The D. O. C. Started Something
ITS SIMPLE LITTLE "JOYFEST" OF 1911 HAS MUSHROOMEDINTO THE ELABORATE WINTER CARNIVAL OF TODAY
IN THIS era of press-agent superlatives and of claims and counterclaims as to the priority and uniqueness of this and that, it is refreshing to turn to the Dartmouth Winter Carnival, about which there can be little or no controversy on the score of precedence. The Dartmouth Outing Club's mid-year fete was certainly the first real event of its kind among the American colleges, and persons outside the Dartmouth family have been so willing to describe Carnival as being in a class all by itself that it is now possible for the College also to make that claim without outraging anyone's sense of propriety.
Ever since the first Dartmouth Winter Carnival in 1911, college girls have given it a top ranking among social events on the collegiate circuit; and with the whole nation suddenly becoming ski-conscious, the event is destined to gain even greater fame than it has enjoyed in the past. Since the tensile strength of Hanover has already been sorely tried by the invasion of winter-sports lovers at Carnival time, this latter development is causing alarm in some quarters.. Whatever one's view of the situation is, the little family party that the Outing Club started 27 years ago has become definitely national, even international, in scope and interest—and it might not be a bad idea to go back to the beginning to see how it all started.
Some sort of winter frolic was inevitable at Dartmouth, particularly during the period of relaxation following midyear examinations, but it would be grossly unfair to the Outing Club to imply that the present Carnival, like Topsy, "just growed." The enthusiasm and love of winter sports by a handful of undergraduates led to the founding of the Dartmouth Outing Club on December 14, 1909, and one of the very first things discussed by the members of the new organization was the holding of a winter sports field day. The initial D. O. C. meeting was attended by Robbins W. Barstow '11, Sydney A. Clark '12, Walter P. Greenwood '11, Fred H. Harris '11, Professor Eugene F. Clark, Professor Gordon Ferrie Hull, and Graduate Manager Lane. The college at large was invited to join the Outing Club, and at a second meeting on January 10, 1910, some sixty students gathered together to adopt a constitution and elect Fred Harris the first president of the club. Greenwood was chosen vice president, Clifford S. Lyon '10 secretarytreasurer, and Clarke W. Tobin 'to and Paul Whitcomb '10, together with the three officers, as members of the executive committee.
February 26 was selected as the date of the first winter sports meet in 1910, and even though it proved a poor choice in view of the big South Fayerweather Hall fire which broke out at 2 a.m. the same morning and provided the major excitement of the day, the meet was held as scheduled and with considerable success. This field day, which was purely intramural in character, was open to all students and consisted of seven ski and snowshoe events, with the added attraction of "style running on skis, including the Telemark and Christiana swings." Some fifty contestants and several hundred spectators gathered at the Golf Barn on Main Street and proceeded in a body to Dewey's Ft ill near the Vale of Tempe, where jumping was held, and then to Faculty Pond for the ski and snowshoe races. At that time the lowly snowshoe, now rarely seen in Hanover, had a sizable band of devotees.
COBB SWEEPS SKI EVENTS
Arthur T. Cobb '12 was the star of the day, winning all four of the ski events, while Fred Harris, who entered the competition despite a bad knee, took second honors in the jump and in the two ski dashes. Cobb's best leap at the Vale of Tempe was 45 feet, while Harris cleared about two feet less. Other college champions crowned on that historic day were A. S. Holway '12, who won the 100-yard dash on snowshoes, and W. T. Jones '12, who won the cross-country snowshoe race. The interclass snowshoe relay went to the sophomore team of Holway, T. P. Miller '12, L. P. Warren '12 and G. W. Wheeler '12, with the juniors second and the freshmen third. Other undergraduates who helped inaugurate Dartmouth's proficiency in winter sports were H. B. Van Dyne '12, A. H. Lord '10, and V. C. Schellenberg '13 in the ski events, and B. B. Lyons '12 in the snowshoe events.
Strictly speaking, the 1910 meet was not the first Winter Carnival, but the fun and exhilaration which it provided led directly to the idea of a more elaborate winter sports meet, with social events and out-of-town guests added to the occasion. Skiing, snowshoeing and tobogganing had been engaged in for years by various students at Dartmouth, but these activities lacked organization until the Outing Club and its first field day came along to open everyone's eyes to the tremendous advantages inherent in the College's north country setting. From the very beginning The Dartmouth wholeheartedly supported the new movement, urging the ac- tive and universal participation by the student body in outdoor life—an aim which is being very nearly realized today. "A winter carnival," the paper declared editorially in 1910, "could be made the culmination of the season. This would undoubtedly be a feature of college activity which from its novelty alone, if for no other reason, would prove attractive. It is not impossible that Dartmouth, in initiating this movement, is setting an example that will later find devotees among other New England and northern colleges."
