Dancing at Halftime: Sports and the Controversy over American Indian Mascots

Folded Leaves

Folded Leaves What was college like for a student in the 1920s? Arriving on the train at the University of Illinois, new students might have taken the streetcar straight to the YMCA or YWCA to get lists of accredited boardinghouses. Female students automatically became members of the Women’s League organized by the YWCA and were encouraged to attend the league’s Wednesday teas. For a fee, students could join the Illinois Union, which gave them access to the union building’s facilities and activities. Committees at the union planned dances every weekend, mixers and smokers for the men, torch light parades and pep meetings before games, and twilight sings in the springtime. The progress of the football team, whenever it played an out-of-town game, was reported by telegraph directly to an office in the union. Students who could afford the extra costs of membership and who were chosen joined social fraternities and sororities. The Greek system was one of the largest in the country. Upperclassmen had special privileges and there was an elaborate system of hats to distinguish the classes. In the spring, the freshmen built a bonfire and burned their green caps. Tradition forbade stepping on the bronze plaque in the floor of Lincoln Hall with the Gettysburg Address imprinted on it. Groups of men passing on campus, whether they knew each other or not, were expected to call out, “Hello Boys!” Good sportsmanship received a long entry in the student handbook. “At the end of each home football game, whether the team has won or lost, it is the custom of the student body to stand and sing Illinois Loyalty before leaving the field. “Furthermore, it is a custom that the spectators at all games remain until 96 the final whistle blows out of courtesy to the players, no matter what the score may be.” Rules included no smoking on campus, no cutting corners, no walking on the grass or defacing shrubbery or buildings, no drinking, no betting, no hazing. The YWCA handbook had even stricter “resolutions” for the Women’s League. Resolved, That strolling on the south campus or in other unfrequented places after dark is unwise. Resolved, That no member of this League shall knowingly attend a social affair where there is no chaperon present. Resolved, That the practice of patronizing restaurants late in the evening is to be condemned except in the University district. Resolved, That sentiments be created against cheap vaudeville. It’s not clear to me exactly how the young women were to “create sentiments against” the particular kind of vaudeville considered cheap. Banjos were the rage on campus in the 1920s. Al Jolson’s movie The Jazz Singer, in which he appeared in blackface, was popular all over the country and students picked up on the form and imitated it at their talent competitions. The 1920s were an era of migration to urban areas for both blacks and whites and these sudden changes created a nostalgia for all things rural. The blackface acts at talent shows and popular songs about darkies, like the “Illinois Medley” below, taken from a 1926 songbook, were imitations of what was playing at the small local theaters and in the movies. ILLINOIS MEDLEY “Don’t send my boy to Harvard,” A dying mother said; Don’t send my boy to Michigan, I’d rather he were dead; FOLDED LEAVES 97 But send my boy to Illinois, ’Tis better than Cornell; But rather than Chicago, I’d see my boy in ———. In the evening by the moonlight You can hear those banjo’s ringing; In the evening by the moonlight You can hear those darkies singing. Os-kee-wow-wow, Illinois; Our eyes are all on you; Os-kee-wow-wow, Illinois, Wave your Orange and your Blue. Rah-Rah! Then cheer that good ole Illini line, Spur them on to victory; Let’s give them nine men, cheer all the time, We’ll show our loyalty. Then fight, fight, for it’s victory or die, Keep that Orange and Blue waving high, All you good Illini, Cheer all the time, Cheer that Illini line. (Illini Song Book, published by the Illinois Union, 1926) While the students at Illinois and other campuses were reveling in the sporty new collegiate culture, attending football games in plus fours and lumpy raccoon coats, joining fraternities and sororities, strumming on banjos, and FOLDED LEAVES 98 dancing to...