25-YearReunionfor '16

By SIGFRID FLOREN

This Year It's the Classes

Ending in One or Six That

Will Have Spring Reunions

WITH spring in the air and thetime for class reunions only two monthsaway, alumni are beginning to think againabout their college days . Such thoughts maybring back memorable picnics or hayrideswith a gang of friends, a date that led toromance, or the final impressive graduationday ceremony .This year, classes that will have specially

planned five-year reunions are those of 1901,1906,1911,1916, 1921, 1926, 1931, and 1936.While arrangements are still in the forma-tive stage, a general invitation is being issu-ed to members of those eight graduatingclasses to return to the campus at reuniontime on Sunday, June 8 .Center of reunion plans will be the Class

of '16, holding its Silver Anniversary Re-union . The gathering on the campus againof members of that class is likely to re-create--in their minds, at least-the University asit was twenty-five years ago when they weresenior students .Youth, energy and growth are three

words that most aptly characterized the in-stitution twenty-five years ago. The class of'16 was the largest graduating class turnedout up to that time and the 1915-16 enrol-ment of 2090 exceeded any previous figure .Degrees conferred by President Stratton D.Brooks at commencement exercises June 8,1916, numbered 218.

Physical plant of the University saw twogreat additions during the campus days ofthe '16ers . They were on hand for the dedi-cation of Monnet Hall in 1913 and sawDeBarr Hall draw near completion in 1916 .

Expansion and growth notwithstanding,O.U . was still small. Even with the twonewbuildings the total came only to eight.Where the Armory and Owen Field aretoday the flat Oklahoma prairie in 1916 wasmarked off into handball courts and foot-ball fields . The frame structure now stand-ing immediately south of the Union housed

APRIL, 1941

the University gymnasium then . Men'sphysical education classes were held onMonday, Wednesday and Friday ; womenused the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays.Theengineering unit consisted of the build-ing occupied now by Engineering Labora-tories .A residential section was growing up

around the campus . At the time, however,Elm Street was the western "frontier." Onlya few homes had been built that far out. TheReed family's home was the structure nowoccupied by the Oklahoma School of Re-ligion . The large old stone house in the nextblock north was the home of the Johnsonbrothers, one of whom married FlorenceWagner of the Class of '16 . She is now Mrs.Neil Johnson, Norman .There was a varsity corner then . It was

Ye Varsity Shoppe, opened in 1912 by Mor-ris T. "Wissie" Myers, '11ba, '12ma. Andalumni of twenty-five years ago won't for-get Mrs. Scruggs who served them sodasand phosphates there during most of thetime they were on the campus, and continu-ed for a number of years afterward.There were five nationally affiliated soror-

ities on the campus, Kappa Alpha Theta,Delta Delta Delta, Pi Beta Phi, KappaKap-pa Gamma, and Alpha Chi Omega ; andsix chapters of national fraternities, KappaAlpha, Beta Theta Pi, Kappa Sigma, SigmaAlpha Epsilon, Sigma Nu, and Sigma Chi .And, at that time, membership in the chap-ters averaged about thirty-five in the frater-nities, twenty-five in sororities .

Organization of houses didn't approachthe stage of business efficiency reached to-day. There were no housemothers, as such .A student in each of the girls' houses wasdesignated as counselor by the Universityadministration . It was her duty to carry outspecified regulations . When she dismissedher date at 10 :30 or 12 o'clock, that was thesignal for all gentlemen to take their leave.

"It must have been the Class Reunion notice he's been waiting for"

Curfew for women was extended to 12:30for dances-of which there were many . Ofcourse neither the Union Ballroom or Uni-versity Club dance hall of today had becomeeven a gleam in an architect's eye by thattime . The dance hall was the second floorof a downtown Main Street business build-ing and it was known as Davis Hall . Uni-versity students had dancing clubs that keptthe hall's calendar full . Tabasco, interfra-ternity dancing club, made up of "the bestsix dancers from each fraternity," andEnchiladas, a similar intersorority organi-zation, were consistently active until theWorld War period .Not all of college life was simple, how-

ever . Even getting to and from dances pro-vided something of a problem, especiallyprior to the time of the paving of Univer-sity Boulevard and Asp Avenue . The '16ershad about two years of the dirt roads fromthe campus to town . Yes, there were brickor board sidewalks ; they were but slight im-provement over the road itself . The studentswere all aware of the state of the road andwalks, because practically all of their get-ting about was done afoot.

