Football days : $b memories of the game and of the men behind the ballEdwards, William H. (William Hanford)
General
Football days : $b memories of the game and of the men behind the ball
Edwards, William H. (William Hanford)
Football
You may see some man with the letter of his college on his sweater,
another may have his class numerals, another may wear a gold football.
These are not ordinary things to be purchased at sporting goods stores;
they are a reward of merit. The college custom has made it so, and if in
some college town the traditions of the university are such that a man,
as he passes the Ma Newell gateway at Cambridge raises his hat in honor
of this great Harvard hero, it is a tradition backed up by a wonderful
spirit of love towards one who has gone. And then on Commencement Day
when the seniors plant their class ivy--that is a token to remain behind
them and flourish long after they are out in the wide, wide world.
College tradition makes it possible for a poor boy to get an education.
The poor fellow may wait on the table, where sit many rich men's sons,
but they may be all chums with him; they are on the same footing; the
campus of one is the campus of the other, and all you can say is "It is
just the way of things--just the way it must be." More power to the man
who works his way through college.
It may be, as fellow college man, you are now recalling some custom that
is carried out on a college street, in a dormitory, in a fraternity
house, perhaps, or a club; perhaps in some boarding house, where you had
your first introduction to a college custom; maybe in the cheapest
rooming house in town you got your first impression of a bold, bad
sophomore. You probably could have given him a good trouncing had he
been alone, and yet you were prepared to take smilingly the hazing
imposed upon you.
Maybe some of you fondly recall a cannon stuck in the ground behind a
historical building where once George Washington had his headquarters.
Around about this traditional monument cluster rich memories as you
review the many college ceremonies enacted there.
Some of you, owing allegiance to a New England Alma Mater, may recall
with smiles and perhaps mischievous satisfaction, the chequered career
of the sculptured Sabrina in her various appearances and disappearances
since the day, now long gone by, when in pedestaled repose she graced
the college flower gardens. The Sabrina tradition is one of the golden
legacies of Amherst life.
In the formation of college spirit and traditions I am not unmindful of
the tremendous moulding power of the college president or the popular
college professors. This is strikingly illustrated in the expression of
an old college man, who said in this connection:
"I don't remember a thing Professor ---- said, but I remember him."
When the graduate of a college has sons of his own, he realizes more
fully than at any other time the great influence of personality upon
youth. He understands better the problems that are faced by boys, and
the great task and responsibility of the faculty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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