Originally posted on CampusAttic.com on December 18th, 2013
By
1909 the university had had enough, the hazing of freshmen was getting out
control. The constant torment and torture of new students in public was going
far beyond simple good-natured initiation, expanding to daily torture sessions
on the steps of Fenton Hall by way of paddles for any freshmen caught violating
the unwritten rules of campus etiquette arbitrarily set by upperclassmen, and
ruthlessly enforced.
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| Hazing a freshmen by way of the Millrace. (courtesy: UO Knight Library and Special Collections) |
Anything
from a freshmen not saying hi to every passer-by along Hello Walk (the path on
old campus between Friendly Hall and Villard Hall and Deady Hall), to being
seen without a green beanie or green pants, to sitting on the senior bench, or
too much “pigging” (spending too much time in pursuit of co-eds) were just some
of the violations deserving of reprimand.
Punishment
was dished out by means of being tossed in the Millrace, or dunked in the
senior fountain, or paddled on Fenton Hall’s steps, and any other form of
consequence deemed appropriate by the upper class collective. For the upperclassmen
it was fun, for the freshmen on campus a form of terrorism, ever vigilant to
learn “the Oregon Way” as quickly as possible to avoid reprimand, with the
knowledge that revenge could come in a couple years when they too were juniors
and seniors.
The
public displays of torment on campus had become an embarrassment for university
officials, and hazing was officially outlawed. This didn’t stop it of course,
but at least made an official university stance that there could be
consequences for seniors dishing out their class duty upon the freshmen at the
University of Oregon.
From
the time that the No Hazing Decree had been issued, there had been a sense that
something was needed in its stead, an opportunity to keep freshmen in their
place, but in a method more acceptable to the university administration. In
1910, an alternative was proposed and approved, which quickly became an annual
tradition at the University of Oregon for years to come — The Underclass Mix.
The
idea was simple, really. Organize a series of competitions between the freshmen
and sophomore classes, rigging it to ensure that the sophomores always won, in
a public setting that the students and whole community could observe. Perhaps
make it part of homecoming or junior weekend, and upon completion the rite of
passage is finished, once the freshmen are effectively humiliated they will
have earned their place at Oregon.
It
was the 1910 juniors that sought approval for the proposal with Dean Walker,
president of the 1913 freshmen class, and the format for such an event was
agreed to by the faculty. It was to be held at Kincaid Field, the all-purpose
athletic facility that predated Hayward Field, which stood between Johnson Hall
and Condon Hall in the area now known as Memorial Quad.
Kincaid Field was a sloppy mud bog used for football and track, complete with
bleachers for students and the community to come watch the festivities. The
Underclass Mix would henceforth be the official freshmen hazing event, aimed at
quelling the physical punishments that might otherwise be dished out all year.
The
first Underclass Mix at Kincaid Field was held in 1911, and it began with a
rather motley parade of sorts, the crowd gathered in the bleachers to witness
the madness. The freshmen class marched in through varsity gate, led by a
“German Band,” many freshmen carrying megaphones or other noisemakers to make
their presence known. The sophomore class followed, led by a costumed funeral
corps, carrying a large black coffin that said “1915”, a jab at the
freshmen–the class of ‘15.
Female
students were excused from the competition, while the males from the freshmen
and sophomore classes took their respective sides of Kincaid Field to the
constant berating from the grandstands. On the slate for the day between the
representatives of the under classes was an 8-man half-mile relay race, a
hundred yard dash, a potato sack race, a three-legged race, a tug-of-war
competition, a school yelling (cheerleading) competition, fun class skits, and
the main event of the day — push ball. The Kincaid Field scoreboard tracked the
point totals of each class, with scoring decided by the seniors.
The
first Underclass Mix would be perhaps the only one in history where the
freshmen were given a fair chance to compete, with little hi-jinx fixing things
in the sophomore’s favor. It wouldn’t stay that way, the cheating involved in
later years on behalf of the sophomores would have made a Las Vegas gangster
involved in boxing blush.
One
event was held outside of Kincaid Field, the tug-of-war. For that competition,
students marched over to Carson’s Lake, a man-made pond on campus located where
McKenzie Hall stands today, a festering pool of mud and garbage and a mosquito
breeding ground. It was here that the legacy of the constant cheating
surrounding the Underclass Mix began, as unbeknownst to the freshmen lined up
on one side of the pond, the other end of the rope had been attached behind the
line of sophomores to a nearby car. When the competition began, the car and
sophomores began to tug, the frosh almost instantly went flying into the pond.
