Pen and Sword - Austin College in the 1890's

Pen and Sword -- Austin College in the 1890's

During the meeting of the board of trustees on May 31, 1893, members noted "with pleasure the handsome walk and other improvements on the campus," gifts of Mrs. C. M. Allen. The trustees directed that a dormitory and Mess Hall be erected with not less than 20 rooms. Whether this 20-room structure ever was completed is unclear, but a Mess Club was established and served resident students as well as those who roomed off campus.

Baseball Team in 1896

Baseball Team - 1896
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Football Team in 1896

Football Team - 1896
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Throughout the military era, sports thrived on the campus. Students and faculty both participated. Baseball, tennis, and football were the strongest organized teams. The baseball and football clubs competed with other area teams, usually by arranging match games. Each time one of the clubs wanted to play, however, it had to petition the faculty for permission to arrange the match, and permission to leave the campus to attend. Most frequent opponents were teams from Denison, Dallas, and Sulphur Springs. Although the faculty did allow the boys to travel to some games, support for such trips was not too enthusiastic. The baseball team seemed to fair slightly better in obtaining permission to play.

The faculty apparently had greater reservations about football. Not only did the cadets leave the hill, but the game was rough and rowdy, provoking some genuine concern for the welfare of the players. Under persistent pressure from the students, the trustees capitulated and authorized intercollegiate athletics at the college in 1896.

During the military years, two fraternities organized on the Austin College campus. As early as 1890, a request was made to the board of trustees for a hall for secret societies. The board responded that it could not see its way clear to furnish such a hall or approve such societies.

In September of 1893, a group of seniors came to the faculty seeking permission to organize a Greek fraternity. President Luckett referred the request to the trustees. A committee appointed to consider the subject of secret fraternities, following three days’ deliberations, reported: "We fear such fraternities will be productive of more evil than good and recommend that the petition of the students with reference to them not be granted."

Phi Phi Phi, 1896
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Alpha Tau Omega - 1896
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The cadets, however, refused to give up the cause, and prevailed the following year. On November 22, 1894, Alpha Alpha Chapter of Phi Phi Phi was established, and a chapter of Alpha Tau Omega, the first on Texas soil, was established March 12, 1895. The eleven charter members were described as "students of the highest standing in the classroom, social circles, literary society, and parade ground, and are men of such character and energy as to make the success of the chapter a certainty."

This optimism proved to be premature. By 1896, discipline in general had deteriorated to such an extent that it inevitably spilled over into the secret organizations. Rivalry between them was fierce to the point of violence (of particular concern since all were armed with military rifles). Undoubtedly because the faculty had never been enthusiastic about the idea of secret societies, because there truly was a lack of decorum, and perhaps partly because they were secret, the faculty resolved that the Greek Letter fraternities were "a serious detriment to the harmony and welfare" of the student body, and urged the board "to take such steps as may remove them from our midst."

For their part, the trustees admonished the fraternities to avoid rivalry and bitterness, and placed the societies on probation. This action was not at all what the faculty had in mind, and became just one precursor of a series of controversies over discipline in which the Faculty failed to garner support that it sought from the trustees. In June 1897, the Board appointed a committee to inquire into the workings of Greek fraternities. The committee promptly tabled action for one year. Among the last in a string of defeats for the faculty, combined with the occurrence that April of the most severe instance of misbehavior yet, it may well have contributed to, though it did not entirely cause, the resignation of the entire faculty on the following day.

Faculty in 1897
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