ORAL HISTORY
"SLIPPERY ROCK UNIVERSITY IN THE SIXTIES"
INTERVIEWEE:

DR. RUSSELL WRIGHT

INTERVIEWERS:

DR. JOSEPH RIGGS AND LEAH M. BROWN

GUESTS:

DR. DOUGLAS CLINGER
MS. GAY VELA

16 AUG 1992

R:

We're going to reminisce about Dr. Wright's relationship with the
college. the community. and the Russell Wright Fitness Center.
We have a special guest.

His daughter. Gay Vela. is sitting in

with us.
BR: Would you want to start with when you first came to the
Slippery Rock area?
W:

Well. I think that might be well.

Yes.

just died up at Grove City last year.

Who was the guy that
Headland.

I think you

said maybe . you would like to talk about some of the people
like Dr. Blaisdel, Blaisdel. Hamm. Murphy. Eisenberg. Vincent.
and Headland. and Thompson. of course.

Those are ones that I

had. naturally. dealings with. and had these people all as
instructors.

Some of the tales about them.

I told him (Clinger)

one this morning about old Dr. Hamm and building a house. and he
was a ham.

There's a couple other stories about the Amish and

football and so on. if you like those in there.

They're both

semi - humorous stories and kind of true facts about Slippery Rock
early days.

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R:

Good.

I think that's a grand place to start.

W:

I might preface this by a little bit.

I've always had. not

always. but 95% of the time in my life I've always had good
luck.

Even as a kid when I was six years old. I did a little

marketing and I got a little older. about eight, I did some
more. and I always had a bank account.

I was never in the red.

I had a little business at six. had a business at eight. and
I had a little business of some kind all my life.

The things

that've happened to me that I felt were sometimes a kick down.
but I found out that they were a kick up.
school, and all the way through internship,

Even in professional
in surgery and so

on, the breaks as I look back I couldn't ask for anything that
were on the kick down but where I couldn't get back up and
succeed by it.

So I look back on life from on the farm. country

school. teaching a couple years in the country school, going
through and studying medicine, and playing ball. the things
that have happened all the way through have certainly been more
than one can expect. And most of the time when I had to do
something that I didn't think was so important, it turned out
to be the most important thing, probably. in my life at that
particular time.

It just kept moving on from there.

So I might start back, preface it a little bit, to the time before
I came to Slippery Rock. Would that be all right? You're a writer
and an editor.

You would know.

I am no writer.

I am no editor .

(3)

W:

I have never been accused of being able to write or spell.
Although my mother would say. quicker. and she would pound that
into you. but every night we had to sit down at the dining room
table like this and we had to make a's or o's or circles. and I
could write my name as well as I do today when I went to country
school.

So that was the thing that gave me the break here that I

could write.

The thing that gave me the break here was that I was

forced to do something I didn't want to do. and they thought I
was a good student.
things I could do.

Stupid as all get out. but there were two
I could write probably as well as anybody

at Slippery Rock. and I knew Latin as well or better than anybody
in the class.
We lived on a farm.
were.

Things were pretty tough.

We always had plenty to eat.

I thought they

Clothing. so on.

We never

had any money. but we were like all the other people farming
around there.

Nobody had any.

So we had a barn. They kept the

manure outside. and the water would wash it down over our garden.
and along the road grew horseradish.

Horseradish in the spring

would come out. and get half as high as I was.

So I decided.

there was a mining camp not far from here. that I would sell
horseradish.
Washed it.

So I got the horseradish.

Dug it.

Scraped it.

My mother helped me. and I found out where I could

get bottles for two cents with a nice cap on them.
them in the nice little bottle.

So I c apped

So I went into the horseradish

(4)

business.

So I peddle it in my little basket.

I got ten cents

a bottle for the horseradish, but they complained it was too
strong.

So I said to my Dad. and he never said no to me in his

life that I can ever recall. what'll I do. Dad?
to be able figure that out.

Well. you ought

I said, well. I can't.

said, down there we have a bin of turnips.

Well, he

Now. he said. they're

white, you peel them good, and you take your horseradish which is
too strong and you take the same amount of horseradish and the
same amount of turnips and you mix it and that will cut the
strength by fifty percent.

