Notre Dame and Latin America

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Notre Dame Archives

Part of Notre Dame’s expansion in the second half of the 19th century came from active recruitment of students from Mexico, Cuba, and other parts south of the border.  Considering the high percentage of Catholics among the people in Latin America, it made sense for Notre Dame officials to recruit Latin American students.  According to Arthur J. Hope, “Early in Father [John W.] Cavanaugh’s administration [1905-1919], over 10% of the enrollment was from Latin America. Notre Dame was one of the pioneers of the ‘Good Neighbor’ policy.”

Detail from a Notre Dame advertisement in Spanish
for prospective students from Mexico, 1883

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Notre Dame published advertisements, catalogs, and bulletins in Spanish for prospective students.  Scholastic, the student-run weekly publication, also published issues in Spanish.  By 1885, Notre Dame’s student population was so geographically diverse, it made economic sense to purchase a hotel train car.  Rev. John A. Zahm was chaperone for these trips out West and south to Mexico City.

An author for Scholastic described the influx of these new types of students in 1883:

“A very promising scholastic year has just begun.  The attendance of students is large—fully up to the expectations of the most sanguine friends of the University.  Among them is an unusually large proportion of new students. Many of these are from Mexico and remote parts of the United States.  This is a gratifying evidence of how widely known Notre Dame has become. It is likewise an indication of the confidence reposed in it as an  Institution of high rank and solid merit by persons who live even beyond the limits of the great Mississippi Valley.  This fact is duly appreciated by all friends of the University. But to those more particularly identified with its past and present interests—to those who have watched and labored as it grew up from a humble beginning to the high rank it now holds—there is a source of special gratification in the undoubted assurance of its  prosperous present and more than promising future” [Scholastic, 09/18/1883, page 24].

Latin American Club, 1907-1908 academic year

 While many Notre Dame administrators and professors traveled long distances to escort students to South Bend, Notre Dame also sought recruiting help from alumni and other benefactors.  Sam Keeler was stationed in Havana, Cuba, with the United States Army in 1900 when he received a letter from Sister Aloysius, the director of the Minim program.  He responded that he knew of a perspective student and he would surely pass along a catalog if she would send him one.  Keeler replied that he was “[glad] to do anything that will benefit the school of my younger days.  … I am sure he [the prospective student] will like Notre Dame as I did years ago when I was a boy at St. Edward’s Hall” [UPEL 77/04].

Cuban businessman Carlos Hinze, originally from Prussia, sent his family to Muncie, Indiana, in the late 1890s to escape the dangers of the Spanish-American War while Hinze stayed behind in Havana.  Hinze sent his son Carlos to Notre Dame and daughter to Saint Mary’s Academy.  With his connections in Havana, Hinze became a go-between with the Cuban families and Notre Dame, from recruiting new students to checking in on their progress at Notre Dame.  As a business man, Hinze also asked Notre Dame officials for help in bringing Studebaker to Cuba [UPEL: Hinze].

 Letter from William Barrett to University President Andrew Morrissey, 1899/0224.  Barrett visited Carlos Hinze in Havana, Cuba, and he recommended
Notre Dame to everyone he met.

 

Sources:
Scholastic
UPEL
PNDP 05/Hi-01
PNDP 05-Me-01
Notre Dame: 100 Years by Arthur J. Hope

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Baseball Clubs

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Notre Dame Archives

For most of the second half of the 19th century, baseball was the king of sports at Notre Dame.  Games were played in the spring and fall and at special events such as Founder’s Day, Commencement, and field days.  The students organized baseball clubs, complete with directors (usually faculty or staff members) and students filling the traditional officer positions of president, treasurer, and secretary.  An 1894 topographical survey of campus shows five baseball fields and one football field at Notre Dame.  Certainly pick-up games also occurred on good-weather days elsewhere on campus.

Star of the East Baseball Club Team, including John Nester, Crawford, T. Mall (?), McNulty [Anthony or Joseph], and James Rahilly, c1885

Some clubs only lasted a season or two, while others remained organized for many years.  The more successful teams included Juanita, Enterprise, Star of the East, Star of the West, Excelsior, Mutual, Young America, University Reds, and University Blues.  The most famous player to come out of the Notre Dame Baseball Clubs was Adrian Constantine “Cap” Anson, who was a student from 1866-1868 and a member of the Juanita team.

