Month: January 2019

Winter Carnival Memories and Traditions

By Allison Neely | University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections

Participants in the 1955 Beard Contest
Participants in the 1955 Beard Contest. Courtesy of Michigan Tech Archives

Michigan Technological University’s Winter Carnival began in 1922 as a one-day ice carnival presented by the Student Organization. Students performed traditional circus acts–but with students in costumes instead of live animals. According to an article in the Michigan Tech Lode from 1978, the first carnival was held at the Amphidrome and featured four or five student-constructed and manned bucking broncos on ice skates. An even bigger event was held the following year, again with the circus theme, and featured a giraffe made by the Kappa Delta Psi fraternity, a buffalo made by Sigma Rho, and a camel and elephant created by Theta Tau. The Michigan College of Mines band was also featured but only played two songs, a march and a waltz. According to the article, the event garnered wide community attention with approximately 1,100 people in attendance at the 1924 carnival. The carnival proved so popular that the students took their show on the road to Calumet and Marquette.

The carnival was so well-received among the community and students that by 1927 it was established as an annual event. By then, the festival had expanded to a two-day affair and included a formal parade with floats, a dog-sled race, a snowshoe race, and foot races on ice. While college students were the primary participants in the Winter Carnival activities, since the event was a joint venture between the college and the local towns, there were also categories for high school students. Among the highlights of the 1927 carnival was a ski ride behind an airplane on the Portage Canal at 60 miles per hour.!

The very late 1920s and early 1930s saw a hiatus for the Winter Carnival, and by 1930 festivities were suspended in the aftermath of the stock market crash. In 1934, the University’s student chapter of the Blue Key Honor Fraternity resurrected the winter celebration and introduced not only a three-mile snowshoe race, a Snow-Ball dance, a hockey game, and the event’s best known tradition: snow statues. The establishment of the Mont Ripley Ski Hill in 1940 brought festivities across the Portage with ski meets, including the Michigan State Amateur Ski Championship meet, held to coincide with Winter Carnival.

Winter Carnival was again suspended during World War II until 1946. When it was restarted, the carnival saw the inclusion of a stage revue in which fraternities, sororities, and other campus organization presented skits for the enjoyment of the crowd and performers alike. A beard contest was also established in the 1940s.

Carnival grew and evolved over the next couple of decades with attempts at establishing a Fun Night in 1954, which included various student organization booths set up at the Dee Stadium, much like we see at K-Day each year. The Student Council replaced the Fun Night two years later with a concert by groups like the Four Preps or the Limelighters, and in 1961 the Winter Carnival welcomed the inclusion of the popular Broomball event. The Flare Pageant, which had been done in previous years, was restarted in 1962 and featured “skiers carrying colored torches at night down Mont Ripley, forming intricate patterns of light” on the ski hill.

The first place snow sculpture for 1974
The first place snow sculpture for 1974

While Winter Carnival today looks much different from its early years, for the most part Winter Carnival has largely retained its current format since the early 1970s. The snow sculptures, crowning of a Winter Carnival Queen, and annual broomball tournament continue to be staples that have come to define this major Tech tradition. Other events have made fleeting appearances. Highlights of the last fifty years have included some quirky activities unique to the Michigan Tech carnival, including shipments of snowballs sent to Southwest Texas State University for an annual snowball fight. For over two decades, Copper Country snowballs were packed in dry ice and flown to Texas, much to the delight of the Southwest students. Occasionally, the shipment posed some unusual problems like when the 1971 shipment, carefully packed by members of Blue Key, arrived hard as rocks in Texas. Their solution to the problem? A snow cone machine! That’s right, Southwest Texas State students settled for sweet frozen treats instead of a snowball fight that year.

Over the decades, Tech students have competed in everything from snow volleyball and tug-o-war on ice to ice bowling, snoccer (snow soccer), and human dog sled races. One highlight of recent years coinciding with Winter Carnival has been Tech students and community members coming together for a collaborative competition: working together to achieve winter glory in the form of Guiness Book of World Record titles. Since 2013, Tech has held the record for the largest snowball. The snowball, measuring 10.04 m (32.94 ft.) in circumference. was rolled on March 29, 2013. Within the last couple of decades, Tech has also earned titles for most snow angels made simultaneously in one place, largest snowball fight, and most snowmen built in one hour.

Today, the Winter Carnival continues into its 97th year on the Michigan Tech campus and remains an important part of the campus tradition, bringing alumni, students, staff and faculty, as well as a wide range of local and regional community members to Houghton for its annual winter celebration. Once again, students will be back in the swing of spring semester classes and beginning the exciting task of building snow statues on and near campus — so much to look forward to in the coming weeks at Michigan Tech.

Winter Carnival certainly has and continues to have a rich history on the Michigan Tech campus. Interested in learning more? The Michigan Tech Archives holds a wide range of collections and resources pertaining to Winter Carnival at Tech. Included in the Archives’ holdings are records of the Blue Key Honor Society, pictorials, photographs, ephemera, and a plethora of great newspaper coverage in the Copper Country Vertical Files collection.

What you said in December…about Tech!

