by Laurie Fruth
UNLV alumni, get ready for a trip down memory lane - or a flashback, depending on your era.
Think back to your college years at UNLV. Chances are that you'll recall participating in some really goofy organized event or activity that seemed awfully important at the time. It might have been the laugh-a-minute Greased Pig Contest of 1974, the mud-in-your-eye Oozeball Tournament of 1988, or the enchanting Spring Cotillion of 1957. Or maybe the event you remember had a more serious tone, like the one at which students protesting north-south funding inequities hanged then-Governor Paul Laxalt in effigy.
Whatever the event was - no matter how serious or lighthearted it was - it somehow took on greater significance while you were in college. Even if it started out as just a good laugh, by the time you finished, it made you feel a part of something bigger, something that united you with other students. It was the stuff that ... well, memories are made of. You knew that one day, you'd look back longingly to those heady days of your youth and wish you had as much time now as you did then for the good things in life - like drinking beer in the sunshine and singing bawdy songs with a crazy old guy named The Fox.
Well, guess what? That day has arrived. UNLV Magazine is setting the Way-Back Machine and taking you on a guided tour through the last 40 years of the most memorable events and activities that were held regularly (at one time or another) on the UNLV campus. They are, in effect, our traditions; there weren't that many of them to begin with, and only a few have survived. And, yes, they were usually such young traditions that they hardly seemed to qualify. But they are, after all, uniquely ours.
When the Southern Regional Division of the University of Nevada opened its doors in 1957, only a few hundred students attended classes in Maude Frazier Hall - the sole building on campus. With so few students milling around between classes, "Nevada Southern," as it was commonly called at the time, must have been a pretty quiet place, right? Well, not entirely. A few gala events were organized, forming the first recognized, albeit somewhat short-lived, student traditions.
A quick look at the slim 1957 edition of the university's yearbook reveals that the biggest events on campus that year were the Winter Sno Ball, the Spring Cotillion, and UNR's Homecoming game.
Pages and pages of the yearbook were devoted to the Winter Sno Ball and Spring Cotillion, which were formal dances held at Strip hotels. The events had a high school prom-like feel: students who attended drank non-alcoholic punch, munched on cookies and cake, and danced under the benevolent eye of the Sno Ball or Cotillion Queen.
Retired Department of Energy scientist David Stevenson, who attended the university during that era, remembers the Spring Cotillion as a pretty tame event.
"The cotillion was a big dance equivalent to a senior prom," he says, recalling that the one he attended was held at the Frontier Hotel. "They were really good to us. They let us use an old showroom and even provided an orchestra. It was quite a gathering."
He says the students chose to name the dance after the elaborate,
formal balls held in the Old South "because we were the southern branch of
the University of Nevada."
The focus of the other big event that first year - UNR's Homecoming - seemed to be less on the football game and more on the arduous trek to Reno made by a few dedicated Nevada Southern student fans. The yearbook recounts the long, cold journey of the intrepid group of students who overcame a vehicle breakdown and withstood below freezing temperatures to watch "their" team play.
The inconvenience and expense of traveling north to participate in Homecoming festivities were two of several reasons students from the southern campus wanted their own intercollegiate athletic team. Then, in 1958 the first basketball team was established, providing some solace for students who had tired of traveling out of town to attend a "home" game.
But students yearned for not only a home team, but also the activities that go along with a Homecoming game. As a result, University Day was born.
The first University Day was held in the fall of 1958 when the southern campus welcomed visiting UNR students and faculty to stop by Frazier Hall on their way to Arizona to attend a football game between UNR and the University of Arizona. Tours and other activities were offered.
By the next year, however, it appears that University Day was on its way to becoming an event for Southern Nevadans; there was no mention in the yearbook of UNR's involvement in any way. And, soon, one day of activities gave way to a weekend of revelry. The 1962 Epilogue yearbook proclaimed University Day as "the biggest event on campus," replete with Greased-Pig, Pie-Eating, and Tug-of-War Competitions.
A young biology professor named James Deacon, who is now the chairman
of the environmental studies department, was later an active participant
in one of the more colorful events of University Day.
"I remember that the organizers of University Day would release a greased pig, and various student organizations would enter a team to try and catch the pig. My ichthyology class entered the contest, and I actually caught the pig. The next day the second-place team complained to student government that the class wasn't really a student organization. I offered to give them the trophy back but, in the end, the second-place team decided I should keep it."
Another central activity of University Day was the bonfire. But students didn't just throw some firewood together and strike a match; there was robust competition involved. Freshmen would construct a tower of combustibles and then physically fend off upperclassmen hell-bent on setting it ablaze.
"Ultimately, every bonfire was torched," recalls Deacon, adding that the bonfires were built right on the campus grounds. "The first year I was here they had a huge pile of debris [for the bonfire] right about where the library stands now." Photograph captions in the Epilogue document blazes that produced flames more than 30 feet into the air.
As the decade drew to an end, it was apparent that a few additional
traditions were heating up. Attention began shifting away from delicate
cotillions and moving toward angry demonstrations. By the early 1960s a
new tradition began to evolve on the Las Vegas campus: protests over
perceived inequities between the southern and northern branches of the
University of Nevada.