It was something of a revolution whenthe jitney came in with five-cent rides .Though far short of the bus system of 1941,it provided transportation to and fromtown at the rate of four or five persons pertrip, the jitney being a small, open modelFord . Its route was south on Boulevard andreturn to town on Asp Avenue .Another development in the same "revo-

lution" appeared with establishment of theToberman cab service . This firm also hadjust one vehicle . It was a help, although ona bad night it took him an hour to getenough couples downtown to the dancehallfor the dance to begin . Those were the days!

Football season in the fall of 1915 left thestudents talking about it for the rest of the

PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 23)

9

25-Year Reunion for '16(CON TINUED FROM PAGE 9)

school year . Coach Bennie Owen turnedout the second all-victorious team in fiveyears, but not without the narrow escapesfrom defeat that made the season one of themost thrilling the University had seen . Thebig game with the Texas Longhorns ended14-13 . Another 14-13 score left Soonerstense after Kendall College failed to converta field goal with the ball within 15 yards ofSooner goalposts (luring the last minute ofplay .

Of the team the Sooner Yearbook said,"It was declared to be the most wonderfulaerial style aggregation in the country. Yetwhen occasion demanded, it could discardthe forward pass and feel equally at homein the old style plunging game."

Forest Park "Spot" Geyer, captain of theteam, ranked first in the United States inthe number of points scored after touch-downs with a season total of 50 ; his totalnumber of points scored, 138, was third inthe nation . He went into the oil businessupon leaving the University . His death oc-curred in 1932 .

Class of '16 men carried much of the bur-den of the line as well as of the backfield .George Anderson, who became the firstWorld War casualty among Universitygraduates or students, played right tackle .At center was Curry Bell, '16ba, '16bs, nowDr . Bell of St . Paul, Minnesota, and chair-man of the St . Paul Advisory Council of theUniversity of Oklahoma Association. Hewas Sigma Nu representative on the Inter-fraternity Council and was on the AthleticCouncil and Student Council while he wason the campus .Rayburn Foster,'16law, made an unusual

but successful combination of his halfbackfootball position with law study. He wasvice president of his junior law class andpresident of his senior law class . He is nowa practicing attorney at Bartlesville .Another man, now governor of Oklaho-

ma, played guard. He received his law de-gree in 1916 . Known best then as "Red,"Leon C. Phillips saw activity in athletics,in publications, in the Y.M.C.A . and in halfa dozen other organizations . The Yearbookset these words beneath his picture:

"Learned, mighty, modest he,"Plain as his own hair to see."

Scholar and athlete, Howard McCasland,'16ba, was declared "without doubt themost versatile player Bennie Owen has de-veloped in recent years." His position washalfback . His versatility extended into bas-ketball ; he was center and captain of the'16 squad. As a student Mr. McCaslandserved on the Student Council and AthleticCouncil. He was again named to the Ath-letic Council in 1939 as alumni representa-tive . He is a life member of the Universityof Oklahoma Association .A successful basketball season high-

lighted the year-at least successful in termsof today's student body . The Sooners won

APRIL, 1941

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23

all four games they played during the seasonwith Oklahoma A . and M. College.

Class sports were popular with all thestudents . Class rivalry was still in a vigorousstage. There was more loyalty to class thanto college or school as it is today . The an-nual freshman-sophomore fights at the be-ginning of the fall term had been officiallycondemned in 1914, but the spirit of com-petition remained alive in baseball, basket-ball, football, and handball .

