Ear on Chicago; The Return of the Wildcat: Homecoming at Northwestern University

It's homecoming weekend at Northwestern University as the University Band plays the fight song, Go You Northwestern. This is the sound familiar to students and alumni at Northwestern University this weekend as they celebrate homecoming. And this is the story of the preparations for this memorable occasion. And now for our story. Let's go to Northwestern and talk to some

of the people involved in the preparations for homecoming weekend. We have come first to the student governing board office at Scott Hall, where we will meet our guide for this program. George Cohen. George is the president of the student body. He's a senior at Northwestern in the School of Commerce and he hails from Paterson, New Jersey. George is president of the student body. What does homecoming mean to Northwestern? Well, you realize that studies are the first obligation of the students here, but naturally there's a time when they're going to want a little off steam and when they're going to want to show their enthusiasm. And that's what homecoming is. It's a chance to welcome home our alumni. It's a chance for the students to express school spirit. And in this case, since we haven't had a home football game for three weeks and we've had a good football team, it's a chance to welcome home our football team. Well, certainly you rally around this football team of yours and we've seen from some of the games that they've played that there's a renewed interest and a renewed vitality of the football players themselves. How do the students feel about this team? I think you really sense it when you sit

up in the stands on a Saturday afternoon and when you go to Pep rallies. We've never been able to get Pep rallies going, but now every Friday when a team goes on in a way game, we line Sharon Road as the buses come by as the team leaves for the airport. And up in the stands, they're behind them every minute. And I think you'll see from talking to the coaches later why we've got that kind of spirit because they're the kind of guys that are working very hard to put on a good football team. Well, I know that this week will be an especially aroused week because of the alumni coming here and the student body so enthused about the football team. Now tell me what part the president of the student body plays in this? Well, I sort of act as a host along with the other groups that are hosting the homecoming, but our job was mainly last spring. When we elected the two homecoming co -chairmen, the student governing board, that is. And it's been their job to plan the activities for this week. And as I said, the planning began last spring so you can imagine the great amount of work that they've put into this homecoming. Are we going to meet these co -chairmen later on? Yes, we will. I think you'll very much enjoy speaking to it with

them. And who are they? That's Gene McFadden and Neil Rembrandt. And they've been working since last spring on this. Yes, they and a large executive committee have worked planning the various activities, the parade, the dance, the badge sales, and the alumni coordination aspects of the homecoming. Well, I'm sure that this is a busy week for those two people. And I'm looking forward to talking to them and many other people at Northwestern. Now, to do this story of the preparations for Northwestern's homecoming, where do you suggest we go first? Well, I think you may enjoy speaking first with our dean of students, Dr. Jane Seema Cloud. And where will we find him? Well, the dean likes to get around and meet the students in awful lot. And one of the best places for him to do it is down in the Scott Hall Grill. So I think we might go over there and try and see if we can find him. Right, let's go there. We have come now to Scott Hall Grill to talk to Dr. James Seema Cloud. Who is the dean of students at Northwestern. Dr. McCloud, suppose you tell us some of the

activities that will be taking place during the weekend of homecoming here at Northwestern. This is unquestionably the most loaded weekend that we have at the university. Because this is a time when we have the combination of our student body, enthusiastically ready for the big homecoming game. They've spent several days getting ready. There are various floats, their house decorations, the whole atmosphere and our of the campus is one of just exactly what is indicated. A homecoming for everybody coming back to Alma Mater. Let's start off with Friday night. That I think kicks it off. What happens then? Well, Friday night there's a whole series of activities. It begins with a parade which is held at 715. It begins at Orange and Avenue in Davis Street and goes east to Chicago Avenue and then north to Longfield. And while the parade is going on, there's a judges stand at which several distinguished citizens of the greater Chicago area serving as judges will decide which of the various floats is outstanding.