From Facebook

“Graduation morning, December 2005…I was showing my now husband the necklace and earrings my parents gave me for graduation and he said, “maybe we should complete the set.” We had our reception at the MUB the following September! I should add, I know I graduated but I remember nothing of the ceremony!! :):) love you, Andy B.!!!” -Megan B.

“I proposed to my wife in our apartment off campus. We met at Tech through Mu Beta Psi music fraternity, so technically I married my Brother. (All members are referred to as Brothers)” -Jason Y.

“My husband proposed to me in Wadsworth Hall kitchen on Thanksgiving morning. He was making Thanksgiving dinner for students who stayed up for break. This was back in the day when very few stayed over and the building was essentially closed.” -Chris P

“Moving back is the dream!” -Tee E.

“My husband, a Tech grad, proposed to me on Brockway Mountain.” -Ann O.

“My husband of almost 25 years proposed at the top of Brockway. We met on our first day on campus. His roommate and my roommate were transfer students from the same high school/community college.” -Danette U.

“Oh, I’m an oldster! My husband proposed at the top of Lac Labelle fire tower in 1979. That was at the top of what is now Mt Bohemia! We both graduated in 1977.” -Holly S.

Hearing Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust” blasting from speakers out of the Wadsworth Hall windows on my way into Fisher 135 for my freshman chem final.” -Mak M.

“Drove home after May exams after freshman year – in the snow. When I got to the Big Mac I realized I didn’t have $1.50 for the toll. After a little thought I turned around, went to the Shell Station, and cleaned out 15 empties from the dark resources of my Blazer! Score!” -Dannette U.

“Fisher 135 when someone stood up and said all these questions are tricks and walked out…come to think of it, this may have been winter carnival (reasons this may have happened unknown…).

But 3 back to back to back finals (thank God for the Tech rule of no more than 3 in a row) suck so so so bad.

But here I am 4.5 years into my career thankful for such an amazing place, education, and friend network.” -Eric S.

“Yeah it was stressful but nothing compared to the daily stress of working full time as a design engineer of large machines and pressure vessels” -Steve S.

“2 pots of coffee and 2 packs of No-Doz” -Louis C.

“My husband graduated in chemistry in December but walked on June 8th in his cap and gown…the same day we walked down the aisle in church 55 years ago. A double happy day” -Irene W.

“BS in Chem.Eng.1959 .31 years in oil industry.Now at 83, 28 years retired” -Enzio M.

“I remember when the Zilwaukee Bridge was under fire in the 80s, some wags made a “Not Built by Tech Engineers” t-shirt. Perhaps we need same for Line 5 pipeline.” -Victor V.

“As I was finishing my Ph.D at Tech in 1999, I used my student worker and his trusty yard stick for this picture. I used the pic during my interview at Mississippi State for a faculty position in the forest Department. Showing just how happy I was to be moving to the deep south, and out of the snow! In true forestry fashion, I talked about how you can measure major snowfalls in the snowbank, like counting rings on a tree. Light fluffy snow was a snowstorm, then the dark dirty snow was in between those storms.” -Andrew L.

From the inbox

Thank you Michigan Tech for preparing me for a great career! I obtained my BSME in 1956 and was then employed by what was Bendix Automotive Brake Systems in South Bend Indiana. I had a career total of 48 patents as inventor or co-inventor. My greatest achievement occurred when Chrysler upper management decided to switch from their in-house designed and built “Centerplane” brakes to Bendix duo-servos. It was my job to adapt our brakes to the entire Chrysler line – 9” dia. for Valiant 10” for Plymouth and Dodge, 11” for Chrysler and 12” for Dodge light truck. Of course with four wheel disc brakes they are now all gone. –Don J.

Hello Class of ’59!

Dear Classmate,

Welcome to the Class of 1959’s 60th reunion web page! It’s a special year for the members of the Class of ’59 as we will celebrate a milestone Michigan Tech anniversary! During Michigan Tech’s Alumni Reunion—this year August 1, 2, and 3, 2019—select classes will celebrate special anniversaries. Included in this group is this year’s sixty-year reunion class—the Class of 1959! Special tables/sections will be set aside at events to encourage class members to gather. It’s a chance for us to share stories and remembrances, and catch up on each other’s lives since our days in the Copper Country!

This web page will serve as a way for us to communicate with you during the months leading up to the reunion. We can share specific plans with you or let you know when reunion registration information will go out in the mail. Hopefully, this page will also encourage enthusiasm for the reunion and convince people to return to campus in August for the celebration. In addition, the 60-year class traditionally conducts a special fundraising project throughout the year to commemorate this noteworthy reunion. This page will also provide information on this class reunion gift effort. If you haven’t made a contribution in 2018–19, please consider doing so now. While all gifts (no matter the designation) will count in our reunion gift total, we are placing special emphasis on securing gifts for our Class of 1959 Endowed Scholarship Fund.

Included here are some items specific to the class of 1959—several gift statistics, as well as a current class donor honor roll. Please check this web site from time to time between now and August to stay up-to-date on reunion news and activities!

Here’s to Michigan Tech!

Mel Visser