Against this background, it thus came about that Hanover on February 10 and ii, 1911, witnessed its first Dartmouth Winter Carnival—an ambitious two-day "joyfest" which daring souls were willing to predict would soon rival the high and mighty Junior Prom. It was recognized at the outset that the festivities would not succeed without girls in attendance, and The Dartmouth came forward with the declaration that "it is up to every man with a purse or a heart, or with a bit of enthusiasm for a good time when it heaves in sight, to make haste to procure that most necessary item." Through the good services of hearts, purses and goodtime enthusiasts, approximately fifty guests were in Hanover for the first Carnival week-end, fair ladies having journeyed from Northampton, Holyoke, Boston, New York, Chicago, Waltham, Dan vers, Bath, Randolph, Vt., and Putney, Vt., to achieve the immortality of First Carnival Dates.
To the winter sports meet of the previous year were added an Outing Club dance in Commons, a dramatic presentation, and hockey and basketball games. Despite the new social aspect of the occasion, winter sports provided the characteristic core of the first Carnival and have continued to do so throughout the long history of the event. Another traditional feature of the winter frolic was established at the very outset, when, after a jittery period of no snow, St. Peter relented and sent down an ideal blanket of white for the outdoor events. Long before Otto Schniebs taught Dartmouth that snow is the special concern of St. Peter, Outing Clubbers knew what it was to scan the skies and pray for that most essential ingredient for a successful Carnival.
The friendly skiing rivalry between Cobb and Harris was carried over into the first Carnival meet, and although the club president captured first-day honors by besting his rival in the cross-country ski race, Cobb came back on Saturday to win the senior jump and both ski dashes. Nearly a hundred undergraduates, or twice the number of competitors in the 1910 field day, took part in the meet. Holway and Jones retained their snowshoe titles, while J. L. Day '14 captured the 100-yard snowshoe event and T. P. Miller '12 won the obstacle race. C. E. Shumway '13 was second to Cobb in the furlong ski race and V. C. Schellenberg '13 was runner-up in the 100-yard event, with third places going to M. O. Hastings '14 in the jump and to W. H. Weston Jr. '11 in the cross-country. Other competitors who scored in the snowshoe events of the first Carnival were H. E. Allen '12, G. B. Watts '13 and P. F. Wilson '14, all members of a now historic little band of winter-sports pioneers.
SKI JUMPING THE BIG THRILL
Just as in the modern Dartmouth Carnival, the ski jumping on Saturday afternoon was a breath-taking thrill for the hundreds of spectators who crowded about the landing hill. Cobb bettered his performance of the previous year by some seven feet, clearing 52 feet to Harris' 48. A special platform was built near the takeoff for Mrs. Ernest Fox Nichols, wife of President Nichols, and for faculty wives and guests. From that vantage point they watched the real stars of the afternoon, who were "Jack" and "Dick" Bowler, sons of the new football trainer. "Jack," now dean of the Dartmouth Medical School, won the junior event, while 12-year-old "Dick" displayed almost as much ability as the grown-ups. The novices also had their day, and W. H. Weston Jr. '11, supplemented his cross-country performance with first place in that division of the jumping.
Although Cobb's 52-foot leap would amount to only a good-sized gelandesprung these days, it was a startling distance in the eyes of the first Carnival visitors, very few of whom had ever seen ski-jumping before. Something of the popular knowledge of the sport may be gathered from what Fred Harris wrote a few years later in the first edition of Dartmouth Out O' Doors: "The writer wishes to correct an erroneous impression quite prevalent among the American people, whose knowledge of ski-jumping is limited to pictures they have seen of jumpers in the air. The jump is made out and down and never up."
While the cavorting of Dartmouth's daredevils provided the main attraction of America's first collegiate winter fete, there were other events that made the week-end a colorful and busy period. The student dramatic club presented David Garrick on Friday night, with A. C. Keough 'll in the lead, and following the play the holiday crowd made its way across the snowcovered College Green to attend the Outing Club Ball in Commons. There, a youthful historian of the period has recorded, "quite a contrast was apparent between the beautiful gowns worn at this festivity, and the 'outing' costumes worn by the same women at the meet in the afternoon. Instead of moccasins, snowshoes, sweaters, and furs we saw low-neck gowns of shimmering silks and satin and high-heeled French pumps." Moccasins, snowshoes and furs have given way to ski boots, skis, and trousered ski suits in the equipment of the modern Carnival girl, but shimmering silks and satins are still playing their old, old part at the fraternity dances.