Of course, there will be a prize for the best float by a woman's house and a prize for the best float by one of the men's houses. When the parade is reached its conclusion at Longfield, there will be a huge bonfire, a pep rally, an opportunity for cheers and songs and a general building up of enthusiasm for the big game tomorrow. Well, now what will be the, when will be the judging of the houses, the fraternity and sorority houses, and also I understand there's a judging of business associations downtown. Tell us something of that. That's right. We have really three sets of judges. One set of judges evaluates the various floats that are in the parade and those fraternities and sororities and independent houses that do not have floats decorate their houses. So another set of judges walks around the campus on both the north quads and south quads and decides which one of the houses has the best decorated house. Then another group of judges goes over into the business section of Evanston and judges which of the large businesses and which of the small businesses has the best decorated window. It's usually

done on the basis of which one was professionally decorated and which was done by amateurs. Well, what's this? I understand you have a feature film of WAMU's activities here. Well, when will that take place? Yes, one of the great traditions of Northwestern has been its all college musical show. And this is the first time that a film made in color of last year's show, which was the 25th anniversary show, is going to be shown to the entire student body alumni in the university community. And this will be shown at 9 .30 immediately after the big pep rally on Longfield. At the same time, immediately following the show, there will be a concert by the men's glee club. Dr. McLeod Saturday, of course, is the big day, of course, the football game. But what other activities will the university have on that day? Well, among other activities, actually before the game, Mortar Board, which is the Senior Women's Honor Society, holds a brunch

to which they invite their distinguished alumni of yesterday year. And the present act of chapter are the hostesses for the occasion. At the same time, immediately following the game, to rule the Senior Men's Society has a reception for their members who are back for that particular day. At the same time, immediately following the game, the Associate Alumni, the Women's Group of the Alumni Association, a whole day reception in Magal Memorial Hall, for all of those who are back for that occasion. Well, that's certainly going to be a very busy weekend, is it not? Sure is. And I'm sure that all the alumni who are coming here for homecoming over this weekend are looking forward to it. We're doing, as you know, the preparations for homecoming week. And one of the alumni working for our station, Herb Grayson, says the best place to find you, is down here at the Scott Hall Grill, rather than to go to your office. Is there any truth to that? Oh, there could be some truth to that, particularly knowing that the opportunity to get to know students and to feel the pulse of the campus is probably realized best. If you meet them where they are, and maybe you can take them to places they've never been.

Well, thank you very much, Dr. McCloud, for talking to us. Following our interview with Dr. McCloud, we've come back now to our guide, George Cohen. George, what's the next suggestion? Where do we go from here? Well, I think we might go over and meet Jean McFadden and Neil Rembrandt, after they finish their last class for the day. At the Rock. What's the Rock? Well, that's a campus meeting place between some of our South Campus buildings where kids get together between classes before shuddling on to the next place they have to go for the day. Well, that's a good spot to go. Let's go to the Rock. We've come now to what is called the Rock at Northwestern University. It's located just between Harris Hall and University Hall. In Harris Hall, it's located the Department of Political Science and History and just to the north of the Rock at University Hall is located the Departments of English and Geography. George, there'll be some students streaming out of these two buildings at any moment I understand. Yes,

approximately 20 minutes after every hour the students compouring out for the 10 minute break between the classes. Well, now, here are our co -chairmen. Suppose you introduce me. Well, this is Jean McFadden, you, and this is Neil Rembrandt, the co -chairman for the Homecoming. Well, it's certainly a pleasure to know you both. I think I'll start with the nicest looking one of the two. And that is Jean. Jean, come over here moment and talk to us about some of the activities that you're engaging in here this week. I know this is a busy week for you, isn't it? Certainly is. Have you had a chance to get to all your classes or you've been working right straight through? No, I have morning classes and I do go to all of them and then I spend time on home coming in the afternoon and in the evenings. Well, now I want to talk to you a little bit later on about some of the things that you have been doing but we're going to go visit some of the sorority and fraternity houses and some of the independent houses and talk briefly about some of the decorations that they're making. But let me get over here to Neil and talk to him briefly. Neil, I understand you're from Cleveland. That's right. How did you get out here to Northwestern? Well, I just decided I'd like to come to a school away from home and Northwestern was a good choice and I'm very happy that I did so. You've been a busy boy this week, I understand. Yeah, just about the busiest

week of my life. Is that right? Yes, sir. Well, as I told Jean, we're going to talk about those activities in a little bit. But I'd like for you and Jean and George to accompany us too to take me on a brief tour of the campus and take a look at some of the houses and also some of the decorations around the campus. All right? Fine, that'd be our pleasure. Jean, where will we go first? First, we're going to Rogers House. What do they have there? Well, their theme is remember when Northwestern blazed its path to the Rose Bowl way back in 1949. And they're featuring a train on its way to Dyke Stadium. We've come over now to the Rogers House and you can probably hear in the background a sound that is very unusual on Northwestern campus. A group of girls building what is going to be their decoration here at Rogers House. Now, Jean, we're going to meet some girls over here and talk to them. Who will they be? Margot Mackie, who is President of Rogers House and Joyce Simpeck, who is the chairman of the House Decoration. Margot, we'll talk to you first.

