Sesquicentennial Stories: The Promise of UK #98

In the early 1900s, State College, as UK was then known, had a total enrollment in the 700s, tuition was free to all residents of the state of Kentucky, and the physical boundaries of the core campus were Rose Street, Graham Avenue, Limestone Street, and Winslow (now Avenue of the Champions).  Three buildings were outside those bounds: The Department of Agriculture (now Scovell Hall); a greenhouse; and Patterson Hall – constructed a far distance from main campus to keep the women students isolated from the men.

Tug of War

Campus had a military feel to it.  Male students dressed as cadets and held drills in front of the Main Building.  The men students tended to also be rough and rowdy at times.  And the relationship between town and gown was shaky at best.  Headlines in the newspaper commonly read:  “The State College Trouble,” “State College, Another Ruction,” “On a Tear,” “Student Racket,” “State College Rumpus,” and “Cadets on Rampage.”  

 

You can see the tug of war cable in the right center of the photograph

Despite the trouble, traditions were being formed and a campus culture was evolving – perhaps too slowly for some.  With a freshman class of around 150 it was easy for everyone to get to know one another.  The classes moved forward together toward their collective graduation year and class rivalries were quite popular. There was the annual flag rush, hand painting class graduation years in outlandish locations, mock funerals, bucking the corduroys, sophomore freshman football games, and the freshman sophomore tug of war.  The present site of Young Library was the Clifton neighborhood complete with Clifton Pond – the site of the annual battle.

The "losers" of the tug of war battle

With the firing of a gun, the tug of war would begin. The massive steel cable that they used would slowly become taut across the pond with one class pulling towards Rose Street.  The competitors all dressed in bathing suits and old clothes in anticipation of losing the battle.  After the losing class was pulled into to the pond (usually the sophomores), the victors would march to Main Street to announce their victory to the town – shrieking and yelling the entire way.

Map showing Clifton Pond at left

Halloween Traditions

Barker Hall / Buell Armory, old gymnasium, Halloween party -- Nollau photographic print collection 1998ua0001:167_0008

Early students at UK were a rowdy bunch. "Town and Gown" relations often suffered in the wake of practical jokes or pranks which got a little out of hand. In the Board of Trustees minutes from December 11, 1906, President James K. Patterson recalls his surprise on November 1st to learn that "some of the students had endeavored to obstruct the street car service and had thus come into collision with the police, that a riotous demonstration had occurred on the grounds of Patterson Hall ... Six or eight of those participating in the riotous proceedings were arrested ... Their trial was postponed for ten days pending the recovery of a policeman said to have been seriously injured by stones thrown by the rioters."

However, it was not until the late 1920s that the school instituted a Halloween Dance in an effort to curb the annual displays of violence and destruction.

[DAS and JC]

Halloween Fun -- Underwood and Underwood photographic collection, 1913-1915 80PA103:0138

Couple in costume -- James Edwin "Ed" Weddle photographic collection, 1948-1981 1997AV27_0017