A student orchestra provided music for the first Carnival dance, which consisted of 25 program numbers, and the Outing Club evidently engineered a social triumph in bringing off the affair so successfully. The dance committee, including many names now widely know in alumni circles, was made up of R. C. Stoughton '12, chairman; Dr. A. H. Licklider, B. K. Ayers '11, J. B. Clark '11, F. H. Harris '11, R. B. Keeler '11, A. C. Keough '11, H. F. Whitcomb '11, W. D. Wilkinson '10, A. T. Cobb '12, C. E. Snow '12, and W. L. White '12.
Supplementing the winter sports program on Saturday afternoon, the Dartmouth hockey team defeated Massachusetts Agricultural College, 4-0, in the first Carnival hockey game, and in the evening the varsity basketball team turned back an alumni team by a 35-17 score. Here again, in hockey and basketball, are to be found Carnival features which have been a traditional part of the winter frolic from the very beginning.
With the basketball game Dartmouth's first Winter Carnival came to its official close. The Outing Club must have heaved a deep sigh of relief, as it still does, and a skeptical and warmth-loving student body must have been forced to admit that there was a lot to be said for the winter season, after all. The Dartmouth was expressing a growing undergraduate conviction when it declared editorially: "The Winter Carnival of the Outing Club won a deserved success, and will undoubtedly remain a permanent feature of Hanover winter life. This is as it should be. Winter is the characteristic Hanover season, winter weather is Hanover's finest weather, and winter sports should be, and are coming to be, the characteristic sports of the Dartmouth undergraduate."
By present standards, the first Carnival was a simple affair; but in its basis upon winter sports, outdoor activity, and general participation, it had the fundamental purpose and appeal from which none of the 26 succeeding Carnivals has ever deviated. The occasion was a "natural" from the start, and when it had an organization like the Dartmouth Outing Club to keep a paternal eye upon it, it was bound to undergo a tremendous development. Only four years after the initial Carnival it was recorded that "with the suddenness of magic this festival has become an institution and a tradition."
The development of Carnival between the first and second years was startling in itself. In 1912 the February festivities were extended over four days, opening with the faculty reception to seniors on Wednesday night and including the Williams basketball game on Thursday night, before the winter sports events started on Friday afternoon. In addition to the Carnival Ball, fraternity dances were held for the first time by Kappa Kappa Kappa, Delta Kappa Epsilon and Chi Phi, and twice as many guests were present as were the year before. At the Ball itself the 1912 version of the Big Apple was perpetrated under the varying guise of the Hockey Wrinkle, the Toboggan Slide, the White Mountain Bear, the Moccasin Hop, the Outing Club Trip, and the Ski Jump. Fred Harris re- turned to Hanover as an alumnus to turn the tables on his old rival Cobb, winning individual skiing honors as well as the senior jumping event with a leap of 57 feet, although Cobb retained his College championships. All in all, the second an- nual Winter Carnival was such a success that it was urged by many that the Junior Prom be changed to occur on the February week-end. The Junior Prom had had its antecedents, to begin with, in a mid-winter party which Neal L. Hoskins '99, Homer Eaton Keyes 'OO and Charles A. Proctor 'OO had arranged to break up the long stretch between Christmas and Easter. This party was repeated in the two following years, but was shifted in 1902 to the month of May, thereby becoming the Junior Prom which lasted until 1924.
To continue the brief survey of Carnival's growth, the festivals of 1913 and 1914 were still all-Dartmouth affairs, with skating races added to the program in the former year. The winter sports meet of 1915, however, provided the first intercollegiate competition of its kind in this country, McGill, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Williams entering contestants. Dartmouth captured this first big Carnival meet with 41 points to McGill's 8 and New Hampshire's 5, and thus was begun the three-cornered rivalry that has featured nearly every Carnival meet since. Of the 23 intercollegiate meets that have been held as a part of Winter Carnivals from 1915 on, Dartmouth has emerged victorious 15 times, while New Hampshire has won six times, McGill once, and Williams once. The fifth annual Carnival in 1915 also saw the transfer of the traditional Ball to the gymnasium, where it remained until its discontinuance in 1932.
Slalom Adden in 1916
Carnival was reduced to three days in 1916, and the winter sports program was greatly improved by the addition of skijoring and the ski-proficiency event, now known as the slalom. The 1917 festivities were featured by the arrival of 400 guests and the premature explosion of a box of Roman candles, while the Outing Club luck remained intact with the arrival of snow on Friday of Carnival week-end. Because of the War, the mid-winter festival was greatly curtailed in 1918, and a dual winter sports meet with Middlebury was arranged as an abbreviated Carnival for the Dartmouth students who were busy with drills and war preparations.
