The Battalion
LIFE
Monday, May 1,1989
The Battalion
Page 9
A&M facts,
figures
and trivia
Campus buildings
source of history,
university legends
By Katsy Pittman
FEATURE WRITER
For all you Aggie fans who think
you know everything about A&M
history, see if you can guess the fol
lowing campus buildings.
• This campus building once
sheltered visiting Budweiser Clydes
dales.
• This is probably the most com
monly mispronounced building on
campus.
• Cows and pigs occasionally es
caped from this central campus
building and roamed around cam
pus.
• The construction costs for this
building ran 94 cents over budget.
• This building is now being ren
ovated for more than 27 times its
original cost.
• This building is rumored to be
the home of the ghost of a campus
employee.
If you weren’t able to answer all of
the previous questions, there may be
i some interesting campus trivia you’d
like to know.
For instance, it was the Pavilion
that served as an overnight hotel to
those famous Clydesdales. The
s building was converted from an ani-
f mal arena to a registration center in
1981. Computer terminals and a
snack bar now take the place of a dirt
floor, arena, and cattle stalls.
The exterior of the Pavilion looks
; about the same today as it did when
; it was first built. However, the origi
nal 1916 plans called for a portico to
be supported by columns, which
then would be supported by the
backs of kneeling concrete bulls.
The most commonly mispro
nounced building on campus? It’s
most likely that of our favorite din
ing hall — Sbisa.
University archives show it was
named after Bernard Sbisa, the offi
cial supervisor of subsistence in the
early 1900s. Rumor has it that Sbisa
only served one meal late. That one
delay was when the old Mess Hall
burned down on the morning of
Nov. 11, 1911. Breakfast that morn
ing wasn’t served until 10 a.m.
For those interested in getting
down the correct pronunciation, it
should be pronounced as “spee-zah”
instead ol “suh-bee-suh.”
The building responsible for a
little animal frolic a few years back
was none other than the Animal In
dustries builiding, across from the
Pavilion on Spence Street. Although
the building with stone cows’ skulls
adorning its roof is used now pri
marily for more traditional class
room purposes, it once served as the
campus slaughterhouse.
There is also a legendary ghost of
the Animal Industries building —
that of meat laboratory manager
Roy Simms. During routine meat
cutting 25 years ago, Simms’ knife
slipped and cut straight through the
femoral artery in his groin. For
many years, late-shift workers in the
Goodwin Hall, the oldest building on campus, was constructed in 1908 at a cost of $53,000 — 94 cents over budget.
Photo by Dean Saito
building complained of eerie noises
and elevator ghost rides in the dark
hours of the night.
The Grand Old Dame of campus
— the Academic Building — was
built in 1914 for $225,000. Built to
replace the Old Main building which
burned to the ground in 1912, the
Academic Building today is still con
sidered one of the finest architectu
ral monuments of its time.
A little-known fact about the Aca
demic Building has to do with its
structural designer, Professor F.E.
Giesecke. According to Ernest Lang
ford’s book, “Here We’ll Build the
Campus,” workers were unable to
drill through floors to install drink
ing fountains in the early 1930s.
Questioned about the mesh of
steel bars between floors, Giesecke is
reported to have said, “I knew a
whole lot less about reinforced con
crete than I do now. So I just figured
out the amount of steel for which I
thought was necessary and doubled
it!”
The other architectural wonder
on campus — the Systems Adminis
tration building — is famed for its
marble, huge urns, and its 14 grand
columns.
Ever wonder who the helmeted,
bearded man is who adorns the top
of each column? Legend has it that it
was the architect’s idealized portrait
of the typical A&M student.
The building whose construction
See Buildings/Page 11
Steam tunnels lure students into darkness;
mystery awaits beneath A&M sidewalks
By Donald Kopf
FEATURE WRITER
Many people on campus know
about them, but few people actually
have dared to explore them. With
about 4.5 miles of underground pas-
j sageways, the steam tunnels have
j long been a source of curiosity for
! Texas A&M students.
Built in the 1930s to house utility
lines extending from the newly built
power plant on the north side of
campus, the tunnels have been thor-
joughly explored by students for
; more than 50 years.
Containing a combined total of
| about 22 miles of water pipes, elec
tric cables, refrigeration lines and
computer lines, the dark tunnels of
fer any tunneling enthusiast thou
sands of nooks and crannies to poke
his nose into.
Ed Kozlowski, A&M associate di
rector for maintenance and modifi
cation, said maintenance personnel
do their best to make the tunnels se
cure against curious students.
In the past, people used the tun
nels to perpetrate thefts and bomb
threats and to set fires, he said. As a
result, motion sensors and heavy
doors have been installed to stop
these and other illegal activities.
Kozlowski said another reason for
all the security measures is because
they’re afraid someone exploring
will get hurt or lost.
“When someone is in the tunnels
illegally, chances are maintenance
knows about it,” Kozlowski said.The
only time the tunnels are patrolled is
during football games and big events
on campus, he said.
Although students know they are
forbidden to explore them, the mys
tery of dark passageways is more
temptation than than some students
are able to resist.
One student, who asked to be
called Joe, said he and his friends
have explored many of the tunnels
and even have made maps of them.
Joe said he knows where most of the
electronic motion detectors are and
Battalion file photo
The steam tunnel walls are covered with graf
fiti drawn by illegal visitors who avoided
movement sensors and security. Some of the
drawings are believed to be 30 years old.
knows how to get around them with
out getting caught.
At one time there was a diagram
of the tunnels located in the map
room of Sterling C. Evans Library.