So I did, and my sales were much

better. But still some people complained.
now.

I said. what'll I do

He said. take that last one and cut it with one more and

call one your super. and call one your regular. and call one
your mild. So I did that and I had three kinds of horseradish. and
my mild or this one outsold this one so the more I sold of these
ones the better it was.

So then I said if

and kept it nice and not with a cork or
cents on their next sale so they could
eight cents.

So that was my first

was we grew apples. and we have
like a bunch of pyramids in
stored apples in the garden?
this is our garden. and
and maybe there would

they kept the bottle

anything. I give them two
get the next bottle for

business.

these things.

the winter.

So the next business
Our garden looked

You remember when we

We'd hand pick the apples. and then

we would pile the straw there. here. here
be eight or ten piles of straw. Then we

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W:

would hand pick the

apples and pile them up in a nice pyramid.

When it got frosty,

when it got cold and started to freeze, we

covered them with
getting down

dirt, and when it started to get really zero, or

colder, we'd put manure all over the top of them, and

that would steam on there because of the manure.

So we kept

those. and then in this pyramid we dug a little hole down in here,
and the apples would roll down to there, and then I could carry
a peck basket which I asked all of our kids, all of those
graduates, how much a peck

was and not a damn soul knew what

a peck was. Well, it was a quarter of a bushel, and I could
carry that many, that was ten pounds, that's forty pounds of
apples in a bushel, and I would take that and then put them
down, take them in and clean them.

My mother would always help

wash them and shine them, and then I would peddle apples, and
believe it or not, I got twenty-five cents for a peck of apples
then, and years later with orchards I wasn't making twenty-five
cents a peck when I was picking 75,000 bushels of apples.
But anyway that was my next business.

So I always peddled

apples and horseradish, and those were my businesses to get my
clothes and so on until I was old enough to run a trap line.
BR: Where was your farm?
W:

Up in Jackson Township, Jackson Center. Just about six miles
beyond Grove City.

I started and went through grade school, and

of course my mother couldn't wait to we got home to see who

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W:

won the awards.

I recall once I spelled it down in spelling, but

I was the last one and the end of the line and it was spelled
every other way and so I got it. But in all the time I went
there I could only figure that she was so disappointed that I
could not spell.
award.

But I did win once in a while the writing

So that pleased her.

So now I get through.

I took

the eighth grade when I was in seventh and I passed it.
country school.

You could go to high school then so I was

going to go to high school.
go to Grove City.

A

I was thirteen so I was going to

I went for about a couple of weeks, I guess,

and got my books and I had to ride a horse to the railroad which
was about two miles, and then turn the horse around and give
him a bat to tell him to go home and then walk down the track
a mile to get the eight o'clock train.

I

had to leave home

at seven o'clock, get the eight o'clock train into Grove City
and take the late train home at night.

So it was practically dark

when I left in the fall and it was dark when I
So Dad said, no boy's going to do that.
to school.

got home .

You don't need to go

My mother said, he is going to school.

a country school.

So we had

She said, you go back to country school

and Glenna Robbins is the teacher and she's a graduate of
Oberlin and she'll teach you algebra and Latin.

So she

took me up there and she said, Russ will be your janitor, and
that boomer stove over there, I looked at it, pot-bellied

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W:

boomer stove. That's the kind we had in the schoolhouse.
So I had to feed the stove and sweep the place out.

I was

the janitor. and she'd teach me then. but she said. I don't
know anything about algebra. and I can't add. I don't know
anything about it at all. but I'll teach you Latin.
my mother. she was a dictator.
said.

Knowing

You didn't think about what she

She said what you are going to do. and that was law.

So I

went back. So about Thanksgiving or before that we finished the
first year Latin.
read Caesar.

I said. what do we do now?

What will we do now. after about a

We'll read Cicero.

Well. what do we do now?

So for a full year I did nothing but do
was a great waste of time.

But she

Slippery Rock this next fall.

So no

here. get a job waiting tables
money.

She said. we'll

But I came down in

to Latin class. and she

We'll read Virgil.