Strongest tendency to separate accordingto schools or vocational fields was noticedamong the medics . At that time the firsttwo years of medical school were on thecampus . The anatomy building-more com-monly known as the "stiff house"-was thelong frame structure standing in the south-west part of the present University campus .It is now used for an elementary schoolbuilding .Dr. Felix Gastineau, '16med, now staff

physician at Ellison Infirmary at the Uni-versity, the Lowry brothers, Dr . TomLowry, '16ba, and Dr. Dick Lowry, '16med-half of a long remembered quartet of mensingers on the campus-now OklahomaCity surgeons, and Dr . Warm Langston,'16med, Oklahoma City physician and for-merly associate professor of clinical micro-scopy at the University Medical School,were a few of the medics of twenty-fiveyears ago.

Student publications were as much thelife of the campus then as they are today.The University Oklahoman was the studentnewspaper published Tuesdays and Fridaysduring the school year under the directionof the Publication Board. Willard H. Camp-bell, '20ba, was the paper's editor. Of theclass of '16, Roy Baines, '16ba, Hennessey,was managing editor . Jack Boatman, '16law, Okmulgee attorney was the newspa-per's business manager. Chester Westfall,'16ba, handled the sports editorship . He isnow in business in Tulsa and is a life mem-ber of the University of Oklahoma Associa-tion . Mrs. James J. Hill (Katherine Barr,'16ba), Norman, now active in alumni af-fairs, was society editor .

In connection with the University Okla-homan no story would be complete withoutmention of the honorary journalism organ-izations : Sigma Delta Chi for boys andTheta Sigma Phi for the girls. One of themost outstanding events of the year wasthe banquet of Sigma Delta Chi. In thespring of 1916, as during a number of yearsbefore and many more afterward, the lateProfessor Theodore H . Brewer acted astoastmaster. Even today persons who wereat that affair twenty-five years ago recallhis delightful style of humor.

Strictly extra-curricular were annual edi-tions of the scandal sheet-literally yellowin color-circulated by Sigma Delta Chi.Theta Sigma Phi began a green one in 1916 .Of them the Sooner comments : "Thosehorrid boys have been making life miserablefor the boneheads and the flirts and theprofs for three years, and now the sob sistersthink that what is sauce for the gander is

24

mince pie for the goose and the Magpieserves it up spicily seasoned ." Sooner Mol-lycoddle was the name of the Sigma DeltaChi sheet. It boasted such mottos as "Wedo our muckracking with a steam shovel .Apply for rates," and "So long as humanfrailties continue, the Mollycoddle will ap-pear ."The University Magazine, erstwhile lit-

erary effort, appeared each month under theeditorship in 1916 of Mrs. W. N. Farley(Dorys Hollenbeck,'19ba), now editor andpart owner of the West Plains Journal, WestPlains, Missouri . Chet Westfall also heldthe position of "special editor" on the pub-lication .

Published by the class of '17, the 1916Sooner Yearbook carried on the traditionof a comprehensive annual . It was dedicat-ed "To the man whose clean sportsmanshipand high sense of honor has put Oklahomain the athletic map-, to our beloved BennieOwen." Walter L. Ditzler, '14ba, '17law,was editor-in-chief. He is now in the insur-ance business in Tulsa. Marie Mauk, '16ba,was senior editor .By 1916 Pe-et, men's senior honor society,

had become well established . It was or-ganized in 1910 and consistently maintain-ed for its membership qualifications, highstandards of leadership, scholarship andservice . Men chosen from the class of '16were Howard McCasland, Chester Westfall,Harvey Collins, '16ba, now with radio sta-tion KFSD, San Diego, California, RoyBaines, and Clarence Karcher, '16bs .Mr. Karcher ranks among the most out-

standing men of all O.U . alumni in thefields of geology and physics . He is givenmuch credit for the development of moderngeophysics as a method of discovering oil .His widespread oil interests in the south-west and the Coronado Corporation, ofwhich he is president, keep him busy now.Murel Carpenter, '16bs, geologist of Ok-

lahoma City who has also made a name inpetroleum, figured in a number of campusactivities of 1916 O.U .