The 1963 Epilogue documents a student protest march down Fremont street in response to the Nevada Legislature's decision to concentrate its educational funding on the Reno campus. In 1967, students hanged then-Governor Paul Laxalt in effigy in front of Grant Hall to protest his decision not to increase funding for the southern campus. The days of Sno Ball Queens and cotillions were quickly coming to an end.
In the late 1960s, while college students across the country disrupted classes, took control of campus buildings, and generally railed against their schools' administrations, university students in Las Vegas did something rather unusual for their time: they joined with, rather than opposed, their campus administrators. They had a unifying cause - the fight for independence from UNR.
In 1967 Donald Baepler was hired to serve as academic vice president for the university. When he arrived on campus, he discovered that he would also be acting as the interim president until a permanent president could be hired. Baepler recalls his second week on campus.
"I had a group of student leaders call and make an appointment with me. And I thought, 'Oh, no, here it comes - my first set of student demands.' But as it turned out, the burning issue for these students was how to sever ties with Reno and how to secure a separate budget for the southern campus."
To illustrate the disparity between the support given the Reno campus and that given to the southern campus, the students built a shantytown of cardboard and wood on the grounds of the campus.
"They called the town 'Tumbleweed Tech,'" Baepler says, explaining the probable origins of a nickname that, to the dismay of many, became attached to the university as a whole for a number of years. But the construction of the shantytown worked well as a protest tactic, he notes. "They were successful in communicating their displeasure to the regents."
The efforts of students, faculty, and administrators were rewarded in
1968 when the university system was reorganized, and the southern campus
was given its autonomy - as well as a new name soon after: the University
of Nevada, Las Vegas.
"At that time, we were desperately in need of facilities, but the regents decided that what UNLV really needed was a football team," Baepler recalls. "The thinking was that a football program would build community support, and it did, to a certain degree."
That year, the newly formed team played its first game against the UNR Wolf Pack. In honor of the occasion, a replica of the howitzer used by trailblazer John C. Fremont was built to symbolize the football rivalry between the two universities.
"Possession of the cannon would go to the winning team, and both universities used to proudly display the cannon when it was in their possession," explains Fred Albrecht, who came to UNLV in 1970 as an assistant football coach and now serves as executive director of alumni and community relations.
"During the '70s, students from the losing university would try and steal the cannon," he adds. "UNR students would steal the cannon from us, and UNLV students would steal the cannon from UNR. Then some not-so-clever UNLV students got caught stealing the cannon and were detained by the authorities in Reno. To dissuade future students from engaging in this type of behavior, both universities decided to keep the cannon under lock and key from then on. We now lock the cannon in the athletic department when we have it."
The exchange of the Fremont Cannon is one tradition that has endured over the years, as has the use of the UNLV mascot, which was created the same year as the cannon and was also born out of the north/south rivalry.
"UNLV adopted the name Rebels and designed a mascot - a wolf named Beauregard - who was dressed in a Confederate uniform," Albrecht says. "The Confederate uniform was adopted because UNLV, the southern campus, had broken away from UNR. But there was considerable, and justifiable, opposition to the uniform."
In 1976, UNLV students voted to change the mascot from a wolf to a minuteman, complete with colonial hat and a long rifle. But many students opposed the use of the minuteman; while politically correct, he was not geographically accurate.
Finally, in 1977 the minuteman evolved into a pioneer with a buckskin outfit and a shotgun.
"The mascot has been modified over the years, but today's mascot retains the pioneer look we established in 1977," Albrecht explains.
As some traditions were born, others were expiring. Growing concerns about the environment eventually led to the end of the bonfire ritual. Changing social mores had already led to the quiet demise of the Sno Ball and Spring Cotillion. The war in Vietnam, the Watergate scandal, the energy crisis, and the recession had taken their toll. UNLV students were ready to party.
Although fraternities and sororities continued to sponsor formal and semi-formal balls, by 1978 the UNLV student body had grown too disparate and unceremonious to support universitywide dances. Student entertainment programmers decided that something more casual was in order - an event at which more comfortable attire could be worn. Oktoberfest was born.
Oktoberfest was a day-long celebration of what the 1980 Epilogue
proudly proclaimed to be the number one activity on campus - drinking.
Oktoberfest and its spring companion, Mardi Gras, were huge hits on
campus, thanks largely to the efforts of Entertainment and Programming
Chairman Dave Gist who, according to the Epilogue, "was in charge of
partying, and party, UNLV did."
Alums of that era gleefully recall the antics of The Fox, a middle-aged, fun-loving party animal whose claim to fame was chugging beers while standing on his head.
"The Fox was great," says 1984 graduate Rafael Villanueva, now the marketing director at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino and the president of the UNLV Alumni Association. "He would play the piano and sing these incredibly raunchy songs. He was a great draw. Hundreds of students would gather around outside the Moyer Student Union when The Fox was on campus. It was a great time for students to get together, to socialize, and to have some fun."
What the Fox was to Oktoberfest, Wet T-shirt contests, Best-Body Competitions, and Hot Legs Auditions were to the annual spring celebration known as Mardi Gras.
