OREGON FRAT NAVY: One House Goes All In On The War Effort

OREGON FRAT NAVY: One House Goes All In On The War Effort

Originally posted on CampusAttic.com on November 6th, 2013

     In its 137 years of existence, the University of Oregon has seen more than its fair share of unusual events, odd occurrences, and memorable moments. At no time did campus change more drastically and suddenly however than in 1916, following the establishment of the National Defense Act, and the strange result that followed — Oregon’s Frat Navy.

    With the first world war ravaging Europe, the United States had taken a firm isolationist stance of staying out of the war overseas. However when Mexican rebels led by Pancho Villa invaded New Mexico, it became clear that some military action was needed. The National Defense Act of 1916 established ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) programs at colleges across the country, training military officers for the inevitable entrance to the war.

    It would be another year before the United States officially entered what would come to be known as World War I, but the impact at the University of Oregon was felt long before then.

    In January 1916, UO President Prince Lucien Campbell established ROTC curriculum, led by a retired British officer, Lieutenant-Colonel John Leader. By March over 100 students were participating in drills on campus, with members of the Oregon National Guard supervising. Campus began to look more like a war zone, with trenches, rifle ranges, daily parade drills, and buildings on campus being converted into military barracks. By fall term, it was required that all able-bodied male students participate in ROTC.

    The vast majority of students joined the Army ROTC as part of the S.A.T.C. (Student Army Training Corps), but for the roughly 50 students that had decided to join the US Navy instead, they presented a conundrum to the war department. The navy didn’t want to send the students all the way to Florence or Newport for sea training, nor was bringing a ship up the Willamette River an option, so how to train these sailors-to-be?

    The solution presented was novel for the navy, and yet the most logical choice amidst the excess of buildings on and near campus being handed over to the military effort. Why not convert an on-campus fraternity house into an official US Navy ship? Forget that a frat house doesn’t float, we’ll make it work…somehow.

The Navy Unit of the SATC, Oregon’s Frat Navy, outside the U.S.S. Sigma Chi. (courtesy: 1920 Oregana yearbook-University of Oregon libraries and special collections)

    The Sigma Chi house earned the designation, becoming housing and the training vessel for Naval ROTC students. The USS Sigma Chi wasn’t sea-worthy, wasn’t near water, and certainly had no firepower, but the Oregon frat navy made the best of the circumstances.

    Designated the Naval Unit of the S.A.T.C., all 50 students had enlisted for four years in the United States Naval Reserve, they were given orders to prepare for Officers’ Training Schools soon after training at the university. An additional 12 students were added during the fall term, sent down from the naval station at Bremerton, WA for special course work available at the university.

    While the Navy had taken over Sigma Chi’s fraternity house, the Army unit’s grab of campus facilities were far greater. Friendly Hall, the men’s gymnasium, the women’s gymnasium, the Delta Tau Delta house, the Kappa Sigma house, and the Phi Delta Theta house all became Army barracks to house the approximately 450 army unit members.

The Sigma Chi fraternity house, or the U.S.S. Sigma Chi during the war. (courtesy: 1921 Oregana yearbook-University of Oregon libraries and special collections)

    Hindering development though was the global influenza pandemic. Often forgotten amidst the devastation of World War I, a flu bug rapidly spread around the world killing millions, and the University of Oregon was not excluded from its terror. Students were quarantined as the bug spread around campus, at one point 45 of the 62 navy men were in the hospital, including one death. To house all the ill students on campus and with Eugene’s hospital overflowing with patients, the Phi Gamma Delta and Phi Delta Theta houses were converted into infirmaries.

    As the flu’s impact slowly subsided, routine set in for the naval students, who were lacking an official officer and therefore were forced to train with the Army officers and abide by Army regulations. This understandably brought about some resentment, but the tables would soon turn.

    The arrival of an official Naval Officer, Ensign W.C. Heppenheimer, who had all of one year of experience overseas, brought about big changes. Army drills were replaced with lectures on navy regulations.

    Under Ensign Heppenheimer, every effort was made to modify the Sigma Chi fraternity house into something resembling an official US Navy ship. All beds were stripped and hammocks installed, life preservers were hung from the walls alongside navy signal flags, stairs became ladders, a large bell was installed to toll at the top of each hour, and an officer of the deck was assigned at the entrance that each sailor must report to upon stepping aboard the U.S.S. Sigma Chi. 

The steps of the house became the gang plank, the front porch was designated the bridge, all “decks” got a thorough scrubbing, and strict punishment came about for anyone who dared to refer to the house as anything other than a “ship.”

