YSU history is rich in tradition

By Alison Kemp

One hundred years after the first college courses were offered in Youngstown, traditions continue.

YOUNGSTOWN — Live penguins, Spring Weekend and Freshman Days are things of the past at Youngstown State University, but other traditions, such as homecoming and painting the Kilcawley Rock, still live on.

The dances and celebrations that are linked to the first half of YSU’s history slowly declined as the decades progressed into the later half of the 20th century, said Brian Brennan, an assistant archivist at YSU’s Maag Library.

“It’s nothing like it used to be,” Brennan said.

He knows students are aware of some of the history and traditions linked to the university and campus because he sees them on the fifth floor of the library looking at the photographs and artifacts on display in the archives.

He attributes the decline of these traditions to life outside of campus intruding on its students and faculty.

College courses were first offered in 1908 in Youngstown’s downtown YMCA. By 1920 the Youngstown Association School offered its first bachelor of law degrees. YAS became the Youngstown Institute of Technology in 1921. In 1922, the first law degrees were awarded.

Classes were taught only at night during those early years.

The YMCA Board of Trustees designated the college division of the YMCA as Youngstown College in 1931.

More course offerings were made available each year, beginning with law, business and liberal arts courses such as English, biology, languages, psychology, economics and sociology. Professors would come from other colleges, such as Hiram, Thiel, Slippery Rock and Westminster, said Mary Smith, a university employee from 1939 to 1980 who worked many positions in admissions and started the physical education department.

Her husband, Joe Smith, came from Hiram to teach economics and sociology and later became the dean of the night liberal arts college, dean of Youngstown College and then dean of Youngstown University.

When she began working at Youngstown College, there were 753 students, she said.

By that time, the basketball team had been formed, and Smith said someone saw them shivering in a cold room before a game and said they looked like penguins. The name stuck.

The Junior Prom began in 1932 and continued until 1964, when it merged with the May Day celebrations to form Spring Weekend.

In 1939 the university obtained its first live penguin, which was named Pete. Four live penguins were kept over the years; the last one died in 1972.

Freshman Days were the beginnings of SOAR, an orientation program for incoming freshmen. Before World War II the freshmen were required to follow the Freshmen Edict, a compilation of rules. All male freshmen had to wear a green beanie. The females had to wear green hair bows. Smoking wasn’t allowed, but the freshmen had to carry cigarettes and matches for the upperclassmen. The males were also allowed to shave only one side of their faces. For the women, they were allowed to wear makeup on only one side of their faces.

Brennan said the campuswide hazing ended after World War II.

Another change happened on campus as the war ended.

“All of a sudden we had 5,000 students,” Smith said. She also remembers the day she enrolled the university’s 12,000th student.

“Because of the growth, we developed schools,” she said. This led to specific business, engineering, education and music departments.

In 1955, Youngstown College was renamed Youngstown University. President Howard Jones, who had been the university’s president for 35 years, retired in 1966.

The next president, Albert Pugsley, was asked by his friend Ohio Gov. James A. Rhodes, to be a part of the state education system. So in 1967, Youngstown University became Youngstown State University.

“It was the day things started to change,” Smith said.

Bill Jenkins, a retired history professor who taught on campus from 1967 to 2007, said the change to a state school “made a huge difference in the hiring of faculty members. ... That made a tremendous transition.”

Enrollment swelled to more thans 15,000 and now hovers at about 13,000.

The Kilcawley Rock, which was found during excavations for Kilcawley Center, was painted for the first time in 1967. The painting used to occur in the middle of the night.

Some more recent traditions are the Red and White football game, which has occurred each spring since 1973, and tailgating before football games, which began in the ’80s.

The traditions that might begin in the future are anyone’s guess.