Full page from a scrapbook with a photo of the Minim Baseball Team, 1889, and the University Blues Baseball Club

 

In the 1890s, Notre Dame assembled a varsity team to compete against teams from other colleges and universities.  The growth of the student population at the end of the 19th century necessitated more dormitories, which transformed the look of intramural athletics at Notre Dame.  Students formed an allegiance to their dorm and their place of residence was a part of their identity.  They formed teams with fellow dorm-mates and took the name of the hall as their team name.  In the early part of the 1900s, competition was fierce between the teams from Sorin, Corby, Carroll, Brownson, and Walsh Halls, as the names of Juanita and and Excelsior faded into the history books.

Star of the West Baseball Club, Champions of Notre Dame, 1872.
Individual portraits of Leo McOsker, Samuel Dum, William Dum, Charles Berdel, Brother Camillus, Charles Dodge, Dennis Hogan, Peter Reilly, Charles Hutchings, Benjamin Roberts, Mark Foote, and Frank Arentz [or Arantz]

 

Sources:
Scholastic
Notre Dame: One Hundred Years by Arthur J. Hope, CSC
GNEG 9A/24:  Topographical Survey Map of Notre Dame Campus, 1894
GFCL 61/06
GSBA 2/18
GMLS 4/01

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Memorial Library Topping Out

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Notre Dame Archives

On April 3, 1962, the last steel girder for the Memorial Library (now Hesburgh Library) was put into place.  As part of the “topping out” ceremony, University President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC, inscribed the final beam, which was hoisted to the top with an American flag.

 

Memorial Library “Topping Out” Ceremony, 1962/0403.
Rev. Theodore Hesburgh signing the final beam with the Latin phrase for “May the Blessed Mother bless us with her wonderful child.”  At left is Pat Corrie, construction superintendent.

By the 1950s, it was obvious that Notre Dame was outgrowing its library space in Lemonnier Library (now Bond Hall), which opened in 1917.  The Administration contemplated several sites for a new library, including on Main Quad as a replacement of Main Building.  Fortunately, it was decided that the new library would occupy the quad north of Notre Dame Stadium.  This required the removal of the Navy Drill Hall and the Vetville buildings, which began in the summer of 1961.

Memorial Library “Topping Out” Ceremony, 1962/0403
An American flag waves at the top of the steel frame of the building

The Memorial Library, renamed Hesburgh Library in 1987, was open for use in the fall of 1963, although the installation of the “Word of Life” mural was not yet complete.  The library was officially dedicated in May 1964.  More details about the construction and dedication will be address in future posts.

Sources:
GPHR 45/4464

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175th Anniversary of the Congregation of Holy Cross

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Notre Dame Archives

On March 1, 1837, in the town of Saint-Croix near Le Mans, France, Blessed Basil Antoine-Marie Moreau joined his band of auxiliary priests with the Brothers of St. Joseph, which was founded by Father Jacques-François Dujarie.  The Vatican officially recognized this group of priests, brothers, and sisters as the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1857.

Portrait of Rev. Basil Moreau, c1860s

In 1841, Moreau sent Rev. Edward Sorin, CSC, from Le Mans, France, to a newly formed diocese in Vincennes, Indiana.  Sorin’s ambition was stifled in Vincennes and when Bishop Celestine de la Hailandiere conceded to let Sorin establish a college elsewhere in the diocese, he quickly jumped on the opportunity.  As luck would have it, Rev. Stephen T. Badin had sold the Diocese of Vincennes land just north of South Bend, Indiana, in 1835, with the intent of using it for an educational institution.  The land became available to Sorin and upon his arrival in November 1842, he renamed the area Notre Dame du Lac.  After serving as President of the University of Notre Dame for 23 years, Sorin became Superior General of the order in 1868 and served in this position until his death in 1893.  As such, Notre Dame’s history is inevitably an important part of the history of the Congregation of Holy Cross (CSC).

The Notre Dame Archives houses many records concerning the Congregation of Holy Cross and its members, particularly of those who have connections to the University of Notre Dame.  Other notable repositories of Holy Cross materials in the Notre Dame area are the Indiana Province Archives, the Midwest Province of the Brothers’ Archives, and the Sisters’ Archives.

