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memorabilia:
1931-1950
1931
A 40-year-old Indian chief graces the cover of a campus magazine and leads to the creation of SU's most famous mascot, the Saltine Warrior. The story about unearthing ancient Indian artifacts beneath a campus building is a hoax, but the Warrior remains SU's mascot until 1978, when American Indian students complain that the mascot is offensive.
1933
Faculty members agree to take a 10 percent salary cut as part of the University's program of retrenchment during the Depression. The Joseph Slocum College of Agriculture, the only private agricultural school in the country, is eliminated 20 years after its founding.
1934
The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications is founded.
1937
William Pratt Graham becomes SU's sixth chancellor. In November, Graham and former president Herbert Hoover preside over the dedication ceremonies of Maxwell Hall.
1938
Though its flash point may have been a football game, the 70-year rivalry between Syracuse and Colgate was as noted for the creativity and pranks it produced as the memorable games that were played. Students at both schools often created giant, fanciful placards before the game and held wild parties. SU students annually kidnapped Colgate students and shaved their hair into Ss. One time they nearly succeeded in capturing the entire Colgate band. Another time they dumped orange dye from a plane into a lake on Colgate's campus. Colgate students retaliated by "scalping" many SU students and covering the Saltine Warrior statue in maroon paint. Downtown hotels in Syracuse, wary of overzealous fans, often removed all lobby furniture during the weekend of the game. The football teams first met in 1891 and became heated rivals in 1897, when a newspaper reporter sympathetic to Colgate's cause tackled an SU runner on his way to a would-be winning touchdown. The rivalry may have reached its height during the twenties and thirties, when Colgate held its "Hoodoo" jinx over Syracuse-14 years passed between Syracuse wins. Before the 1938 game, Colgate supporters hired a plane and dropped leaflets onto the SU campus announcing that "The Hoodoo Is Coming." Syracuse respoded by winning the football game and dropping leaflets on the Colgate campus. Their message? "The Hoodoo Is Dead."
1939
Daily Orange editor Elizabeth Donnelly gains widespread attention as one of the nation's first female college newspaper editors.
1941
The Flour Rush, a tradition stretching back more than 60 years, ends after a student is injured. The Flour Rush actually began as the Salt Rush, with sophomores sprinkling salt on unseasoned freshmen on their first day of college. It grew into something of a University-approved annual battle between classes. Freshmen attempted to scale Crouse hill, which was defended by sophomores, who fortified their position by raining sacks, bags, and stockings full of salt down upon the freshmen. Flour eventually replaced salt as the weapon of choice.
1941
The Corner Store, a soda fountain on the corner of Crouse and University avenues and a campus landmark since 1908, is gutted by fire.
1942
William Pearson Tolley becomes chancellor. During his 27-year tenure, enrollment soars from 5,600 to 16,000, assets rise from $15 million to $200 million, and more than 20 buildings are erected.
1942
More than 2,000 Air Force cadets come to campus for specialized training. From 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. they are not allowed to stroll the campus alone or say anything but hello or thank you to a co-ed. The punishment for disobeying this order is a 25-hour walk.
1943
Sports are canceled during the 1943-44 school year as World War II rages on.
1945
The School of Architecture is founded.
-Charlotte Heers
1945
Sophomore Charlotte Heers is named Miss Nobody by the Daily Orange after a campus-wide hunt is completed to find the woman who best represents the average co-ed. Heers says she's pleased by the honor.
1946
More than one million World War II veterans started their college educations in 1946 under the G.I. Bill, which guaranteed tuition, room, board, and a small allowance for returning veterans. Not every university was willing to tolerate the disruption caused by an influx of thousands of new, and often older, students. Syracuse was an exception. SU set the national drumlins standard for welcoming veterans-and earned praise from President Harry S. Truman-by admitting 9,464 in 1946.
Enrollment literally tripled overnight. Housing was a major effort. More than 900 Quonset huts, barracks, and trailers sprang up along Comstock Avenue, in the University Farm (now Skytop and Slocum Heights), and in the Drumlins orchard. More space was needed, however, and many veterans were forced into temporary off-campus housing. Chancellor William Pearson Tolley had to deliver his freshman address three times-once on campus, once in Baldwinsville, and once at the State Fairgrounds, where hundreds of veterans bunked in cow barns
1947
The Goon Squad is created to enforce the wearing of freshmen beanies, which are supposed to enable upperclassmen to easily spot freshmen and offer them help and guidance. Instead, beanies become a way to harass freshmen. Architecture students of the forties are particularly harsh on beanie-less freshmen-they're carried off to be dunked in a sink. Beanies become obsolete after the 1970 student strike.
1947
The worst fire in school history guts Archbold Gymnasium. Destroyed are the University's bowling alley, swimming pool, crew room, and $75,000 worth of athletic equipment.
1950
The College of Medicine becomes part of the State University of New York system.
1950
Edna Brandau, a professor of applied arts, says better eating habits are the main reason why Syracuse co-eds are prettier than they were 10 or 20 years ago. "Girls today eat a rounded meal, merely cutting out those foods which would make them plump or give them a bad complexion."