May 21, 2015
TRADITIONS: Bits of Tradition
(With thanks to the Office of Special and Archival Collections)
The original Friar Boy, PC’s first athletics mascot, shown here with football players in 1935, was a gift of the Friars Club. The black-and-white Dalmatian had special meaning for Dominicans, whose name playfully translates to Domini canis, watchdogs of the Lord.
Four consecutive Friar Boys lived at PC through 1963.
In 1993, in celebration of PC’s 75th anniversary year, Friar Boy V (below) came to live in St. Joseph Hall with Brother Kevin O’Connell, O.P., the late Friars Club moderator.
Student-run radio station WDOM, 91.3 FM, began as an AM station in 1950 but was heard only sporadically until 1964, when two juniors repaired equipment and began broadcasting in a Department of Physics storeroom in Albertus Magnus Hall. The following year, WDOM moved to Alumni Hall, with an FM license and a new transmitter and roof antenna. Later, it broadcast from the St. Joseph Hall basement before finding a home in Slavin Center, where student DJs now host 70 shows a week.
The iconic white jackets of the Friars Club are familiar to all PC visitors, but few know that the organization began in 1928 with 18 members whose job was to serve as hosts to visiting athletic teams. The Friars Club has been the College’s premier service organization ever since. Its 74 members lead campus tours; work at such events as commencement, Alumni & Family Weekend, performances at the Smith Center for the Arts, and hockey games; provide an honor guard at funerals; and perform service around Providence.
Wearing of this black cap with a white button marked one as a freshman for the first weeks on campus. Beanie-wearers were subjected to ribbing from upperclassmen and challenged to athletic contests by sophomores. The tradition, discontinued after World War II but reinstated in 1953, officially ended in 1970.
The BIG EAST Conference was born in
Providence in 1979, the brainchild of PC’s athletic director and basketball coach, the late Dave Gavitt ’89Hon. The original seven member schools were Providence, St. John’s, Georgetown, Syracuse, Seton Hall, Connecticut, and Boston College. In 1984, three BIG EAST basketball teams — Georgetown, St. John’s, and Villanova — made it to the NCAA Final Four. The BIG EAST, which offers play in more than 20 men’s and women’s sports, expanded to 16 schools for several years. It was reborn as a 10-school, basketball-centered conference in 2013.
Founded by the Order of Preachers in 1917, PC remains the only college in the United States run by Dominican friars. Dominicans, who wear white habits with black cowls, or capes, take their name from their founder, St. Dominic de Guzman (1172-1221). They are known for their intellectual tradition as well as their preaching skills — famous Dominicans include Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. Dominicans assert that faith and reason are compatible, complementary, and point to a single truth. About 40 Dominican priests reside in the Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas, with most working as administrators or teaching in disciplines that include theology, philosophy, history, economics, psychology, biology, and theatre arts.
PC’s student-run newspaper has been keeping the College community informed since its inaugural issue on Nov. 16, 1935. With the exception of two years in the 1940s during World War II, The Cowl has never failed to publish. In addition to writing and editing, students work in photography, cartooning, advertising, and circulation.
If you were a “day hopper” and not a “dormie,” the Dillon Club, shown above in 1977, was the social organization for you. Founded in 1966 to provide activities for commuting students, the club advocated for “a decent library and a student union,” according to The Cowl. Its counterpart was the Carolan Club for resident students.
Providence-in-Europe, PC’s own, independent study abroad program, was launched in 1968 with 16 students and a resident director at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. The College’s study abroad pioneer, Raymond G. LePage ’64, spent the 1962-63 academic year at the University of Louvain in Belgium. This year, 267 students studied abroad in 23 countries. Shown are students in Fribourg during 1982-83.
The interdisciplinary Development of Western Civilization Program, which began in 1971, is mandatory for all freshmen and sophomores. By tradition, at midnight on the eve of DWC final examinations after both the fall and spring semesters, students let off steam by rushing outdoors onto the Aquinas Hall quad to engage in the “Civ Scream.” At the conclusion of sophomore year, students also don “Done with Civ” T-shirts — although, as any PC graduate knows, one is never really “done” applying Civ to real life.
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