 

Sources:
“Fundamental Act of Unity, March 1, 1837”
“Holy Cross Celebrates 175 Years” by Fr. Arthur J. Colgan, C.S.C. (

 

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Skiving

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Notre Dame Archives

“Is it better to have ‘skived’ and been caught, than never to have ‘skived’ at all?” [Scholastic, 09/15/1888, page 68]

If students in the 1880s-1930s maintained a Domer Dictionary, “skive,” “skiving,” and “skiver” would be among the common terms in Notre Dame vernacular.  While “skiving” could refer simply to cutting class, it generally had a heavier connotation of a French leave from campus with dangers of getting caught.  Since curfew was in place during these years, “skivers” at Notre Dame would sneak out of the dorms at night and headed into town without permission.

A student “skiving” out of a Corby Hall dormitory window, 1914-1915

Once in town, students would frequent popular hangouts such as Hullie and Mike’s Cigar Store or Jimmie and Goat’s restaurant or take in a vaudeville show at the Orpheum Theatre.  The typical punishment for skiving seems to be demerits, which students could work off with manual labor such as shoveling snow.

Skiving was so common-place it was often the subject of short stories, poems, Scholastic news items, and tall-tales of the alumni.  The following sonnet was published in the 1913 Easter issue of Scholastic (page 382):

Sonnet on the Skiver

WHAT is a skiver? He is one that knows
Each alley, lane, and back street in town;
To him the campus scenes are dingy brown,
And all routine of class is driest prose.
His is the poet’s spirit that arose
Triumphant o’er the prefect’s sternest frown,—
That hies him off, to view a game, a gown.
To eat at Mike’s, or see the nickel shows.

‘Tis true a haunting fear lurks in his eyes.
And drives him oft within the handy door.
‘Tis true he’s never known to win the prize
Of scholarship—or e’en acquire its lore.
What will he do when life’s great tasks arrive?
Prophetic voices answer, “He will skive!”

W. H.

 Dome yearbook 1920:  Floor plan of Sorin Hall with the best routes for skiving

 

Sources:
Scholastic
Dome yearbook
GMIL 2/08

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Bengal Bouts

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Notre Dame Archives

“Strong bodies fight so that weak bodies may be nourished”

The 2012 Bengal Bouts final matches will be held Saturday, March 3rd, at 7:00pm in the Joyce Center.  Bengal Bouts is an annual intramural boxing tournament that raises money for the Holy Cross Missions in Bangladesh.  While the first student tournament was  in 1932, charity boxing matches for the Bengal Missions date back to the 1920s.

Advertisement for the first annual Scholastic Boxing Show (Bengal Bouts)
from the January 1932 issue of The Juggler

In the 1920s and 1930s, sporting matches of all kinds were organized as a means to raise funds for deserving causes.  This was no less true at Notre Dame and a favorite charity among the students was the Holy Cross work in Bangladesh.  In 1921, the students of Brownson Hall organized a smoker that featured “boxing, wrestling, a tribute to Coach Rockne, and a talk by Father O’Donnell,” and raised $150 for the Bengal Missions. In 1922 and 1923, Brother Alan arranged the Bengalese Boxing Bouts with exhibitions of outside boxers.

February 12, 1932, marked the first annual “Scholastic Boxing Show,” organized by the student magazine Scholastic with Notre Dame students making up the contenders.  This first tournament was set up more like an interhall match, with representatives from each dorm making up the contestants.  Nearly two thousand people from the University and surrounding communities made up the audience, which was a record attendance for a boxing match at Notre Dame.

Interior view of the Fieldhouse set up with the Bengal Bouts Boxing Ring, 1952

The continued success of Bengal Bouts would not have been possible without the oversight of Dominic “Nappy” Napolitano (1907-1986).  Nappy trained and mentored nearly every student boxer for more than fifty years.  He made sure the fights were clean and fair, which was often in contrast to the culture surrounding professional boxing.  As Budd Schulberg witnessed in 1955, “You’ll see boys battling harder for the University championships than some heavyweights have fought for the championship of the world. You will see contestants beautifully conditioned and boxing under rules of safety precaution that have precluded any serious injury in the quarter-century history of the bouts. Here are boys who will fight their hearts out in the five-day tournament for pride and the pure sport of it” [Sports Illustrated].

