Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 311

In the early months of 1920 the Worcester team played sixteen games, winning from all New England opponents and losing only to two New York teams. The reputation thereby established made schedule building for the following year a problem of selection. The 1921 list included Dartmouth, Amherst, St. Lawrence, two games with Harvard, and one with McGill that had to be cancelled on short notice. Of the eighteen games played, Worcester lost only three, Crescent A.C., Stevens, and Dartmouth. Attendance at nearly every game exceeded 1,000; at the Harvard and Dartmouth games nearly twice that number were packed into the gymnasium. Financial results were equally satisfying, a net gain of $2,100 for the season.

The enthusiasm and elaborate organization of the endowment campaign gave the alumni a new sense of their responsibility and a vigorous interest in college activities. The 1919 alumni-faculty-trustee conference, and subsequent business meetings in New York, developed numerous subjects of discussion, and led to a similar two-day meeting at Worcester in February, 1921. In addition to debating the merits of business courses and the conferring of honorary degrees, this group examined possibilities of creating an Alumni Council, and appointed a committee to study the requirements of the position of a full-time alumni secretary. The erection of a suitable war memorial was also discussed. New York representatives proposed a memorial dormitory or the endowment of memorial scholarships. A memorial hall, or auditorium, was among the more ambitious suggestions.

Colonel Butterfield, though absent from the campus, had continued to give part of his time to the Alumni Office, but his resignation from the position of alumni secretary, effective in June, 1921, created a difficult problem. The report at the 1921 annual meeting pointed out the desirability of appointing a full-time secretary, whose work would include management of the journal, collection of funds, and an employment service, but because Colonel Butterfield, the only person who seemed

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Last Modified: Fri Jul 30 11:15:25 EDT 1999