The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, January 22, 1924, Image 1

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    RICE!
REMEMBER 7-6
Published Weekly by the Students’ Association of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas.
VOL. XXII.
BRYAN, TEXAS, JANUARY 22, 1924.
NUMBER 15.
OLDER BOYS
CONFERENCE
TO MEET HERE
EARLY AGGIE FOOTBALL DAYS
REVIEWED BY HAL MOSELEY
Cadets Meant Business When They Hired Their First Coach Back
in ’98. Discusses Work to be Done by A. and M. Exes.
ABASKETBALL
COURT IS VERY
MUCH NEEDED
Many Prominent Lecturers on Pro
gram for Twelfth Annual
Meeting.
Observing leaders of boys through
out America and Europe united in
declaring that the Older Boys’ Con
ference held under the auspices of
the Young Men’s Christian Asocia-
itons are wielding a tremendous in
HAL HOSELEY OF DALLAS, 1900.
Moseley was captain of the foottball teams in ’98 and ’99, being the sec
ond football captain ever to be elected at Aggieland. Dud Perkins of Mc
Kinney was the first captain.
Hal was City Engineer at Dallas in 1915. He served with the 20th En
gineers in P’rance as a captain and after the war was made city commissioner
of Dallas. He is now engaged in the crushed stone business.
Hal has been one of the most consistent A. and M. workers in North
Texas and is leaning a little heavier against the collar just now than ever be
fore.
fluence among our young people at
thi stime of crisis.
This year the Y. M. C. A. is doing
the College a great honor as well as
a material benefit by conducting the
conference here. It is expected that
four hundred delegates will attend
the convention. At Dallas last year
there were 732 delegates in attend
ance with many visitors. This year
the number has been restricted to
bud including the adult ladies and
lecturers.
The purpose of the convention is
to develope Christian character, con
duct, and leadership among the
young men of Texas. If it is true
regarding the influence of this con
vention on our young manhood, it is
quite fitting that each considerable
center of society in the state be ful
ly represented. Our High School or
working boy from your community
may revolutionize the situation
among the young men and boys
there. It is amost opportune time
for students o fthe College to have
a friend from home that is interested
in the work done for an inspection
of the College. In the interests of
our College, if for nothing more, in
vite some of the high school ath
letes to the convention. Let them
become familiar with our atmos
phere. Glance into the future—the
sample of College life they see he
may induce them to our camp.
Then in a year or so these boys that
made their acquaintance with the
College through this convention may
help to bear the proverbial Aggie
torch. There will be a special re
duced rate on all railroads for the
convention.
During October 1897, the corps of
cadets of A. and M. College 200 strong
visited Dallas to attend the State
Fair. Their coming was given no pub
licity by the local papers and the pub
lic hardly knew that they were in
town. It was my good fortune to see
the cadets in the wonderful grey uni
forms that day, and as I had been
planning on going away to school the
appearance of the cadet corps in Dal
las completely sold the College to me.
In a week’s time I was on my way
to College Station. I shall never for
get my arrival at College. It was on
Friday, November 11, 1897. Of course
the arrival of a fish at that late date
was noticeable to the cadets and I
suppose that I would have been in line
for a real initiation had it not been
for a stroke of good luck for me. On
Saturday the Aggies were to play
Add-Ran University (now T. C. U.)
and fortunately for me I had played
football in Dallas for a number of
years and as the Aggies had but
eleven players I was substituted for a
player who got hurt. That game
seemed to make me solid with the ca
dets and I gv.-t cut of the usual in
itiation.
The team was badly beaten that
day, but the defeat was the birth of
real football at the college. At one
of those wonderful pep meetings held
at the old chapel immediately after
the game it was decided that we must
have a coach for the balance of the
season, for we had one more impor
tant game to play and it was not with
Texas, for we were not yet in their
class. On Thanksgiving Day we play
ed Austin College at Sherman and
won by a score of six to nothing.
Charles Taylor of Bacon University
was our coach, and was the first one
ever employed by Texas A. and M.
College. We had to pay Taylor $125
per month and expenses. That was
some salary for a coach in those days.
Early football days at College were
not a bed of roses for the men that
attempted to make the team. We had
practically no equipment of any kind,
there was but one pair of bought
football shoes on the team, and they
were for the full back for he was
supposed to do the kicking. The fac
ulty as a whole were not in favor of
football and those that did not want
the game sure made it hard for the
boys in the class room.
We bad no trouble with the finances
to run the team for there were none.
Schedules were not made out in ad
vance but were made as we could raise
the money, when we had raised suf
ficient money at fifty cente per cadet
to bring some team to College we
would then arrange a game to suit the
amount of money on hand. Playing
away from home was even worse for
we could always eat at College
whether we had the money or not,
but such was not the case when awey.
I remember once playing in Houston
and having our baggage held by the
hotel because our hotel bill had not
been settled.
We old Aggies pioneered football
at College just as some of our fore
fathers pioneered in the early devel
opment of this great state. Besides
pioneering the game at College we
were instrumental in developing that
bull dog tenacity out of which was
born in later days that “Aggie fight;”
(Continued on Page 2)
Present Gymnasium is Far From Ad
equate and Larger Court Needed
For Growing Crawds.
The provision of an adequate bas
ketball court and gymnasium facil
ities has passed from the realm of
things we should like to have and has
become an actual necessity. Where
shall we play and witness basketball
contests in the season of 1925?
I
The present so-called gymnasium
is inadequate to handle the crowds
that would attend the basketball con
tests this season were seats avail
able. This year it is insufficient.
Next year it will be impossible. It
is extremely doubtful whether the old
building would weather another sea
son. Year before last the Athletic
Council spent several thousand dol
lars in enlarging and rearranging the
old structure which was built by stu
dents and Coach Charlie Moran along
about 1911. The seating capacity was
increased to 3500 and now that is in
adequate. The building is old and in
! such conditions that further repairs
j and readjustments can not be made.
; One of the biggest tasks the Ath-
| letic Council faces now is the question
| of a gymnasium. It would be folly to
I construct a half-way suitable and in
adequate building. What is done
must be done on a big scale, sufficient
to take care of our natural increases
for at least the next ten years. A
seating capacity of at least five thous
and should be provided. A playing
court and two practice courts which
could be used during the day as a
laboratory for corrective gymnastics
and in the afternoons and evenings by
the Fish and Reserve teams for prac
tice; adequate dressing rooms, show
ers, and sleeping quarters for visit
ing teams as well as the home teams
should be included in the plans. Not
less than $1000,000 will be required to
provide such a building and another
fifty thousand dollars should be avail
able for equipment, etc., to the end
that the building might really serve
the purposes for which it is intended.
How to finance it is the question.
Two or three ways are open. One is
gum ©OJJ® PIBDlPaPg — ©(UJIE