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.
For much of the 20th century, Wofford students lived in one of three dormitories: Carlisle Hall, Hugh S. Black Hall, and Snyder Hall. While Black Hall was the oldest, and Carlisle was the first one built specifically as a college dormitory, Snyder played a special role in the lives of college and fitting school students.
After a fire damaged the upper floors of alumni hall (as the Hugh S. Black Building was initially known) the college decided to build a second building for the Fitting School. This building contained both classrooms and dormitory rooms and was simply known as the fitting school dormitory. (The Fitting School was the college's preparatory school, designed to prepare students for admission to Wofford's freshman class.) From 1901 to 1905, the building housed sleeping rooms for students and instructors as well as classrooms. A large dining room on the first floor served its residents, and an assembly hall on the second floor, just above the dining hall, served as the meeting place for the campus YMCA. In 1905, another classroom building opened, and the dormitory became simply a dormitory. The assembly hall was converted into sleeping space as were the classrooms.
When the Fitting School closed in 1924, the building's name was changed to Snyder Hall, in honor of the college's president. It was used as a college dormitory until 1943, when the Army took over the campus for use as a college training detachment center. With the return of the student body after the war, the dining hall was converted to another use and students took their meals in Carlisle Hall. About 80 students lived in Snyder Hall.
Even in the late 1940s, Snyder Hall had become inadequate. A capital campaign to replace several outdated facilities fizzled, and Snyder Hall remained in use until the 1960s. Renovations in 1957 added a few more years to Snyder's life.
One student in the late 1960s published "A Snyder Hall Resident's Prayer" in the OG&B. It read as follows:
Dear God, it scares me to see how this College can ignore a place as filthy as this, but yet feel it is doing well to preserve its unique atmosphere. Help the maintenance department to realize that soap and water goes further than plywood and tacks. Oh God, grant me tolerance and forgive my futile complaints. Amen.
Snyder had reached the end of its usefulness as a dorm, and without any other purpose, the college decided to demolish the building in 1969.
Photos: Snyder Hall at various stages, alumni with some faculty and President Paul Hardin standing in front of Snyder Hall as it was being demolished, 1969.
Homecoming is one of those rituals of the fall with which we are all familiar. Class reunions, football games, Homecoming queens, Homecoming dances, the ceremonies are similar from one college to another. Homecoming at Wofford has evolved through the years, with different traditions being dropped or added as times change. Before the 1960s, many class reunions actually happened at Commencement, and we've reverted to that in a small way in the past 5 years with the fifty-year class having its reunion at Commencement. Homecoming has been re-energized at Wofford in the past six years or so, with reunions, street parties, and all manner of events on campus and around Spartanburg.
Below are some accounts from earlier Homecomings. In 1958, fifty years ago this fall, the Terriers played Catawba at Homecoming, and the game was at 8:00 pm on Saturday night. The main Homecoming dance was on Friday night, in the arena of Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, and it featured Tony Torre of Columbia. The campus abandoned the tradition of a Homecoming parade that year, instead displaying floats around the fraternity houses. The article in the Old Gold and Black describing the change said that the students wanted the event to be more campus-centered.
The alumni council met on Saturday (as they still do) and fraternities had open house on Saturday afternoon. Following an alumni dinner and the football game, students sponsored an informal dance in the "little gym" in Andrews Fieldhouse at 10:30 PM. Without any women students, the homecoming queens generally came from other colleges, including Converse, Limestone, and Winthrop.
Whether in 1958, 1968, or 2008, Homecoming remains one of the highlights of the fall at Wofford.
Photo: Buddy Hammond '55 poses with the SAE Homecoming float in 1952, the program from Homecoming 1969
In the Wofford Today this fall, the From the Archives column is about the history of the college's literary societies. The earliest society, the Calhoun, was the first student organization to be founded, getting its start on October 1, 1854, 154 years ago today. Virtually the entire student body joined. One supposes that they had little else to occupy their time. The faculty gave them a room in Main Building which they furnished, and Professor James H. Carlisle suggested the society's name.
The Calhouns were the only society for four years, but student body growth led to the creation of a second society in the fall of 1858, the Preston Literary Society. The group was named, again on the advice of Professor Carlisle, for William C. Preston, who was the president of South Carolina College and a former United States Senator from the Palmetto State.
The last third of the 19th century was the heyday of the societies, though even by the 1880s other distractions began to draw the attention of students away from the debates, orations, and other business of the societies.