Back
at Kincaid Field, the freshmen won the half-mile relay, the hundred yard dash,
the potato sack race, and the three-legged race; helped by several athletes who
would end up stars on Bill Hayward’s track teams in the years to come. The
tug-of-war had of course gone decidedly in the sophomore’s favor thanks to some
automotive assistance, leaving the push ball contest as the deciding event.
Thirty five men fought over shoving the enormous ball up and down the Kincaid
Field football turf, a game with little rules and a no-holds-barred cavalier
attitude, other than somehow moving the giant ball to one end of the field by
any means necessary. The push ball contest went in the sophomore’s favor, and
with it they were deemed the victors of the Underclass Mix.
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|
Images
from the 1911 Underclass Mix. (courtesy: UO Knight Library and Special
Collections)
|
The
event had been a hugely popular success. The student body loved it, the
university hoped the day’s melee would prevent public displays of torture over
the course of the rest of the year, and even the participants thought it great
fun. It was decided to add the event to the annual college calendar, and so
going forward there would be a battle of freshmen and sophomores scheduled for
the second Saturday after registration every fall.
The
Underclass Mix didn’t stop all hazing on campus, but the year definitely saw a
more subdued rash of punishments dished out compared to the constant assaults
prior to the hazing ban.
The
1912 edition of the Underclass Mix would add a few more events to the
competition, including what was dubbed “the sandbag scramble.” With the first
Underclass mix being a bit closer than the upperclassmen wanted, things were
tilted more towards the sophomore’s advantage. Both the freshmen and sophomores
took the event more seriously, the frosh even holding a rehearsal on Kincaid
Field a couple nights before the event to prepare.
The
Push Ball match was a draw, and the tug-of-war over Carson’s Lake was again won
by the sophomores, this time without the aid of cheating, well…kinda. The
freshmen were down a man.
During
the festivities at Kincaid Field, the freshman class president was hauled away
by a police patrol, with the assistance of the sophomore class. He had been
coerced to vacate the grandstands and take the field while officers showed up
supposedly to arrest sophomores that has been acting in an “undecorous manner”,
but once out on the field the freshman president was quickly captured by
sophomores and dragged away to a paddy wagon by police who were well aware of
the need to ensure that the deck was stacked against the freshmen for the
events. The police had been on sight to escort the freshmen boys and girls onto
the Kincaid Field grounds, protecting them from the cat calls and attack from
the juniors and seniors in the grandstands.
The
final tally was Sophomores 72 ½ Freshmen 12 ½, with the frosh only beating the
sophomore class in the competition for grandstand decorations. For the first
time women had actively participated in the event, contributing to the class
yell competition, formation of the class numerals, and grandstand decoration.
 |
| Images from the 1914 Underclass Mix. (courtesy: UO Knight Library and Special Collections) |
As
each year passed, the annual Underclass Mix grew larger and more absurd in both
its pageantry and rampant cheating. Each class would parade in individually led
by their own band and proceed to go through various skits. The 1914 Underclass
Mix involved an exploding coffin, stuffed with dynamite labeled “1917” after
“flowers” (cabbages and potatoes) had been sorrowfully scattered about as if at
a funeral.
Capture
the flag, water balloon fights, singing competitions, various feats of physical
exhaustion and ridiculousness aimed at proving through direct competition which
class had more school spirit were added over the years. It was always slanted
in favor of the sophomores, as the juniors and seniors determined the rules and
scoring allotment, which were always subject to change, often while in
mid-competition.
The
tongue-in-cheek sarcastic saying that would come to be forever associated with
the event was for all involved to refer to it as “the squarest mix.” Indeed, it
always was the squarest of mixes, no cheating here, move along, and beware ye
freshmen! The freshmen might argue otherwise as to the squareness of the
events, but if it came down to this or paddled on the Fenton Hall steps, the
Underclass Mix was a welcome alternative.
Traditions
sprouted up around the event, not just at the mix itself. Within a couple years
of the first Underclass Mix, it became routine for warning signs of “Death To
Ye Freshmen!” to be adorned around campus, warning of all the rules that must
be followed, and subsequently violated willfully by the sophomores and
upperclassmen, to ensure that it remains a square mix. That stipulation wasn’t
always followed by the freshmen, as in the 1916 Underclass Mix they
accomplished what had been done to the 1912 Frosh, kidnapping the sophomore
class president, though he was returned unharmed when the seniors demanded his
release.
The
Underclass Mix became the pregame festivities for fall football games,
something to rile up a crowd before Hugo Bezdek’s teams took on an opponent at Kincaid
Field. For many, it was the highlight of the year on the college calendar.
