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Trivia: Win a UNC Travel Mug

Tell us how Hi Bridge, pictured above, got its name to be entered into a drawing for a deluxe UNC travel mug. Send your answer by June 15 to northernvision@unco.edu.

Congratulations to the winners of the last issue’s trivia contest: M. Bradley Bruchs, Jediah Cummins, Frank Hinman, Charles Mihulka and Patricia Pattison – who correctly answered that the light fixture can be found on Gray Hall, home to the Bru-Inn for many years.

 

Memories of Crossing Hi Bridge, Sans Beanie, with Presidential Bailout

My first experience with Hi Bridge came almost 50 years ago. As a freshman, I had the audacity to cross the bridge without wearing my beanie. In those days, you see, all freshmen were issued blue-and-gold beanies, with “CSC” (Colorado State College) on them. The beanies had to be worn for the first two weeks of school, so everyone could tell who the freshmen were and harass us.

HiBridgeMost of us, especially if we lived off-campus and not in a dorm, refused to wear the stupid beanies.

Without my beanie, I attempted to walk across Hi Bridge and pass as an upperclassman. “Aren’t you a freshman?” The person who stopped me was, as I recall, about 6-foot-8 and weighed at least 350 pounds. He was very mean looking and probably a heavyweight wrestler or the defensive tackle on the football team — or maybe the whole defensive line on the football team.

I knew that if they caught a freshman without a beanie, it was a college custom to throw the student off of Hi Bridge. While the bridge was only about a foot off the ground, and probably the smallest in Colorado, I realized that the Big Mean Guy could lift me over his head before throwing — making my fall off the bridge about eight to 10 feet.

“N-n-n-o-o-o,” I answered, not managing to sound very old at all. I tried to walk. Mr. Large Mean Guy and his friends blocked the bridge. “Oh yeah?” he said. “If you’re a sophomore, you should know who the president of the college is. Who is he?”

Whew. Just the day before, I stumbled onto a protest behind the president’s house. I didn’t know why they were protesting, but I remembered his name, written on the stuffed dummy that they were burning in effigy from the football goalposts.

“W-William?” I said.

“W-William?” mocked the Large Mean guy. “W-William who?” He was laughing and you knew he was getting ready to lift me over his head and toss me off the bridge.

“William Ross!” I said, sure of myself, because you don’t forget your first protest, or the first effigy you see.

Large Mean Guy backed off. “OK,” he said discouragingly. “You can go ahead.”

And that’s how William Ross, that wonderful president of Colorado State College in 1962, saved my life.

—Mike Peters (BA-68)

 

 

Jazz

All That Jazz

Known as the Viscounts at CSC, the 17-piece big band was formed in 1958 by senior music major Jon Wiegardt and supported by faculty member William Gower. The band consisted of volunteer students — music and non-music majors alike — who performed at assemblies, dances and social events. A member of the band for four years, Gary Browning writes about the band’s accomplishments and efforts to reunite. A Viscount CD has already been recorded.

Click here for details of how to get a copy of Browning's column.

 

Editor's Note

In the excitement to introduce our new-look mascot, we were guilty of embellishing the process to select Klawz (“Scratching out an identity: Mystique the Goal of Reimagined Klawz,” Fall/Winter 2011). To set the record straight, the 2011-12 academic year wasn’t the first time mascot auditions were held. We’re told the practice was in place when Klawz replaced Gunter Bear in 2003.