Dominic “Nappy” Napolitano instructing students for Bengal Bouts boxing matches, February 1975

In the end, the Bengal Missions are the perennial winners of the Bengal Bouts.  For over eighty years, these boxing matches have helped the Congregation of Holy Cross to provide service to the poor of Bangladesh by establishing and maintaining medical dispensaries and educational institutions.

 

Sources:
Scholastic
Dome
Juggler 1932
“The Bengal Bouts:  On the campus, boxing is still a sport,” by Budd Schulberg, Sports Illustrated, April 4, 1955
GPHR 45/1573
GPHR 35m/04025

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Remember the Maine and Shilly

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Notre Dame Archives

On the night of February 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded and sank in the Havana, Cuba, harbor.  Tensions between the United States and Spain over the fate of Cuba led many to believe that Spain was behind the sinking of the Maine.  While multiple investigations have been unable to definitively identify the culprit, “Remember the Maine!  To hell with Spain!” became a rallying cry that helped to launch the Spanish-American War.  The Maine suffered 266 fatalities and most of the 94 survivors sustained some kind of causality.  Among the fatalities was John Henry Shillington, yeoman, third class.

Survivors of the USS Maine, 1898/0222.
Caption:  “Roll Call of the Gallant Maine Boys at the Barracks Key West, Florida, Feb. 22, 1898. Washington’s Birthday.  Maine blown up Feb. 15, 1898.  Crew of 360 men, 266 perished, +L. Moriniere saved.  Pennant of the Maine”

John Shillington of Chicago was a popular student at Notre Dame who was involved in many campus activities, including theater and athletics.  He played varsity baseball and was captain of the 1897 basketball team.  Rumor has it that Shillington was expelled for not returning to South Bend with the baseball team after playing at the University of Chicago in May 1897.  He then joined the Navy and ended up on the doomed Maine.

Portrait of John Henry Shillington, c1897

 The February 19, 1898 issue of Scholastic reported on the death of their friend:

“John H. Shillington was of a nature which won him many friends, and when, last year, it was deemed necessary for him to sever his connection with the University he went away with the best wishes of all his friends and of all his professors.  He was a manly boy, and he did not complain. ‘I often think of Notre Dame,’ he wrote to a friend from the ill-fated Maine.  ‘I can picture her daily, and in my reminiscences of her a tear is often brushed away . . . . I suppose ‘Shilly’ is forgotten by people at the old college, and I don’t blame them.  Though forgotten, I shall always hold Notre Dame near and dear to me.’

“No; ‘Shilly’ is not forgotten at Notre Dame, but remembered with affection and mourned with sincere grief.  He shall have a share in the prayers of students and professors who will not fail in the only service which friendship can now render him.  God rest his soul!”

On Memorial Day 1915, a monument was dedication in the honor of Shillington just north of Science Hall (LaFortune Hall).  The Secretary of the United States Navy Josephus Daniels gave an address at the dedication and much fanfare surrounded the event.  The monument consists of a shell from the Maine on a base of red Wisconsin granite.

Shillington Monument, c1915-1916.
“To the memory of John Henry Shillington of Brownson [Hall] who went down with the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor, February 15, 1898.  This marker is raised [1915] by the men of Brownson as a symbol of their sorrow and their pride.  Requiescat in pace.”

Between 1925 and 1930, the monument was moved closer to the Bronson Hall wing of Main Building.  Many students had since forgotten Shillington or knew anything about the reason for the memorial.  In 1930, Scholastic reported that the Brownson Hall residents had taken to calling the monument “The Bullet,” as do some students even today.  The Shillington Memorial was moved further into obscurity to the south side of the Joyce Center near Gate 8 in 1989.  The Shillington Monument finally found a prominent home on the south side of the ROTC Pasquerilla Center in the 2000s.