It
seemed the Underclass Mix would be a permanent mainstay at Oregon, but the
first world war and subsequent Spanish influenza pandemic drew an end, at least
temporarily, to the festivities in 1918. Nothing would change the UO campus
more than the first world war, as campus buildings and houses became barracks
and many students enlisted for the war effort. A large ROTC unit was
established and an armory built, and as trenches and daily military drilling
replaced rambunctious college hi-jinx, the underclass Mix debauchery just
didn’t fit with the campus mood. The event would eventually go off, but not
until February, after the global flu pandemic subsided.
In
future years “Senior Police” would oversee the events, recognizable by their
sombreros, silver stars, and of course paddles. Tied in with fall football
games, it was often football players and coaches that were assigned the duties
of being the official judges of the events prior to the football game, to
ensure it remained “the squarest mix.” The pre-events came to be almost as
exciting as the competition itself, the preparations and attempted sabotage by
both classes often leading to conflicts before the judges and crowds arrived.
The
1921 Underclass Mix also pushed the levels of absurdity, aided by torrential
weather, it was jokingly deemed to be a swimming competition. The event began
with the classes arriving on the grounds, appropriately costumed for the downpour,
with the freshmen president dressed as a sheik in a bathing suit being led
nonchalantly through the mud of Kincaid Field, much to the displeasure of Dean
Straub.
The competition was one of the closest in the history of the Underclass Mix,
with the tug of war deciding it in an odd manner, when the rope actually broke.
Upon inspection, the judges decided that the fact that the sophomore’s end of
the rope had been tied to the Kincaid Field goalposts had no effect on the
competition, and with the sophomore’s retaining a larger portion of the broken
rope, they were deemed the victors. Once again, it was the squarest mix held at
the university.
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| Images from the 1922 Underclass Mix. (courtesy: UO Knight Library and Special Collections) |
Over
time the Underclass Mix became known as the Fresh-Soph Mix, with some of the
craziness of the early years subsiding to instead be an annual tug-of-war
event, now done across the Millrace. Just as the event had always been square
before, so too was it ensured that somehow the freshmen would always lose, even
if the assistance of vehicles on the sophomore side of the waterway was needed
to assure victory. Even if the freshmen managed to win the initial pull,
dunking the sophomores in the Millrace, there stood nearby plenty of seniors
ready to throw all freshmen into the water to declare the sophomores the
winners — the squarest of tug of wars.
By
1940 the Underclass Mix was no more, the annual festivities had simply died off
over time. The idea of hazing on campus lived on, as students occasionally
still got paddled, or dunked in the senior fountain, or thrown in the Millrace,
but only if they deserved it. The underclass tug-of-war survived across the
Millrace, and other rites of passage of initiating freshman proved more popular
than the Underclass Mix, like painting the O on Skinners Butte, where freshmen
would slide down the school’s O while covered in yellow paint.
The
tug of war also was moved to a spring event, part of the annual Junior Weekend,
which combined a junior dance, school-wide picnic, mothers weekend, and the
canoe fete. Junior Weekend itself was an extension of the first University of
Oregon annual holiday, which still exists to this day, a day off from classes
to beautify campus — University Day.
In
1942 it was proposed that a pushball game be brought back from the original
Underclass Mix competitions to replace the frosh-soph tug of war, but the
injuries that resulted were numerous.
By
then the country was once again fully immersed in a world war, and with
students enlisting and the ROTC once again dominating life on campus, events
like these just didn’t seem that important any more. The war effort took all
focus, and with most male students training for overseas departure, the amount
of able-bodies to participate anyway were few and far between. Instead of
interclass competitions, fundraising events were held to contribute to the war
effort. The university barely fielded official athletic teams that year, and in
1943 and 1944 there were no university intercollegiate athletics, all focus was
on the war.
Hazing
in various forms would return, though not exactly the open season it had once
been on all freshmen, and initiations fell mostly to behind the scenes secret
ceremonies at the fraternities and sororities.
Freshmen
at the University of Oregon once were required to wear green beanies and green
pants, burning their beanie in a ceremony at junior weekend that ended their
year of persecution, and mercilessly tortured by upperclassmen. They once were
required to cover themselves in paint and give the O a new yellow coat, to
build the bonfire pyre during homecoming, to guard the O on Skinners Butte to
prevent rampaging Beavers from sabotaging it, and much more.
While these traditions have been lost to time, the legacy of the Underclass Mix
shouldn’t be forgotten, a time in Oregon’s history when alternatives and
compromise led to what was for years a fun and lighthearted event in which the
whole community and university could participate.
It
was, after all, the squarest mix.
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| 1942 Push Ball competition between freshmen and sophomores, the last hurrah of the Underclass Mix. (courtesy: UO Knight Library and Special Collections) |
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