To other vocational fields the class of '16has made its contributions . Frank Small,'16ba, was formerly a high school principal,but now is in business in Bartlesville . Dr.F. Lyman Tibbitts, '16ba, '19ma, is specialinstructor in extension education for theUniversity .Besides Leon Phillips, first O.U . alumnus

governor, public office has called WilliamJ. Armstrong, '14ba, '16law, debater andorator during his college days . He waselected to the State Corporation Commis-sion in 1940 . Roy W. Cox, '14ba, '16law,active as a student in the University Repub-lican Club, is now Republican member ofthe State Board of Affairs.Another member of the Class of '16, Fin-

ley McLaury, attorney and former city offi-cial at Snyder, is just completing a three-year term as a member of the ExecutiveBoard of the Alumni Association .The Class of '16 has contributed fifteen

life members to the Alumni Association .They are Mrs . Florence Wagner Johnson,

Mrs. Zue Mac Bronaugh Sheldon, L. W.Kitchens, David M. Logan, H. S. Oderman,Chester H . Westfall, J. C. Karcher, L . W.Kibler, Mrs. Lola Harris Kibler, FinleyMcLaury, E. V. Woolsey, Leon C. Phillips,T . 11 . McCasland, Dr . Lee Roy Wilhite andCrofford W. Norman .A. N. "Jack" Boatman, '16law, is an at-

torncy at Okmulgee, member of the Sta-dimn-Union Board of Trustees and activein numerous alumni affairs . And there'salso John Jacobs, '16ba, the O.U. track coachfor many years ; W. C. Kite, '16ba, Okla-homa City geologist and former member ofthe Board of Regents of State Colleges ;Lowrey H . Harrell, '16law, Ada attorney,former member of the University Board ofRegents and former president of the Alum-ni Association ; and Dr . Ray Balyeat,'16ma,Oklahoma City physician and nationallyknown authority on hay fever treatment.

Board Nominations Made(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8)cording to word received from Carl Taylor,'28ba, '29ma, secretary .Changes in Advisory Council member-

ships have been announced as follows byAlumni Executive Secretary Ted Beaird :Hubert A. Paton, '23eng, has been ap-

pointed chairman of the council at Seattle,Washington, succeeding Charles Ittner, '30eng .R. R. Rush, '32, and Virgil O. Harris, '30

eng, have been appointed to the council atGladewater, Texas.Three new members of the council at

Kansas City, Kansas, are Miss Ruth Kille-brew, '36lib .sc, Miss Marion Frances Weber,'31h .ec, and Knowlton Carson, '32ba.Three newmembers of the Austin, Texas,

council are Charles E. Green, '25, Dr.Thomas W. Currie, '03, and Dr . Fred M.Bullard, '21geol, '27ms.Howard P. Hinde, '40ms, has been ap-

pointed chairman of the New Haven, Con-necticut, Advisory Council. Marjorie Har-riett Hays, '25ba, has resigned as chairmanat New Haven, but will continue a memberof the council.

Jack 1. Laudermilk, '34ba, '38eng, is nowchairman of the Advisory Council at Aus-tin, Texas .Dr . Joseph Henke, Jr ., '37med, of Hydro,

has resigned as a member of the CaddoCounty Council .Harold L. Springer, '37bus, '39law, of

Sulphur, is now chairman of the MurrayCounty Council, succeeding Ewing Sadler,'386a, '38law, who has moved to Washing-ton, D.C .A new member of the Murray County

Council is Miss Betty Coe Armstrong, '39drama, of Sulphur.

Mrs. R. W. Kimbro, (Ann Ragsdale, '34bus), has been appointed to the council atCleburn, Texas .Dr . Richard D . Roys, '39med, formerly

chairman of the council at Seattle, Wash-ington, has moved to Tacoma, Washing-ton.

SOONER MAGAZINE