Traditions

Emporia State University Special Collections and Archives, 2016

Background: Allah Rah, 1963

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Colleges all across the nation maintain their own traditions. Some are generic, like Tug-of-War, while others are more specific to that institution. An example of this would be the College of Emporia’s yearly tradition to have freshman girls drink from “bottles” and paint their faces. C of E did a fantastic job of marking yearly traditions through pictures and the Allah Rah’s annual log. Emporia State University, on the other hand, while it had traditions of its own, did not document them as well. Not all traditions could be considered just fun and games. Both colleges had a tradition of Freshmen being required to wear beanies. If a student was found bare-headed, they could be subjected to paddle court. Once a student was found guilty, their punshiment was a number of whacks with a paddle. Traditions such as those were ceased due to the acts being considered hazing. Traditions also came in the form of events like ESU’s Curli-Q variety show or C of E’s Scrap Day where Freshmen competed in events.

Curi-Q started in the 1946-47 school year. This was one of Emporia State Univeristy’s most loved traditions. It was a student produced variety show to raise money, initially for the music department. The production has since turned into the Homecoming Musical starting in 1971.

For the hard fought Tug-of-War battle, the Freshmen still had to have on their beanies! If the Freshman won the tug-of-war, they did not have to wear their beanies. Campus stories say that the only group of freshman to ever win the tug-of-war were the young men returning from WWII.

The Gwinn Cemetery is full of buried footballs and headstones bearing the scores of the C of E winning football games. After a win, a funeral was held, conducted by the Freshman class. This is a tradition that started in the early 1918 by football coach Gwinn Henry, and continued until the school’s closing in 1973.

Boxing matches were early traditions for both ESU and C of E. This photo from the 1927 Allah Rah shows how amicable these fights between opponents were.

The Freshman vs. Sophomore Flag Scrap at C of E was a tradition that started at dawn and continued until the players got tired or lunch was called. Usually the Freshman team won this glorified game of capture the flag.

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The freshmen attending the College of Emporia were required to wear their beanies whenever they were on campus until after the first football game of the semester. After that first game, the frosh were considered to be true C of E students!

A group of girls in 1964 show off their freshly braided hair. This tradition started around 1924 with the Freshman girls wearing their hair in two pig tails for Scrap Day.

Allah Rah, 1909.

Allah Rah, 1927.

Allah Rah, 1967.

Sunflower, 1963.

Allah Rah, 1965.

Allah Rah, 1964.

Sunflower, 1956.