However, map room employee Ro-
sita Alkhatib said it was checked out
about a year ago and has not been
returned.
Joe said the original reason he
and his friends ventured into the
tunnels is because of stories they
heard about an old ammunition
dump located under Kyle Field.
They got curious and decided to ex
plore.According to the stories, the
dump contains ammunition and mil
itary equipment left over from
World War II.
Another story that drew Joe and
his friends down into the tunnels
concerns a passage that goes all the
way from Sbisa to Duncan Dining
Hall.
It supposedly was used at one
time to transfer food and equipment
between the two dining halls, he
said. But just like the ammunition
dump, they still haven’t been able to
locate it.
Joe said he found three levels of
tunnels in the course of his explora
tions. Some of the tunnels cross over
and under each other.
On one occasion, Joe and his
friends located a door near Rudder
Tower that had been welded shut.
There were two messages written on
the wall next to it, he said.
The first said “Tunnel Masters
opened this door in ’84.” Near this
message was another message:
“Tunnel Master busters closed this
door!”
Joe said fie can’t wait for the new
construction around campus to be
completed because the tunnels sur
rounding the construction sites are
closed.
He said that when the construc
tion is finished, the tunnels will be
reopened and then they can explore
them. Supposedly, maintenance
workers are installing new alarms
and sensors in the tunnels.
“We want to be the first down
there because the sensors will make
See Tunnels/Page 11
Monuments, fountains
add to cultural richness,
beauty of A&M grounds
By James A. Johnson
FEATURE WRITER
If a school’s pride, history and
tradition are characterized by the
diversity of its architecture, Texas
A&M’s buildings are a true reflec
tion of Aggie pride.
Its historical monuments and
scenic fountains have attracted
tourists for more than half a cen
tury.
David Chapman, a Texas A&M
associate archivist, says it is diffi
cult to choose one visual attrac
tion above the rest, primarily be
cause A&M has so many.
“A&M has always been ad
mired because of its loyalty to tra
dition,” Chapman says.
“The natural appearance of
the visual structures here cer
tainly enhances the overall beauty
of the campus.”
While most universities pay
tribute to their historical figures
through library donations or
scholarships, this practice rarely
seemed appropriate for A&M.
Since the unveiling of Old
Sully in 1919, statues and mon
uments have been A&M’s most
acceptable way of expressing
gratitude toward its forefathers
and their contributions to tradi
tion.
Sully, the 10-foot Law'rence
Sullivan Ross statue located in
front of the Academic Building,
was unveiled in 1919 at a cost of
$10,000.
Created by San Antonio artist
Pompeo Luigi Coppini, the statue
was cast in Chicago from a clay
mold before attaining its present
brass finish.
At that time, a bronze figure of
any kind was considered rare and
highly expensive.
Sully’s official unveiling cere
mony drew' 1,500 loyal Texans.
Open space surrounding the
monument in 1919 was limited,
making 1,500 spectators some
thing a 1919 Bryan Eagle story
reported as a “capacity” crowd.
Today, 70 years later, Sully
continues to stare out at an ex
panded campus while thousands
of students and tourists pay trib
ute to his heroic stature.
Mike Magee, a senior econom
ics major from Pennsylvania, says
Old Sully represents more than
just a piece of metal.
“I was in the Corps for four
years, and Old Sully stands for
everything this campus stands
for," Magee says.
“Tourists realize how' impor
tant the statue is to A&M. It em-
E hasizes and reinforces the col-
ige’s traditional background.”
Of all campus sites, perhaps
none possess the romanticism of
Military Walk.
Wayne Stark, MSC Director
Emeritus, says many couples have
made permanent plans at the site
since its construction in 1936. |
“Thousands of marriage pro
posals were made at Military
Walk then,” Stark says.
“Since there was no MSC at the
time, students and their dates
strolled up and down the Walk or
spent time at the YMCA for rec
reation.”
No one can say Aggies can’t
take a joke. Aside from the more
traditional monuments, other
campus structures provide stu
dents with comic relief .
“Eternal Flame,” possibly the
most questioned and ridiculed
monument on campus, was un
veiled in 1983 as a senior class
gift.
The structure has been
plagued by mechanical problems
since its unveiling in 1983, pre
venting its “flame” from burning.
A symbol of the “burning, un
dying” spirit of Aggielancf, the
not-so-“Eternal F'lanie” has been
plagued with problems.
Marcella Bell, a freshman gen
eral studies major from Dallas,
says the Flame has become a joke
to many people.
“The flame seems more occa
sional than eternal,” Bell says.
“Maybe there’s a message behind
it.”
Lance King, a freshman me
chanical engineering major from
Houston, agrees.
“The original idea is catchy,”
he said, smiling, “if it only wor-
Repairs for the $14,000 mon
ument last year were $4,000 and
problems continue that prevent it
from working properly.
Joe Estill, director of the cam
pus physical plant, estimates an
additional cost of $500 to $750 a
year just to keep the flame “eter
nal.”
Another caricature near the
MSC often stirs controversy.
“Planned For the Future,” a
statue of a naked man and
woman holding a book, is
thought to have gotten its name
purely by accident.
Catherine Hastedt, registrar
and curator of the University Art
Collections and Exhibitions, says
rumor has it that when the ar
chitecture for the original MSC
was being finalized, the building’s
architect noticed a spot on the
floor plans where someone had
written “Planned For the Futu
re.”
Because there was no other
proposed name for the statue, it
received this name when the col
lege celebrated its centennial in
1976.
Both Sully and “Twelfth Man,”
figures anyone with maroon
blood is familiar with, are exam-
See Monuments/Page 11