Who decides upon what the decoration of the house is going to be? Well, all the girls get together in a house meeting and we elect our co -chairman, our chairman, and they get ideas from everyone in the house and then decide upon a final idea. We're going to talk to Joy, who is the co -chairman, who is the chairman? Joy is the chairman. And who then are the other co -chairman? She has assistance under her. I see. Well, I better ask her about that. Joy, who are your assistants? Oh, we have small committees of girls that each, while we have some working on the locomotive and some working on the coal car and some on the backdrop. It's mainly a bunch of small committees. I see. Well, now, Joy, the girls are working over here on what looks like is going to be the coal car, is that right? It is. And this over here is the Chuchu train. Now, what's the theme of this decoration? Well, our theme is remember when Northwestern blazed its way to the Rose Bowl. And we have this train in the coal car. And we're going to make it as an old -fashioned train. And then, of course, we have our backdrop, which is a continuation.

And we have all the teams that we had beat in 41 on the cross ties. In 41? You mean 49, wasn't it? Oh. Well, anyway, it was one of those years that you went to the Rose Bowl, but I don't think it was that long ago. Well, anyway, where will this be placed now? We're standing right next to the door, the entrance to the hall, but it won't be here, will it? No, it's going to be on the street side. On the other side of the building. And then, they'll be judging it on Friday night. That's right. Well, thank you very much, Joy, for telling us about it. And thank you, too, Margo, for talking to us. All right, thank you. And now, let's get back over here to Neil, who is with us and is a co -chairman of the entire Homecoming Celebration. Neil, we want to visit some of the other houses and talk about some of the others. First of all, I'd like for you to give me a brief list of some of the houses that have decorations and what those decorations might be. Well, about the best way to describe that, first of all, be given the name of the organization and then tell the title of their house decoration, which is usually very descriptive.

We might go to the Alpha Chi Omega House, whose title is Each Napoleon has its Waterloo. And then, we could stop by the Cap Alpha Theta House, and their title is We're Coxura Victory. The Cap Adeltas have Dragon down the field. And, of course, this dragon is spelled D -R -A -G -O -N, and they have a huge dragon as part of their decoration. Shepard Hall, which is a freshman girl's dormitories, title is It's In The Bag. And Zeta Taw -A -Tay Alpha has Remember and Watch Our Jazz. I think the best idea was going to take a look at some of these, and then you can describe them much easier. All right, now, we want to visit one where we'll be able to talk to some of the boys. Where will that be? Well, Triangle Fraternity, as a rule, has an excellent house decoration every year. And their title is Will Blasto, Ohio State, and it's more or less a rocket going from here to Columbus. I think once you see it, you'll really be able to appreciate it. And should we go to Triangle next then? That'd be a good idea. All right, let's go.

We've come now to the Triangle House, which is just off Sheridan Road, and across the street from Pat and Jimnasium here in Evanston. Now, a moment ago, you heard some of the activity over at Rogers House, where the girls were sowing and hammering. But it's a little bit more active here, because these boys are engineers. Neil, who are we going to speak to here? You are like and meet Al Hart, who is the chairman of the Triangle House decoration. Al, what's the decoration for this year? Well, we're going to have a house decoration with a rocket making a course between Evanston and Columbus, and crashing into Columbus. So the theme is that that you're going to explode onto this Ohio State team? Yes, our theme is Will Blasto House State. This rocket isn't going to take off into space, is it? Well, that's what we like you to think. Actually, it's hung from some cables and wires, so that it makes its arc in flight. Well, now, as I said, there's a lot of boys working over here on the decoration now. But right now, it just looks like a couple of boxes being put together. Well,

that's about right. That's usually what it does look like. Well, what is this, for example, right here? Is that the bottom of it? Well, that is going to be a building in Columbus. It's supposed to be that one of the tallest buildings in the city. Of course, everything isn't quite the scale. We're also going to have University Hall in Evanston and Dyke Stadium in the stadium in Columbus. Now, where's the rocket? Is that being constructed yet? Are you doing that in secret down in the basement? Well, that's in process up on third floor. Well, how are you going to get it outside? Oh, it's not that long. It's only going to be about six feet long. It isn't tremendous. Well, I said this was the home of the engineers at Northwestern. And I suppose that because of that, you're expected to be rather ingenious in your decorations, aren't you? Well, we won the house decoration three years ago and two years ago. Last year, we had a float, and our generator broke down. And as a result, we went by the judge's stand in the dark. Your generator broke down? Yeah. An engineer couldn't fix it? Well, it was because an engineer fixed it that it broke down, unfortunately.

