Welcome Back!

Many of the faculty are back on campus putting the finishing touches on their syllabi. Students will arrive this weekend. Monday afternoon students will finish registration in the Storzer Athletic Center. Pictured above is registration during the 1970s in the Old Gym, which was located just south of the Commons.

Women's Rifle Team

During the 1940s Ripon had both a men's and women's rifle team. The caption from the 1942 Crimson states: "Because the Ripon College women felt that, due to the war situation, Red Cross work should come first, it was necessary to shift and shorten the women's rifle season. Of the four week period, two weeks were spent studying the parts of the gun and the way in which they should be used as well as sighting and zeroing in the rifles. This left only four practices before the record targets were fired. In spite of this and because of the expert guidance of Captain Steinman, the record firing was well done."
Pictured above is Barbara Elsy.

Ripon College Ski Club ca. 1950

Pictured above are members from the Ripon College Ski Club from around 1950. If you were a member of this club or you can identify any of the individuals in the picture please contact me at prellwitza@ripon.edu

Homecoming Tradition: Floats

[From College Days, 5. Nov. 1929]

TRACY CAPTURES THE FLOAT AWARD

’29 HOMECOMING FLOATS SHOW IMPROVEMENT OVER PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS

The annual Homecoming parade featured by numerous floats of every sort, traveled up and down Watson st. [sic] to a successful close. Led by the Boy Scouts and the local high school band, the parade took on a stirring aspect.

Floats of every description were present. The prize winning floats were submitted by Tracy and Duffie, who took first and second prizes, respectively.

Tracy’s was a burial ground mounted on a truck, which was followed by six men carrying a casket. It bore the inscription, “in memory of Carroll.” Duffie offered a mounted zeppelin which was accompanied by the words, “Take Carroll for a ride.”

Merriman and Lyle were represented by huge telephones and accompanying signs reading, “Calling Carroll’s bluff.” Bartlett’s “Carroll wedded to de-feet,” was portrayed by a bride and groom. The bride represented Carroll, and the groom whose feet were gigantic, represented defeat. Sanford presented an operating room with Carroll on the operating table. Gore reigned supreme. The inscription was, “Will Carroll pull through?” Parkhurst portrayed “Ripon on Top,” by a huge football mounted on a car. Several girls carrying smaller footballs walking beside and in back of the car. Woodside’s contribution was a gigantic nut cracker bearing the words, “Crack the Carroll jinx.” Smith offered a large reproduction of the little schoolhouse where the Republican party was born. On the roof of the building were the words, “The hunting ground of the Redmen.”

This year’s homecoming float and vehicle decorating contest will take place on Saturday, October 3^rd at 11AM in the quads. Stop by to see the floats and stick around to see Ripon take on Carroll at 1PM at Ingalls Field. (Ripon beat Carroll in 1929, 20-6. Go Redhawks!)

Freshmen Hazing of the 1940s-1960s

What ARE these five students from the class of 1946 doing on the ground, exactly? Praying? Kissing the earth? Awkwardly hiding from the camera? Actually, they are taking part in the Freshmen Hazing experience! The hazing of freshmen by the sophomore class was a time-honored tradition on the Ripon College campus from the 1940s until the late 1960s. Freshmen had to adhere to a variety of rules, which included a 10:30 p.m. curfew, being present at all football games and pre-game pep rallies, wearing “regulation beanies” at all times outside of their dormitories, and, most importantly, “buttoning” to upperclassmen, as seen in this photo. This hazing lasted until students went home for Thanksgiving break; that is, unless the freshmen class won the coveted grease-pole fight during homecoming (though, unfortunately, this rarely happened).

--Jacqie Fingerson

First African American Students at Ripon College

[Picture from Ripon Magazine, Issue 33, Year 2000]

This picture is of the first known African American students to attend ripon. From left: Bill Stewart, Robert Walker, and Del Cornick. They graduated in 1952 and started what would become Ripon's journey through the struggle for diversity and understanding on a predominantly white campus. Each student had their own experience in a time that was much different from our own, where laws were not stringent enough to prevent overt racism. These days, the "Political Correction" movement and education have paved the way for tolerence, but how do the experiences of the past compare to recent Ripon graduate experiences with racism and prejudice?

--Morgan Douvris

Summer Archives Students Projects

This summer, Jacqie Fingerson and Morgan Douvris have been working on research projects in the archives. Morgan has been investigating the history of African Americans at Ripon and the experiences they had here; Jacqie has been looking at the history of Greek life. The next few blog entries are from Jacqie and Morgan on their projects.

-AP