 

Sources:
“The Destruction of the USS Maine,” Department of the Navy, Naval History and Heritage Command
Scholastic
PNDP 02-Sh-01
GSBB 2/05
GPOR 17/02
GMIL 1/03

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Sorin Hall Porch

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Notre Dame Archives

“It was not like that in the olden days, in the days beyond recall,
When everybody got ducked that lived in Sorin Hall.”
[1906 Dome yearbook]

In the latter part of the 19th century, enrollment at Notre Dame continued to swell.  Sorin Hall was built in 1889 and expanded in 1897 to accommodate the collegiate students whose population was outgrowing the living space in Main Building.  Sorin Hall was Notre Dame’s first dormitory building to offer private quarters, and a certain level of freedom, for the collegiate students.  However, Sorin’s famous porch was not added until 1905.  The need for the porch went beyond pure architectural aesthetics.  It was built as a deterrent of student pranks.

Sorin Hall exterior, c1890s

Pranks are inevitable in a close-knit setting among college students.  In the early 1900s, students would amuse themselves by throwing water out of upper-level windows of Sorin Hall, much to the chagrin of passers-by entering the dorm.  The final straw was when the beloved “Colonel” William Hoynes, dean of the Law School and Sorin Hall professor-in-residence, supposedly fell victim to this popular prank.  Immediately thereafter, construction of a porch began on the eastern facade of Sorin Hall to protect visitors from an unexpected deluge of water.  The porch was completed in April 1905.

Sorin Hall residents posed on the front steps of Sorin Hall, c1890s.
“Colonel” William Hoynes is in the center with a top hat.

The water pranks did not completely cease with this addition, as students could crawl out on top of the flat-roofed porch.  However, the pranksters had to be slier as they were more exposed to getting caught.  Stories of the Hoynes incident lived on in the inaugural 1906 Dome yearbook and for a few years there after.  As a happy accident, this stately porch has become a significant part of Sorin Hall’s identity as a place to gather and as a stage for concerts, speeches, and the annual talent show.  Even Colonel Hoynes himself, who had a flare for the theatrical, often entertained alumni and visitors on the very porch that might not exist if it weren’t for a fateful prank.

Sorin Hall exterior with an American flag and blue banner on the porch that reads “God, Country, Notre Dame,” August 2002

 

Sources:
CNDS 14/29:  Sorin Hall histories by Philip Hicks, 1979-1980
Dome yearbooks 1906-1907
GGPP 2/16
GGPP 2/11
GMDG 7/21

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Swim Team Bus Crash

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Notre Dame Archives

Early morning January 24, 1992, the Notre Dame women’s swim team was returning to campus from a meet at Northwestern University.  Just a few miles from the Notre Dame exit on the Indiana Toll Road, the bus carrying the team hit a patch of ice, skidded off the road, and flipped onto its side.

Front page of the 01/27/1922 issue of The Observer
after the Women’s Swim Team bus accident

Freshmen Margaret (Meghan) Beeler and Colleen Hipp died on the scene.  Fellow freshman Haley Scott sustained a severe spinal injury, which left her temporarily paralyzed.  Most of the swimmers and staff aboard the bus also suffered injuries, though not as severe as the three freshmen.  Scott recently wrote a book, What Though the Odds, recounting the tragic accident and her long, painful recovery.  Production of a movie of Scott’s story is currently underway.

A memorial mass for Beeler and Hipp will be said at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at 8:00pm.

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Tactile Campus Map

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Notre Dame Archives

In the spring semester of 1978, fifth-year Architecture student Leroy Courseault developed a tactile map of campus for the visually impaired.  Courseault distinguished the buildings, roads, and terrain with different types of materials with different textures, such as various grades of sandpaper, wire, and rubber.

 Dr. Stephen J. Rogers Jr. explores a textured campus map as Architecture student Leroy Courseault, who designed and constructed the map, looks on, 1978/0515

Courseault consulted on his project with Dr. Stephen J. Rogers Jr. of the General program of Liberal Studies, who was the only blind faculty member at the time.  Rogers “found that the mental picture of the campus he had developed over the years turned out to be fairly accurate.  ‘But with Leroy’s map, I learned some things I never knew before,’ he said.  ‘It’s a marvelous success as a tactile instrument’” [UDIS 211/23].

Courseault also intended to add audio effects to the map to help orientate the visually impaired.  He planned to link sounds such as the Basilica bells, ducks at the lakes, or street noise, which are unique to certain areas of campus.

The tactile map located in the Main Building.  It is unclear when it was removed.  The most recent reference to it is 1984 in the University Archives’ online finding aids.

Sources:
UDIS 211/23
GPHR 22/4224

 

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