Wofford College - From The Archives

Methodism and Education

In answering reference questions and looking up obituaries in the Advocate, South Carolina's Methodist newspaper, I occasionally come across stories that give a bit of the flavor of their day.  Last Saturday, between the football game and a reception on campus, I copied an obituary and discovered a column in an October 1961 issue of the Advocate by Bishop Paul Hardin Jr, Wofford Class of 1924.  Bishop Hardin, who served as South Carolina's Methodist bishop from 1960 to 1972 and oversaw the desegregation of South Carolina's Methodist Conference, wrote a "bishop's notes" column most weeks.  Here are some excerpts from one of his columns. 

As soon as these notes are written I will join the trustees, faculty, students and friends of Columbia College in a service for the Breaking of Ground for the new Science building at that fine institution.  On October the 17th my schedule will take me to Spartanburg Junior College (Now SMC) and on October 21 I will take part in the formal reopening of the Main Building at Wofford.  Just a few days from now I will meet with the Committee on Higher Education of the Alabama-West Florida Conference, where a campaign for our colleges and Wesley Foundations has gone well beyond the million dollar mark.  I mention these engagements to remind you that The Methodist Church is fully committed to the task of providing excellent church-related colleges schools and colleges for the benefit of our people and the nation at large.  By comparison with some other denominations we do pitifully little for our church-supported educational institutions.  I have been worried by the fact  at many of our people and churches have made no payment on  e pledges wwich they made during e campaign of 1959.  The Methodist Higher Education FUnd is essential to the continuing development and strengthening of our colleges. 

Tuesday, October 31st is Reformation Day and Sunday, October 29 is Reformation Sunday.  I hope that our ministers will observe it, not in a negative way by denouncing another faith but in a positive way by taking the opportunity to let our people know more about the basic beliefs of Protestants in general and Methodists in particular. 

By the time you read these notes I will have been to Joanna (SC) for homecoming and the dedication of the educational building.  It is truly a "homecoming" for me for nearly fifty-right years ago I was born there.  While I make mention of many places and people in these notes, let us not forget that the Church has one main purpose and goal -- to seek and to save the lost.  Let us be forever busy at that task!

Fraternity Lodges

An article in the Wofford College Journal in the fall of 1955 describes the new fraternity lodges, which were scheduled to open in the spring of 1956.  Here's the article and some of the drawings, entitled "Horseshoe of Fortune"

A much hoped for but little expected dream is at last becoming a reality! Fraternity men and rushees alike entered the just completed rush season with a new enthusiasm springing in large part from the tangible evidence of the realization of a hopeful vision long nurtured in the minds of Green badge bearers.

The dream in question is a satisfactory answer to Wofford's fraternity lodging problem.  The evidence is the hum of building activity going on behind the science halls and the library.  Preliminary clearing and surveying activity has been completed on what will be a horseshoe of seven lodges.  Two different floor plans (above) will be used, and there will be four different fronts.  Both lodges on the ends will have the [first] front and the left floor plan.  The remaining five lodges will have the right floor plan.  These lodges will have one of the other front designs. 

There will be no driveway built, the lodges being readily accessible from Memorial Drive, Wofford Drive, Greene Hall, and auditorium parking lot.  A cement walk will encircle the inside of the horseshoe, however.  All lodges will face into the horseshoe.  Completion of the project is expected by April, and the lodges will be ready for occupancy at that time.  The assignment of houses to the individual fraternities will be determined by drawing lots. 

Photos of two of the four designs and the two floorplans. 

Frogs and Poets

Colleges are full of odd stories that revolve around characters and controversies.  One of the stories that occasionally pops to the surface at Wofford is the long-running saga of Frogs and Poets. 

In the fall of 1972, a small dispute arose in a faculty meeting over department budgets and over allocations in the library book budget.  Some of the faculty members in the humanities were upset over increases in the biology department’s allocations.  According to later reports, a biology faculty member made a comment at a faculty Christmas party that annoyed a member of the English department.  Dr. Ray Leonard, the longtime chair of the biology department, expressed the opinion that “you can learn as much from a dead frog as you can from a dead poet.” 

A word to the wise:  never tick off an English professor, especially one that teaches creative writing.  The comment no doubt stirred some creative juices in Ed Minus, the director of the writing center and member of the English faculty.  In March, a poem appeared in the Journal, the student literary magazine.  It began with the quote, attributed to Dr. Leonard, and continued

            Froggie went a courting and he did ride
            But he ended up in formaldehyde
            On the desk of Dr. Philistine
            Who said “I’ll soon know what life means”

 The poem concluded with the ghost of the frog telling the biologist something unrepeatable in a family blog.  (click on the image for a view of the poem, language warning applies.)

Dr. Leonard took some offense at his words being used out of context, and wrote to explain himself to the Old Gold and Black.  He noted that a reader could interpret his quote as meaning that you could learn as much from a dead frog as from the “works of a dead poet.”  He didn’t want to be part of a “two-cultures” controversy – probably a reference to disagreements between scientists and humanists.  What he really meant by the quote was that “the only thing you can learn from a dead frog and a dead poet is anatomy.  This was supposed to lead the hearer to the conclusion that scientists need books as well as laboratory supplies.”  This was a reference to the earlier dispute over library book funds. 

Ed Minus had a response in the same issue of the Old Gold and Black, though the editor explained that both had arrived independently.  Evidently the poem in the Journal had caused a stir on campus.  Minus wrote “Gee whiz! I sure am ashamed of myself – quoting out of context and talking dirty and making fun of my elders like that…” 

            From that point, the furor seemed to die down.  However, about two years later, a Journal cover made another mysterious reference to the Frogs and Poets debate.  If a reader didn’t know the back story, the diagram of a frog skeleton labeled with literary terms might make no sense.  But to those who remembered the brief fracas, it was a clever joke. 

            And all this from a faculty dispute over book budgets and a comment at a Christmas party.  Academics are definitely unique people!