From the 1870s to the 1930s, the faculty required that each student join one of the societies, and eventually two more societies, the Carlisle and the Snyder, joined the Calhoun and Preston. Their weekly meetings, often on Friday night or Saturday morning, often lasted for three hours or more, and roll was called at both the beginning and the end of the meeting. The art and practice of public speaking, or debate, and of careful attention to parliamentary rules were an important part of a student's training in this era, and students left the societies to enter public service, the ministry, and small-town leadership better prepared for their time in the societies.
In effect, the societies did not survive World War II, though they had been in a period of slow decline for decades. They are important for the relics they left behind. And by relics, I don't just mean the bust of Patrick Henry in the college archives, given to the Prestons by William C. Preston himself, or their ledgers and photo albums that are also in the archives. They left behind three student publications that continue to this day. The societies founded The Journal in 1889, the Bohemian in 1908, and the Old Gold and Black in 1915. They also commissioned and purchased a number of the older portraits in the college's portrait collection, including the Albert Capers Guerry portrait of John C. Calhoun.
One final note - a correction to the published column in Wofford Today. The portraits of the two society presidents were reversed in the article. And, I got two Lawtons confused. We ran a picture of Calhoun Society President Robert Oswald Lawton, class of 1905, but identified him as Thomas Oregon Lawton, class of 1904. These two society presidents were first cousins, and their pictures were separated by one page in the photo album. When I went back to check, I saw "T. O. Lawton" and figured I'd made an earlier mistake. Thanks to Anne Clardy for calling me with the correction. E. L. Culler, Class of 1897, of the Preston Society Robert O. Lawton, class of 1905, president of the Calhoun Society
I’ve mentioned “ratting” or “rat season” already, but to
understand the true nature of this long-gone Wofford tradition, I felt like I
needed to share the ratting rules. So,
below, please enjoy the rules of the so-called Freshman Control Board, the
group that administered ratting. Here's a picture of one version of the rat cap - they evolved over the years. This cam appears to come from the 1960s. The archives has versions from the 1920s and the early 1950s as well.
Freshman Control
Board, 1958-1959
The purpose of the Freshman Control Board is to build school
spirit and to help Freshmen meet Upperclassmen and classmates.
All Freshmen and Upperclassmen are expected to comply with
the following rules and regulations of Wofford College.
1. Freshmen will
stand at the close of chapel and will remain in place until all Upperclassmen
and faculty members have left. This will
be compulsory throughout the year and will be enforced.
2. Every Freshman
will wear a “rat cap” at all times. For
a specified number of days to football games, Freshmen must wear “rat signs”
stating some form of encouragement for the Terriers. The sign must bear the name of the wearer,
the name of his home town, and the name of the opposing team for the week. It must have at least one illustration and a
varied color scheme. The minimum width
of the sign must be equal to the width of the wearer’s shoulders. The length must be equal to not less than
one-half the width. Freshman football
players are exempt from the wearing of “rat signs” but they must abide by all
other Freshman Control Board rules.
3. Simple errands may
be required of Freshmen by Upperclassmen
4. Freshmen will
attend all athletic contests, football games, campus, or any other announced
places. They must learn all official
yells and are required to sit in body at the function.
5. Freshmen are
forbidden to trespass on the front steps of the Main Building.
6. While on the
campus, all Freshmen will be required to confine their movements to the paved
sidewalks and parking areas. Exceptions
to this rule are the areas in front of Carlisle Hall and the athletic
fields.
7. It is compulsory
that all Freshmen wear fore-in-hand ties tied in a Windsor knot to supper in
the College Dining Hall each night. Dress
shirts are not required.
8. For the first
three weeks of ratting Freshmen, before speaking to an Upperclassman, will
automatically give their name adding “Rat” as a prefix and “Sir” as a
suffix. Example “Rat John Doe,
Sir.”
9. Freshmen are
required to know the following, if questioned by any Upperclassman:
a. Founder of Wofford College b. Date of founding c. Presidents of Wofford College d. Names of all buildings and dates of their
construction e. Wofford College motto and meaning f. Student Council Members g. Number of seats in the auditorium h. Number of steps on front entrance to Main
Building i. Alma Mater j. After first week of ratting, the names and at
least one identifiable characteristic of at least twenty Upperclassmen and
thirty classmates.
