When he registered for his final year, the classmate stood a little straighter and his clothes were neater. He was a senior, and he commanded the respect of the undergraduates. There were little men from the Class of 1931 registering, and when later that year the CRIMSON carried news about the entering Class of 1932 the senior shrugged his shoulders and told his roommate, "Makes you feel old, doesn't it?"
In early September, the football team got ready for its opening game with Vermont. Observers noted that some men who were impressive in football practice for the first time in four years were members of the baseball team. H. W. Burns and Dana Kelly were fighting it out for the quarterback position, while W. W. Lord was a leading end candidate.
Some classmates gained importance when they were named to the student advisers committee, to aid and instruct first year men. T. H. Eliot was chairman of the committee, while W. N. Bump and Chandler Robbins were committee members.
A story noted that Alger Hiss had been elected to the Law Review, and registration figures showed that the class had dwindled to 601 men. The Corporation decided that non-scientific courses could adopt the reading period plan. The plan, left to the discretion of the instructor, called for a cessation of classes two weeks before the final ones, so that students could study special assignments in the libraries.
Lord won his end berth and Kelly started at quarter as the Crimson smashed weak Vermont 21 to 3. Crosby scored two touchdowns and was the team's leading ground gainer. Dudley Bell and Captain Pratt recovered inopportune Vermont fumbles and the varsity seemed headed in the right direction.
The soccer team crushed a hapless Bridgewater Normal School 5 to 0, with Captain C. D. Carr, L. L. Driggs, N. C. Haskell in the varsity lineup.
A tough, fast Purdue team disposed of the Crimson 19 to 0 and the next day the CRIMSON announced that the varsity was going back to fundamentals. After the game, the Purdue captain claimed that he and his teammates were disappointed by the Harvard attack.
A visiting Oxford scholars termed Harvard Square "quite the most dangerous place in the world," adding that it was "one of the strongest arguments for prohibition."
Will Durant and Bertrand Russell engaged in a debate at Harvard. "American colleges are all right," Durant said as he relaxed, afterwards. "I'm glad I went to one myself." He told an audience "Civilization and humanity certainly have advanced." Russell asserted that "Examinations are necessary but they should not be hypercritical inquisitions, but instead be digests of books to be read and criticized in a helpful way by the instructor."
Harvard showed lots of spirit as it upset a big Holy Cross team, 14 to 6. Crosby scored one touchdown, while a pass to Allen Fordyce accounted for the other. "The abandon with which the Crimson tossed forward passes to the winds and the success attending these passes was surprising," the CRIMSON reported. The assistant manager of the football team, Winslow Carlton '29, resigned his position in order to study, the first time anyone in good academic standing had ever done that.
The CRIMSON attacked public initiations of the Hasty Pudding Institute in an editorial entitled "Sophomoric Pornography." "Never, not even in the cheapest of vaudeville houses has the public--the general public in and around Harvard Square and the University--been offended with such common antics, more suitable to Moronia than a supposedly intelligent community," it said, blasting the Club for an exhibition.
A letter writer to the CRIMSON reopened the "Dirty Music" controversy about the band's action during the football games. Some complained that the Harvard band should form the letter of the opposing school and play its song. Delcevare King '95 in a letter called it an insult for Harvardmen to sing Yale songs when the Crimson was playing Holy Cross. The band's drum major, William M. Hickey, replied that the writer was "Wrong, wrong as anyone could be." He charged that the band had played a Holy Cross song during its march in, and had formed an "H" for the Crusaders.
A University debating team topped a picked English crew, with Barrett Williams, F. W. Lorenzen, and A. F. Reel speaking for Harvard.
Sloppy Dressers
The Chicago Daily News Record ran a story with a Cambridge dateline which described the dress of undergraduates. Harvard men, they decided, had "practically no dress consciousness whatsoever and at present their tendency seems to be for students to dress as slovenly as possible." The Daily News Record charged the students with ill-fitting suits, which were worn "threadbare at the knees. Topcoats were either three times too small or four times too large and had never been to the cleaner. Felt hats look like they had been resurrected form the ash heap, while shirts look as though they hadn't seen the laundry in three weeks." The CRIMSON rose to defend itself and friends, claiming: "If the critical gentleman could only realize how much thought over a period of many years has gone into the process of making a Harvard student look like the man who comes for the ashes there would undoubtedly be a greater degree of appreciation betrayed."
The Class football team, which for three years had won the University championship, and had beaten Yale the previous year, lost to the Elis, 12 to 7. The lineup included Hemminger, Mulford, Kiser, Robbins, Hartwell, Blowers, Turney, Taff, North, Long, and Sack.
The number of honors candidates increased decisively, and Manuel Quezon, then only leader of the Philippine Senate, asked for his country's independence at a Union debate. John Chase was awarded the Burr Scholarship, symbolic of athletic and scholastic leadership. The favored
Yale football team defeated the varsity 14 to 0, climaxing a relatively unsuccessful season which saw Dartmouth also win, 30 to 6.
Twelve new aviators joined President W. Nelson Bump's flying club. Class members were W. C. Atwater, E. Henderson, Sargent Kennedy, and J. L. Pool.
William Saltonstall was elected first marshal, with Dudley Bell and John Barbee named second and third marshals. Dudley Howe was elected permanent treasurer. Advocate president Charles Abbott was chosen class poet, while William Atwater was elected class chorister. Edward Clark was picked as Ivy Orator.
William Magie was elected permanent class secretary, while Chase and John Watts were picked for the permanent class committee.
Allston Burr '89, chairman of the War Memorial Church drive, answered criticism of the project. Burr claimed that despite complaints, three-quarters of the Harvard alumni wanted the Memorial. And a financial report showed that football had earned the University half a million dollars in 1926.
And then, on January 21, in the first five column CRIMSON banner except for Yale game stories--announced that Copeland would retire at the end of the year and that Hollis 15 would be his room.
The H.A.A. announced tentative plans for a huge indoor athletic building which would have a swimming pool. Harvard and Yenching University united in a special Chinese cultural analysis after the late Charles Martin Hall left $2,000,000. The plans for the future buildings continued with the announcement that the University would build the War Memorial Church, and Appleton Chapel would subsequently be razed. At the same time they mentioned that tuition would jump $100 next year.
"Nipponese team to play Crimson," the paper said that May, adding that the visitors "Have Strong Nine." The Keio University traveling nine dropped a close game to the varsity, 4 to 3.
Ralph Luttman took the mile in the IC4A championships in the Stadium, while in the first Harvard-Yale scholastic battle the Crimson, led by Nathan Pusey, won a close victory. The prize for the winners was a $125,000 contribution to the library. Pusey came in first in the contest, with L. J. Rittenband second, J. D. Merriam sixth, E. C. Wilkins seventh, J. E. Barnett ninth, and R. T. Sharpe tenth.
Harvard awarded 1884 degrees on June 21, 1928, with 659 going to seniors. And four men of '28 received the highest honor awarded to a Harvard graduate, a summa cum laude degree. They were: Edgar Malone Hoover, V. Samuel Seidel, Russell Thornley Sharpe, and Israel Solomon Stamm. The coming years would be hard, but the Class had Harvard diplomas, and that would help.
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