November of last year (no doubt the result of mining newspapers for entries on World War One and the ongoing crisis with Mexico), I posted this item from the Wyoming Student (today's Branding Iron) regarding Freshman Beanies:
Freshman Caps? The Wyoming Student, November 2, 1917
As noted, I was amazed as I'd never heard of UW having Freshman beanies.
In trying to look those up, I ended up quoting from materials about other universities as I really couldn't find much in regards to the University of Wyoming and Freshman Beanies.
Well now the American Heritage Center in Laramie has run this item:
Beanies, Brooms and Bother: UW Freshmen Get the Initiation Treatment
That article reveals that at least as late as 1967 UW freshmen still wore beanies. Apparently they wore them, at that time, from the start of school until the first home football game. The story further reveals:
After the UW Cowboys scored their first touchdown, the students threw their beanies in the air and never had to wear them again. The tradition of beanies apparently goes back to 1908 when male students had to wear green caps and women green stockings. During the 1920s, freshmen had to wear the beanies until Homecoming.
Weird.
And that would have been trouble for me. I went to the University of Wyoming for a grand total of six years, three as an undergraduate and three as a law student, and I never once saw a UW football game. I guess I would have, had I gone then, as getting rid of the beanie would really have been a goal.
All that's a form of hazing, of course, but fairly gentle hazing. It seems absurd now, but almost every outfit that's tight knit in some fashion has rituals of that type, whether it be getting to wear your soft cap in basic training or getting to ditch your beanie at university. A ritual of belonging.
Now all that has gone away, it seems. And frankly I wouldn't have lamented the beanie one darned bit. I'd have hated that. Of course, in the 1960s I would have been unlikely to endure that as Casper College opened up in the 1940s and I'd have been more likely to have gone there. Indeed, just knowing myself, if I'd been a high school graduate in 1961, instead of 1981, I'd like have attended CC until 1963 and then graduated with an undergraduate degree in 65 or 66 and in 67. . . I'd have probably been in Vietnam. A sobering though.
Anyhow, just pondering it, these rituals are gone. In their place, but only tangentially, are mandatory classes on diversity in the broadest sense. Changed times, to be sure.
The American Heritage Center article also discusses the hill at UW with a big W on it. Apparently a custom of white washing the big W started in 1917, but it's long died out as well. The W can still be seen if you know where to look for it. The article features a photo from 1953 of the white washing, which is interesting in that its two male students directing two female students in the activity. . .hmmmm.
Casper College also had a hill with a C on it, called appropriately enough "C Hill". The C is long gone.
Well, it's fall, and the students head back.
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