With the resumption of Carnival on a large scale in 1919, the event definitely eclipsed the Junior Prom and became the great social event of the Dartmouth year. Influenza quarantines at the leading girls' colleges proved a stumbling block in 1930, but the winter sports meet was the biggest up to that time, and spectators were amazed by a triple somersault which Fred Harris, John Carleton and Dick Bowler executed on the ski jump.
The inauguration of Outdoor Evening on the Alumni Oval made 1931 a key year in Carnival history. Immediately after the War the social side of the week-end had threatened to obscure the original purposes of Carnival, and the introduction of Outdoor Evening gave increased emphasis to the wintry side of the party. Fireworks and fancy skating by Theresa Weld, Olympic champion, were features of Dartmouth's first program under the evening stars. The year also saw Dartmouth lose its first Carnival meet, to McGill. Outdoor Evening was transferred to Occom Pond in 1932, the present ski jump was used for the first time, and the Carnival Ball became a fancy-dress affair. The guest list in 1922 passed the 600-mark for the first time.
The following year, Miss Mary Warren of Manchester, N. H., was selected Queen of the Carnival Ball and the Outing Club began its drive for outdoor costumes with the injunction to girls: "We want you pretty and warm, not expensive and cold." The growing participation of guests in outdoor sports drew forth editorial praise from The Dartmouth in 1924 and indicated the trend toward the Carnival of today.
The 16th and 17th Carnivals ran pretty much to form, but in 1927 there was added to the Carnival program the interfraternity snow-sculpture contest, which has become one of the highlights of the winter frolic. At the same time the faculty finally gave up the struggle and declared Saturday of Carnival week-end a college holiday.
The year 1928 witnessed a whole bevy of Carnival innovations. Miss Florence Rice of New York, now a screen star, was selected as Dartmouth's first Queen of the Snows at Outdoor Evening. The entire management of Carnival rested in undergraduate hands for the first time; the downhill event was added to the ski meet; and the new Features Department of the Carnival Committee inaugurated the erection of ice sculpture in the center of the campus and about town. Outing Club luck was again in evidence as sorely needed snow began to fall just three hours before Carnival opened.
In 1931 Outdoor Evening was shifted to its present site on the golf course, where the Outing Club presented the first of its modern outdoor extravaganzas. With Otto Schniebs as its new coach, the Dartmouth ski team snapped the victory streak of New Hampshire, which had won five Carnival meets in a row, and took the intercollegiate title for the year.
The modern two-day Carnival was inaugurated in 1932, with the Carnival Ball discontinued in favor of fraternity dances on both Friday and Saturday nights. During the current period of growth which started in that year, the guest list has risen to more than 1,000 girls, and the outside public, more and more taken by the sport of skiing, has become increasingly inter- ested in the Dartmouth Carnival as one of the top-notch events of the winter sports season. The presence of the Swiss university skiers last year and the acceptance of Dartmouth's invitation by the Bavarian and Norwegian collegiate skiers this year have given the Hanover meet a new international flavor, far different from the local, intramural character of the 1911 meet which started the whole business.
Despite the tremendous transformation that has taken place in Carnival since the event was first held, despite the elaborate superstructure that has been raised upon the solid base of the original program, if Fred Harris and his mates were to return to Hanover for the 28th annual Dartmouth Winter Carnival this month, they would readily detect that the fundamental spirit of the festival has not changed. Beneath all the modern frills there is still the same joyous salute to King Winter, the same insistence that everyone be a participant rather than a mere onlooker, the same emphasis upon the outdoor side of the week-end, the same robust, good time following the tension of mid-year examinations. More than everything else, there is still the same pride in Dartmouth's eminence as a winter sports college.
That, in brief, is how it all started and how it grew. It couldn't have happened anywhere but on Hanover Plain.
EVEN AS TODAY, SKI JUMPING IN THE VALE OF TEMPE THRILLED ONLOOKERS AT THE FIRST DARTMOUTH CARNIVAL
THE SNOWSHOE OBSTACLE RACE PROVIDED A COMIC INTERLUDE IN THE FIRST CARNIVAL PROGRAM
PRIZE-WINNERS AT THE FIRST DARTMOUTH WINTER CARNIVAL Fred Harris 'II sits in the center with the "D" sweater, while two places to the right is "Ty" Cobb '12, who won the skiing honors in the first meet. "Jack" Bowler '15 stands at the extreme left, and his young brother, "Dick" Bowler '22,stands between Harris and Cobb. The editors will appreciate complete identification of the group by alumni readers.
CARNIVAL DATES AREN'T ALWAYS THIS HELPFUL
