Carolyn

In the new circumstances, as vaccinations and other mitigations make Covid-19 a lesser anxiety, a new generation of students and staff at UP may find donning face masks as colorful, various, and incongruous a fashion choice as the Freshmen Beanies once sported by an earlier generation of our citizenry.

Readers paging or scrolling through the Log yearbooks from the 1950’s and 60’s will likely spot individuals or groups of students wearing UP-colored beanie caps. The captions and descriptions beneath the photos identify these capped students as freshmen.

This not-entirely-voluntary student life tradition begun around 1949 (running until circa 1970), REQUIRED incoming freshman students to purchase and wear a beanie cap during their first weeks on campus. Throughout this period freshman were to be seen with beanies on their heads for classes and events. And being caught without a beanie would result in the offender paying a minor fine, either a small cash amount or performing public-service (i.e. scrubbing the exterior of Early Hall).

Beanie caps went through design and style changes over the years. Some simple purple and white beanies (1949-1954), other years, solid purple caps with or without a white pom and Portland or Pilots branded across the front (1955-1960). The last generation (1962-1969) beanies returned to alternating panels bearing the University colors, with or without the designation “FROSH” across the front.

Thomas Rothschild, ’71, recalls “Freshmen had to wear the beanie for at least one month. During that month freshman were required to get fifty upper classmen signatures in a small notebook entitled Meet Mr. SPU The Spirit of University of Portland” and signatures of two student body officers. The length of time for wearing a beanie could be shortened if freshmen emerged as victors in the annual freshman-sophomore tug-of-war. Some 50+ years later, beanie caps are still spotted at University alumni reunions.

Click on image for slideshow

View some of our vintage beanie caps on display in Buckley Center in the first floor display case across from the Studies Abroad office.

Additional beanie photos from the LOG
https://digital.up.edu/collections/list/collections/3?search=beanie&applyState=true

A game of catch, a ball & bat, a chalk diamond.  Baseball has proved a perennial pastime for UP students from the earliest boarders ‘til today.  The Shipstad quad– since before we built Shipstad– was the site for campus baseball-field(s) from the 1920s forward.  And still today, the green space invites students onto the lawn to toss a baseball back and forth playing catch, combining at times into a half-organized pick-up game setting up one tangle of students to guard the bases and fields in competition against a batter who tries mightily to hit-in a run for the team.

Displayed alongside other items of athletic memorabilia in the University Museum is a vintage, well-worn right-handed leather baseball glove used by Columbia University student athlete, William Grussi, class of 1908.

The use of baseball gloves dates back to the 1860s with some fielders wanting to have protection for their hands. At first it was just a work glove, or a modified glove without finger tips. By the 1890s leather padded gloves and mitts were standard issue for regular play.

The circa 1908 glove used by Grussi features a full, solid web between thumb and forefinger to create a pocket for catching a baseball. Webbing was a new feature for baseball gloves between 1900-1910 and is the precursor to the see-through web style that is still in use today.

Grussi’s glove was made by the A. J. Reach Company, a U.S. manufacturer of sporting goods in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Founded in 1874 by former major league baseball player, Alfred James Reach, the Reach company made its name manufacturing its own baseballs and branching out to other athletic equipment including baseball bats, mitts and gloves. Reach later sold his business to one of his competitors, A.G. Spalding Bros., which manufactured the Reach gloves under the original name before transitioning to the Spalding brand.

Baseball Glove in Clark Library Digital collections:
https://digital.up.edu/Documents/Detail/baseball-glove-circa-1908/106118

References:
A.J. Reach Company:
http://www.antiquefootball.com/a_j_reach.htm

Baseball glove dating guide:
http://keymancollectibles.com/glovesmitts/fullwebgloves.htm

This Spirit of Portland U pennant (circa 1948 or 1949) is one item in the Student Life collection of the University Museum. Dr. Manuel Macias was the donor, a 1951 alumnus, long-time professor of Spanish (1958-1995), and faithful student scholarship donor — a true Pilot.

The colorful pennant design logo prominently features then-new University mascot, Spirit of Portland U (SPU) – a river pilot with rain gear and spyglass – created in 1948 by Nolan Drurey, class of 1949, winner of a Beacon-sponsored mascot design contest. One of the early items for sale in the University Bookstore with the new mascot design.

SPU’s image spread to spirit and campus swag and publications — 1948 Homecoming (napkins and coasters), student book covers, Pilot Student Guides, student body ID cards, t-shirts and more, as pictured in this photo from the University Bookstore.

The SPU rally-squad mascot (a student inside animating the heavy costume) evolved through the years and embraced a name change to become Wally Pilot in the 1970s. Our earlier post about Wally Pilot tells the backstory.

Additional References:
Spirit of Portland U (SPU): https://up.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16472coll10/id/414/rec/27

Wally Pilot:
https://sites.up.edu/museum/?s=wally+pilot