general and individual training. We recommend that the Ath- letic Director be a member of the Faculty with voice and vote in faculty meetings. We recommend that physical training be compulsory for freshmen and sophomores.

We further recommend that there be an Alumni Governing Committee, appointed by the Trustees, who shall nominate the director, and after his appointment shall assist him in engaging coaches and supervising athletic policy. We recommend that the Director, with the Alumni Governing Committee, shall arrange a budget for each sport, and shall see that in each annual budget of the association a definite margin is included to apply to the retirement of the present debt. Finally, we recommend that the Trustees appropriate annually the sum of $5000, to be expended under the direction of the Alumni Governing Committee for the salary of the director, compensation for coaches, and upkeep of the gymnasium and equipment.

Not until those recommendations were accepted did any athletic coach at Colby hold a position on the faculty. The first to have that distinction was Michael J. Ryan, coach of track. The decision to employ a full-time director raised questions as to Ryan's status. What were his duties as Instructor of Ath- letics? What would be his relation to a new director? In order to clarify the situation, the Trustees voted to accept the plan proposed by the alumni, "with the understanding that Mr. Ryan is to be retained in some capacity by the Athletic Council and that his salary shall form part of the appropriation of $5000." When concern was expressed about where the proposed $5000 would come from, Charles Seaverns generously offered to contribute $3500 a year for an indefinite period, to be expended for the Department of Physical Education.

The Alumni Governing Committee was composed of Archer Jordan, Frank Alden, Herbert Wadsworth, Robert Ervin, A. F. Drummond, and Charles Seaverns. They selected as the new director C. Harry Edwards, a young graduate of Spring- field College, who began his Colby duties in September, 1921. Soon thereafter the committee went out of existence, and its place was taken by the Athletic Council, composed, as we have already stated, of students, faculty and alumni members.

No man could at once take control of Colby athletics. Students and alumni had been too long in the saddle. Financial responsibility also remained confused for several years. "He who pays the piper calls the tune," and coaches were paid wholly or in part by the Athletic Council. Some were employed directly by the Council without consultation with the Director. It became difficult to tell what were a coach's responsibilities and to whom he was responsible. Soon after his appointment Edwards was fortunate to have the assistance of two men, both em- ployed by the Alumni Council, and both so competent and so loyal to the College that they remained on the staff long after Edwards himself had gone. Edward C. Roundy and Ellsworth Millett won the lasting gratitude of Colby men for their sterling character, their competent coaching, and their sincere interest in boys. Roundy was Colby's first year-round coach, handling football in the fall, hockey in the winter, and baseball in the spring. Millett, first employed as assistant to Roundy, soon became head coach of hockey, developed freshman teams in other sports, and became so well-known and so fondly loved by all the graduates that he was the natural choice for Alumni Secretary, a position he still honored in 1960.

If Edwards' responsibility for athletics was somewhat hazy, there was no

501

THE HEALTHY BODY

doubt about his supremacy in the formal program of physical education. "P.T." classes had long been unpopular, and Edwards' determination to enforce im- partially the requirement of attendance at those classes did not increase their popularity. In the years immediately following the coming of Edwards, the faculty records are filled with actions taken on his instigation. First, the faculty agreed to give one semester hour of credit for each required term of physical education, so that no man could receive the Colby degree without four properly accredited hours in that subject. In April, 1923, Edwards complained that 24 men of the junior class were deficient from one to three semesters in the requirement. The Committee on Athletics and the Committee on Standing investigated the cases, supported Edwards vigorously, and demanded that each delinquent must make up his deficiencies before he could receive the degree. As a result several men did not get their diplomas until a year or more after the graduation of their class.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

The history of Colby College, Part 64

Author: Colby College Publication date: 1963 Publisher: Waterville, Colby College Press Number of Pages: 716

Author: Colby College
Publication date: 1963
Publisher: Waterville, Colby College Press
Number of Pages: 716