Yeah, if you had any difficulties this year with some of the engineers breaking things up? Well, every year you have a few difficulties in trying to work things out. This year, we seem to be coming along pretty well, and we hope to have it running in order by Friday. How did you happen to select this particular theme, Al? Well, you mean we'll blast the house stage? Yes. Well, we just decided on that because we're going to have a rocket, and we're going to have an explosion a lot of noise along with it. Now, everything will be working here on Saturday, I presume. We hope so. I hope so too, Al, and I hope perhaps that you fellas can win again this year. Thank you very much for talking to us. Well, thank you. Well, this has certainly been a very interesting trip, Neil and Jean, and we want to thank you very much before we leave. However, I want to ask you both of you some more questions because obviously there is much more to homecoming than the decorations and the floats. And we haven't even talked about the floats and some of the houses, instead of having decorations on their house, have floats

and then enter them in the parade. But you also have, for example, the choosing of the queen. Neil, how does that happen? Well, this queen contested every girl in the university except girls in their first year is eligible to enter, and they also submit their pictures. And these pictures are first judged by a group of judges this year was done by the cast from no time for sergeants. And they cut this down to 15 girls from the entrance, so there's approximately 200 girls that entered this year was cut down to 15. These 15 girls appeared for personal interviews, appeared at Scott Hall. And the three judges for that contest were Jay Andrade from WBBM, Patricia Stevens from the Stevens modeling agency, and Miss Sandy Stewart, Miss Chicago of 1956. They narrowed it down to five girls, and these five girls were submitted to an all -campus vote. And the girl obtaining the most votes, of course, was the queen, but the other four were members of her court. Jean, besides the selecting of the queen, you also have your homecoming dance. What are the preparations for that? Well, there's a lot of work that goes into a

homecoming dance. It's held on the Saturday night of Homecoming Weekend from 9 to 12, and we have Dance Code Chairman, and they are in charge of selling tickets for the dance and getting a lot of publicity around the campus advertising it. We have a band, of course, and this year we're featuring Lola D, who is the singer in the Chicago area. The Dance Code Chairman are in charge of arranging for all the decorations, and that's a pretty big job because the dance is held in Patton, Jimnasium, which is a large place, and we usually count on about 750 couples. Well, once again, let me thank you, Neil and Jean, for taking this tour with us and telling us about the decorations and the plans for Homecoming. It certainly sounds as if it's going to be very exciting. Thank you both. Well, thank you very much. Well, let's get back over here to George, who is taking this trip with us. George, I'd like to talk to the man who is probably most important on campus on Saturday, and that's the coach of the football team.

Where do you think we'll find him? Well, I was a busy worker and lives in Sleep's football. I think you'll find him out at Dyke Stadium, probably studying the film from last Saturday's game and preparing defenses and offenses for this Saturday's contest. Well, I'll ask our esteemed driver, Mr. Soda Villa, to drive us out there. We'll go to Dyke Stadium next. The spirit of Homecoming, of course, revolves around the football team and the football game itself. And the man that's most responsible for what that football team is going to do is the coach, Aero Parsegan. We're going to talk to Aero now for just a brief bit because he's a very busy man. We're standing right now in the center of Dyke Stadium. It's a very empty house at the moment, but Saturday afternoon, of course, it was filled to capacity for the Homecoming game. First of all, Aero, since this is a program concerning Homecoming, what does the Homecoming crowd mean to the spirit of a football team? Homecoming is always an important part of the football season for the

boys. Most of the families are here. The old grads are back, and it's the last time for the seniors that they'll be playing before a homecoming crowd, and they're always very anxious to play well. It's always a tradition for most teams to get up for a homecoming game. And that's exactly the way our boys feel about the homecoming atmosphere. And as far as I'm concerned, I think that the true spirit stems from the football team, and it kind of reactivates and revitalizes the entire school. We're talking about spirit and reactivization. You certainly have the same thing happening almost in every game. Seems like every game is homecoming here for Northwestern this year. What about this rejuvenated spirit that we've been hearing so much about? Well, we're a very poorly -maned ball club, as you know. We couldn't even take 38 players to Indiana, our full complement of traveling squad, because we didn't have that many boys. But what we've tried in still in these boys is the idea of playing for 60 minutes of football, with a will to win, in spite of the fact that they have their

