The Observer, November 30, 2007
Volume XL, Issue 12
A retrospect of: The Observer
The following poem was placed in one of the precursors to The Observer:
"No Place Like Case"
There's a spot on this earth I love and revere
I have played on its campus year after year
In its halls I have rough-housed, its walls to deface-
O in all this wide world there is no place like Case!
I have taken descriptive and tests by the score,
I've flunked roofs and bridges until I've felt sore,
Besides spiking the problems I own in disgrace,
Yet in all this wide world there is no place like Case.
And at the commencement I'll bid you goodbye
Though not to forget you until I should die,
For the friends I have made time cannot efface-
In the halls and the classes of my dear old Case.
The school year was 1903-1904 and campus was feeling exuberant. It was a year much like any other, with students meandering about the campus searching for some vibrancy in student life. The football team beat Ohio State on Nov. 8, with a score of 23-12. On the Case calendar the game notes read, "Case, 23-OSU, 12. Two hundred students meet the team at two o'clock Sunday morning. "The game notes from the Oct. 4 game against Michigan were slightly different: "We score six points on Michigan. What Michigan did to us is of no importance." The game against Michigan was one of three defeats that year – Case lost by 42 points.
The calendar holds all sorts of observations and pearls of wisdom. Here are a few:
Nov. 4 "Assembly. Hygiene. Dr. Ashmun warns students not to drink water into which dead animals have crawled."
March 2. "Grant (professor) demonstrates with the help of his slide rule that the square root of 1.1 is 8.2."
Just as now, professors through more than 100 years of our university history have made mistakes and have had a sense of humor. Further evidence that people who attended this school were little different than many of the students today is found in the equivalent of the Classies, with the following ads.
"WANTED – A new Gymnasium; must have at least 1 pair of boxing gloves, 3 Indian clubs, 5 dumb-bells and a window. Address Case."
"WANTED – A few able-bodied men to help rub down foot-ball, base-ball, and track team men. Apply (vigorously) in the dressing-room."
"FOUND – A freshman who needs hazing. Address, Allen, care The Dorm."
"LOST. – The Tennis Tournament; somewhere between Case and Denison. There will be quite a racket if not returned to Kemble."
Looking back over old Observers, much of the minutia has changed: buildings and classrooms, degree programs and school rankings. Jumping all the way to 1904, there are a shocking number of things that generate such a realization: many things never change – as Dr. Ashmun would advise, please refrain from drinking water into which dead animals have crawled, and you are ensured good hygiene at least through the winter months. As true today as it was in 1904.