"Wet T-shirt contests were not the only activities that were offered during Mardi Gras," recalls former student Carl Cook, now UNLV's assistant director of alumni relations. "We had carnival rides in the parking lot outside the Moyer Student Union, and we had Lip-Synching and Pie-Eating Contests - and, of course, 25-cent beer."
But not everyone was enjoying the party. Many female students and faculty members disliked the blatant sexism associated with Wet T-shirt Contests, and more than a few faculty members were put out when students chose 25-cent beer over attending class. And the administration was concerned that UNLV was quickly gaining the reputation as a party school in a party town.
As Vice President for Student Services Robert Ackerman explains, the administration saw the writing on the wall.
"It was difficult for us to go to the community for support of our
strong academic programs when the prevailing picture from UNLV was of The
Fox standing on his head drinking beer," he says.
In 1988, the faculty and administration decided to confront the alcohol issue head-on. A committee of UNLV faculty, students, and staff met to develop an alcohol policy for the campus. The resulting policy specified that persons serving alcohol on campus had to complete an alcohol awareness training program that would enable them to recognize when a person had had enough. In addition, the policy restricted the times and events at which alcohol could be served. By the end of the decade, UNLV had become a pretty dry place.
But drinking wasn't the only source of amusement on campus during the late '70s and early '80s. For many students, regularly attending the games of the winning UNLV basketball team was a favorite tradition.
The success of the Runnin' Rebels in 1977 led to the creation of a basketball alumni association - a group whose primary purpose was to raise money to help fifth-year basketball players (who had exhausted their eligibility) complete their degrees. To raise funds, the group decided to create a new tradition by sponsoring challenge games between former Rebel players and current players.
"This was a great idea at first. Former players rearranged their schedules so that they could come back and play, and there was a lot of interest," Albrecht recalls. "But ultimately it became too costly. They were flying former players in from Miami or New York, and they started spending more money than they were making."
Like the Sno Ball and the bonfire that went before them, the challenge games quietly disappeared. And, by the end of the '80s most students seemed to have had their fill of hedonistic parties. It was time to have fun while making a difference.
Learning to have fun without the use of alcohol was the challenge facing students as the university entered its fourth decade.
UNLV's current student activities coordinator Sunny Martin describes the change in philosophy concerning student events as representative of a national trend.
"On a national level, many campuses adopted a dry-campus orientation in the late '80s and early '90s. The thinking was that universities should not be sponsoring events on campus that could lead to negative behavior."
Oozeball, or volleyball played in a pit of mud, was one of the ways students found to have fun without the use of alcohol. The game has grown in popularity in the eight years since its inception. In 1996, some 80 teams fought the ooze without booze.
"It's the perfect fall event," explains Cook, who brought the idea to campus and coordinates the games, along with Jeff Wells, UNLV's campus recreation director. "I try to schedule the event on an away-game weekend. It really empties out the dorm rooms."
Another event that evolved in the more socially responsible '90s was Unityfest, a day-long celebration of diverse cultures, food, and traditions.
"In 1996, more than 30 different student organizations participated in
the Unityfest, some of which did not have a specific cultural affiliation
but just wanted to be involved," Martin says. By 1990, Unityfest had
formally replaced Oktoberfest as the big party event on campus.
Less noticeable was the gradual evolution of Mardi Gras into the Spring Fling. Gone were the beer and Wet T-shirt Contests. Today, students blow off steam with oversized boxing gloves and human bowling tournaments.
"Spring Fling is one of the four major events that the university sponsors each year," explains Martin. "The other three are Unityfest, the Fall Welcome, and, of course, Homecoming."
Homecoming is perhaps the only student activity that has survived unscathed over the years. UNLV still elects a Homecoming queen and king, fraternities and sororities still build floats, and alumni are still invited to attend tailgate parties. But there have been a few changes.
"When UNLV joined the Western Athletic Conference in 1996, we added some bleachers to the stadium, and this prevented us from driving the Homecoming floats onto the field," Martin says, adding that since then, the floats have been displayed in the Moyer Student Union parking lot during the campus Homecoming festivities.
"But starting this year, the floats will be paraded through the Sam Boyd Stadium parking lot before the game. Also, we have decorated golf cart parades on campus down the academic mall, followed by a pep rally in the amphitheater to signal the start of Homecoming. But perhaps the biggest change has been the increasing participation of independent [non-Greek] students in the selection of the Homecoming royalty."
Tailgate parties, one of the few events at which alcohol is still served, also continue to grow at UNLV.
"We started tailgating 15 years ago in the parking lot of the stadium. We would provide a barbecue pit, and families would bring the food they wanted to cook," says Albrecht, adding that they later began offering food for those who didn't want to bring their own. "Then, four years ago we built a park with trees and picnic benches. We're working to make the tailgate parties fun and easy for families."
Martin predicts that as UNLV continues to define itself in the future, student activities will evolve to reflect those changing definitions.
"UNLV is striving to become more purposeful in its planning," Martin explains. "The point of student activities is to create a campus community where students feel they are a part of the campus. And there are many ways to do that."
Indeed.