Officers of the SATC (courtesy: 1920 Oregana yearbook-University of Oregon libraries and special collections)

    Just like every sailor, whether on the water or in port, a “liberty pass” was a common request, asking permission to vacate the vessel, usually to attend class. The students took it in stride and eagerly adapted all the surly sailor rhetoric, implementing phrases like “belay there” and “pipe down” and “shove off” as much as possible, often to the dismay of professors when used in classes.

    The rivalry between the Navy and Army students widened. Army students referred to the naval crew as “members of the Never-See-France-Society,” “Gobs,” and “Land Sailors,” while in turn the Army members were called “Cootie Chasers.”

    While drastically outnumbered compared to their Army brethren, the Navy group had one very distinct advantage, as the Navy Unit provided the military police (or “M.P.’s”) on campus. This led to the commandant’s office being flooded with captured Army students being brought in on trumped-up charges of rules violations of all descriptions. Punishments dished out to the Army students typically were that of physical exercise, usually running a mile, or were instructed to in turn catch a navy man in the act of violating similar laws and reporting back.

Army Company B football team (courtesy: 1920 Oregana yearbook–University of Oregon libraries and special collections)

    Fuel was added to the fire when football teams were organized from both the Navy and Army units, and formed an Inter-company League. The Navy team played Army Company B to a 0-0 tie, and while they were slated to play Company A in the league championship, the game never materialized…likely the result of the excessive antics that developed during the first game.

    Campus meanwhile took a further turn towards resembling a military base. The Navy MPs patrolled Hello Lane (the path along old campus between Villard Hall and Friendly Hall), long lines of students in military garb outside of Friendly Hall awaiting their turn in the mess hall became a common site, and leaving campus required a pass from the Sergeant-Major.

    The women’s gymnasium being converted into military barracks left all female students with no place to participate in gymnastics outside of a small bungalow. This lack of facilities set in motion a call for a women’s building, and $10,000 were allocated in initial funding for a new building, which would come to fruition in the form of Gerlinger Hall.

    However, for all the training on campus for members of both the navy and army units, few would ever get the call. Only 41 of the total trainees were ever transferred out of the S.A.T.C., a result of the November 11th, 1918 Armistice, officially bringing an end to the so-called “war to end all wars.”

SATC battalion in review on the parade grounds of Kincaid Field (courtesy: 1920 Oregana yearbook-University of Oregon libraries and special collections)

    Shortly afterward, a permanent R.O.T.C. was established at the university, and an armory was built on campus. Sigma Chi got their fraternity house back, and the short era of its designation as an official U.S. Navy ship quickly faded into obscurity.

    The war however had forever changed campus, and its impact was felt hard. While few members of the officer enlistment programs ever saw action, many students and even faculty had enlisted as soon as war was declared, and did personally witness the perils of war. Whether from the influenza pandemic or direct military action, many did not return. It wasn’t exclusively the men either, among others the Dean of Women, Elizabeth Fox, left her position at the university to volunteer as a nurse in France for a year, and several professors also joined the war effort to serve in Europe.

Dean of Women Elizabeth Fox left the UO to be a nurse in France. 

(courtesy: 1920 Oregana yearbook-University of Oregon libraries and special collections)

    There was an entire Ambulance unit, the 361st Ambulance Company, comprised entirely of former University of Oregon students and Eugene residents, known as “the U of O Company”, which did serve during the war in France. In all 1,817 graduates, students, and faculty served in some capacity for the war effort. Of those, 47 died in the war, while many more were wounded in action.

    Others would go on to glory, in more ways than one.

    Shortly before the war broke out, Oregon’s football team had earned national headlines in defeating Penn at the 1917 East-West Tournament Game (later known as the Rose Bowl). With war being declared only a couple months later, several members of the football team enlisted, and somehow all ended up on the same Marine Corps military football team–the Mare Island Marines.

    Coached by a familiar face in Oregon’s Hugo Bezdek, the Mare Island Marines football team completed an undefeated season in the fall of 1917, including a 27-0 victory over the University of Oregon, before beating Camp Lewis in the 1918 East-West Tournament Game. The Mare Island Marines team included John Beckett, who was Oregon’s MVP in the 1917 East-West tournament game, and Hollis Huntington, the MVP of the 1918 game who had played alongside Beckett in the win the previous year over Penn.

    Several weeks after the Mare Island Marines victory in the East-West Tournament game, their unit was sent overseas to join the war in France.

    For the 47 University of Oregon students who died fighting in the war, a plaque honoring their ultimate sacrifice exists on the ticket booth entrance of Howe Field. The Howe Gate, between McArthur Court and Howe Field, was also erected as a war memorial dedicated to those students. The University of Oregon, like the rest of the world, would never be the same.

The Howe Field memorial plaque.