10. All Freshmen are
expected to participate actively in the singing during Chapel. Any violator of this rule will be asked to
sing a solo for the entire student body.
11. At any time the
Freshman Control Board may recommend a Freshman to the Dean of Students for
further action.
12. A tug-of-war
between Freshmen and Sophomores will be held on the first Tuesday following ght
efourth Freshman Control Board meeting. At this time, all requirements of Freshmen contained herein will be
discontinued, except article 1, provided they win the tug-of-war. If the Freshmen lose, “ratting” will continue
for two more weeks.
13. No Freshman shall
be subjected to any type of physical or mental punishment. This regulation forbids, for example,
paddling and belt-lines.
14. Any violation of
regulation 13 above by Upperclassmen will be subject to stringent disciplinary
action by Wofford College.
15. Freshmen will
carry their “W” books [the student handbook] with them at all times
16. At the end of
“ratting” all Freshmen will be required to undergo a test on the “W” book. The test will be given by the Freshman
Control Board. Failure on the part of a
freshman to achieve a passing mark on this test will result in further ratting
duties and a retaking of another similar test.
Ratting existed before World War II, and again for a few
years in the 1950s and 1960s. If any of
the alumni who are readers of this blog care to share stories about their
experiences with ratting, please feel free to offer a comment. I’d be happy to see a little interactivity
with readers.
Those of us who work on college campuses become creatures of habit. I've been part of a college community ever since I came to Wofford 18 years ago, and like many of my colleagues, I have come to appreciate the rhythms of the academic year. Each September brings a new year of a different kind, along with a new crop of students, colleagues, ideas, speakers, and events. I'm sure that the faculty in the 1850s also came to enjoy the chance for new beginnings.
But even the annual new-ness is actually fairly regimented. Wofford, and no doubt many similar colleges, has developed a number of routines that have come to define the early days and weeks of each academic year. These routines do evolve over time, though most members of the Wofford community would recognize similarities over time.
Since I posted a welcome to new students in the fall of 1958 last weekend, I thought it might be interesting to see what was going on at Wofford in September 1958.
Wofford was welcoming a new president that fall as Dr. Charles Marsh had recently been named to that office. The college was also welcoming nine new faculty members. A new residence hall, the original Wightman, was opening that fall, and for the first time, the Student Affairs office announced that a house on campus was being made available for use as a student activities building. Wightman was the college's first air-conditioned dorm, though the OG&B immediately complained that the rooms were too small and the beds were too short.
The student council, the predecessor to Campus Union, had already met and discussed various student concerns. Strangely enough, one of their concerns was parking. Student Body President Charlie Bradshaw also noted that concerns about registration, fees, and textbooks were being discussed. It was announced that Professor Sam Britt's dog would be available to serve as the mascot again that year. And perhaps in an announcement we can all appreciate today, Bradshaw told the students that he had been in contact with several local gas stations to see about discounts for students.
The pages of this first OG&B of the year were also full of information about Rat Season, which was the period of cultural indoctrination required of all new students. Especially popular from World War II through the mid-1960s, rat season was part of how freshmen learned Wofford history, the alma mater, and school spirit. Apparently the freshmen in 1958 could dish it out as well as they could take it, for the newspaper reported they had kidnapped the president of the sophomore class - who was by virtue of his office the student who ran rat season. The newspaper reported that the freshmen might have to scrub Main Building as punishment.
Ratting has, of course, disappeared into the pages of history, but the same can not be said for other activities featured in the fall issues of the newspaper, such as football, fraternities, and intramurals. IFC introduced new rush rules that fall that prohibited fraternities from speaking disrespectfully about other fraternities, that fined them if they broke rush rules, and set a maximum amount they could spend on rushing. Rush was set for Nov. 12-25. And, of course, students planned on attending football games against Elon and Presbyterian and cheering on the Terriers.
Times change, events change, but the interaction students have with each other, with their professors, and their desire to enjoy themselves while learning in this special place has not. The rhythms of campus life, the excitement of a new year, the noise of football games, of rush, of a hundred conversations in the dining room ebb and flow throughout the early months of each new year.
Photos, a scene from registration, a photo of the newly-opened Wightman Hall, a photo of two "rats," all from the Bohemian.
About Phillip
Dr. Phillip Stone From The Archives: Dr. Phillip Stone, archivist of the college and of the Methodist Church in South Carolina, shares stories, documents, photographs, and artifacts about college, church, and South Carolina history.