shortcomings in manpower and depth and talent. And the one thing that we think we've been able to accomplish is to get these boys to play for 60 minutes and go all out with everything that they have, even though it's not quite good enough for the most part. We've lost quite a few ball games, but still the boys have put forth a 100 % effort, and that's the best you can ask of them. Well, any team in the big 10 certainly has a rough schedule, but you and I were talking a moment ago, and before long you're going to have an even rougher one. I think you said in 1959, Oklahoma and Notre Dame will be among those who you will oppose, right? That's right. We have a rough schedule coming up, and we've got a new program started here. I don't know that we've made too much progress yet, but I feel this way that Northwestern Football and the Athletic program was definite on the downgrade where they were slipping fast. And I think that we have been able to put the skids to a halt, and I think we've leveled off, at least we've made that accomplishment. I think we've got a very fine athletic director and Stu Holcomb, and he's done a tremendous amount of work around here in a short time that he's been here. Now our job is to start to rebuild a football program. We feel as if

we've hauled this skid, we're very anxious to have new talent, now standing football players attend Northwestern, because it takes top talent to have top teams. Our program now is in the rebuilding stage. It will probably take us two to three to four years. We are very thinly manned now. We lose all of our senior quarterbacks. We have no other quarterbacks on a squad, which means that we'll have green sophomores playing next year. But by the time 1958 and 59 rolls round, we certainly hope to have a full complement of players, have some depth. And of course, with this new spirit going with us, we hope to be on the winning side of the ledger in most of the ball games. This is a tough conference. The big ten conference is probably one of the greatest in the country or the world for that matter, as far as football goes. We're learning, we've got a new staff, but I think that we're all eager and enthusiastic enough to pick up something along the line and bring a winning football back to Northwestern. Well you do think though that by 1959 you'll be prepared to not only play a big ten conference schedule, but also meet such teams as Oklahoma Notre Dame. I don't know that we'll be prepared. We hope to be prepared. There's a lot

of things that can happen in the interim time. I mean, there's a lot of football players have a tremendous mortality, whether you realize it or not, you can bring in say about 30 boys in the fall. And before you know it, you're down to practically nothing. Mortality such as injuries, such as academic problems, home problems, girl problems, draft problems, all those things take their toll. And you'd be surprised how many boys are not around that started in the fall. We're bringing in our full complement. We're trying to be very selective in our choice. And getting the type of boy that we feel is wanting to play football, the boy that is capable and to pass his academic work, and the type of boy that we think we need to have winning teams. This year and next year, perhaps then, can you say that the homecoming fans that come out to see Northwestern play going to have to look at a team that is still building? This year and next year, yes. There's no question about it. Northwestern football, as I said, was on a downgrade. And there's a reason for it. No one is to blame for it necessarily. The thing went downhill. There's a lack of talent here. There's a lack of depth. And certainly,

we're not in a position to be playing seven strong big 10 conference games the way we are this year, as underman as we are. Most teams are carrying between 60 and 70 boys under squad. We have a total of about 39. And of those 39, a lot of those boys are not what you'd call big 10 players, although they certainly give everything they have. That's the best you can ask of them. Well, Arrow, you want to wish you the best of luck, the team the best of luck. And I know that the homecoming crowds that have come here in the future years will see some real good football. Even though in the next couple of years, as you said, they're going to have to put up with a rebuilding process at Northwestern. Northwestern has a bright future as far as football is concerned. We want to thank you very much for talking to us. Thank you very much. This has been the story of the preparations for Northwestern University's homecoming to the students, the faculty and the alumni. There is no more fitting way we can end our story than to listen to the University Glee Club sing to the memories. Before the nine years end, let us praise our

classmate's mind, give us those to the memories we cherish, for the days of spring divine. To the girls will not forget them, to the years that I have had, to the Western where we've had them, and the wonderful life we've had. The football game to dancers, the serials or matches, the parties when we did give home to them. Those happy times are wet on the 94 tests, or we'll miss them when we're gone. So a toast to the past, a toast to the future, and let them be no sorrow, for we

remember when the sun goes down. And we turn with our pride through our own. We thank Northwestern University for the cooperation given us in telling the story of homecoming. This is Hugh Hill speaking.