Latin and so I thought it

said. I'm packing you off to
money and I had to get down

or do something.

short pants.

Registered at Slippery Rock.

couple of months.

I didn't have any

Fourteen years old.

Got a job. Started.

So I went

sa i d to me. now when you go to L tin class

Miss Mary is probably one of finest L tin teachers. she's Italian
decent. in this area of the
Latin from her.

I said, will

don't be stupid.

Just go in

that are going to sit in
nobody can answer,

just

country. and she said. you'll take
I ask for some credit.

She said,

there and sit like all the other kids

there and when she asks a question that
put your hand up halfway and say. could

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W:

this be right, Miss Mary.
you.

She said, if you're wrong I'll haunt

Well, anyhow, they thought I was smart.

from the country don't

football.

know twice, and here I was the best one in

lk

Latin class, and I
examined all the

could write the better than anyone.
the doctors that
ones going out for football, we all went for

There were only about forty or fifty boys so everybody

went out some

time.

So I could write and

someone who could write.
did that.

So I filled all

so the doctor wanted
the forms out when he

I was his assistant right away. Most people thought if

they had some problem and they're busy
seemed to be his attache, so they would
automatically became the assistant
sheets.

Here's a dumb kid

So I'd listen to how

what blood pressure ought

with the doctor, and I
talk to me about it.

to the doctor making out the

he made them all out.

to be.

So I

I didn't know

I knew I had been awfully sick

with rheumatic fever and was forbidden to play any sports, but I
wanted to.

You didn't

being able to play
blood pressure,
many of these

ball.

worry about dying.

You worried about not

So when he said, that's a very fine

110 over 80, well, that's what it was.

He had so

guys to look over at least 33 that were out there in

suits, he didn't know who he'd seen or who he hadn't seen.

He

probably got three or five dollars for examining the whole
football team.

So I turned mine in, and mine was always

a little bit dishonest but mine was always just right perfect.
Heart was good.

Lungs were good.

Everything else was just

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W:

perfect.

So from that I got to carry the first aid box when

he was here. and if anybody needed a bandaid, I had it.
was my interest in medicine.
of that.

As I look back. it was because

Then we were going to have a play.

whether to get in it.

I didn't know

I didn't know if getting in a play was

honorable or dishonorable or what.
me.

That

Everybody would congratulate

I was selected for the play. and I couldn't imagine why.

Well. it was because everybody knew that I was the best student in
Latin.
before.

Never breathed a word that I'd ever had a day of Latin
I'll never forget the play.

Soap. Unlucky for Dirt".

The play was "Thirteen

So I had a flagpole with a

sign on it. and when the curtain rolled up. I ran across the
stage with this flag. and I was all through.
my part in the play.

I'd completed

And as I say. being able to write. being

able to assist the doctor. making me the chief custodian of
the band-aid kit. and splints and tape. and naturally since
I had it, there was nobody else there. I would wrap it on the
best way I know how. and I'd been kicked around some so I
had some idea. and with Coach Thompson showing me. why. I
became the unofficial assistant for the doctor when I was 14
in football.

That created an interest in medicine.

After

playing ball here for. and I never was very good, I didn't
know why I couldn't run.

I could run fast. probably from

here out across the road or something like that. but all the

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W:

valves in my heart leaked and I didn't know that.

But I

think the only thing that kept me alive was trying.
and I was supposed to never live till I became 15.
rheumatic fever when I was eight so bad. I
and with my interest in sports. you
instead of sitting down.
followed the directions
and played ball.

I'm 88.
I had this

think keeping me alive

get exercise that you need

I think I'd probably have died if I had
that I was supposed to do.

As I say I'm not good.

But I went out

The biggest job I did

was carry the band-aid box and carry the medical box to put
mercurochrome on somebody or put a band-aid on them. but it was
all of those things working together. I went out for ball. and I
played quite a bit of baseball when I came
school. 1919.
College.

In 1921 it changed to

So they didn't know

here to the Normal

Slippery Rock State Teachers

what to do with a bunch of us. There

was a kid by the name of Ellenberger, same size and age as I was,
and Joe Moore and
along.

I followed these guys

Ellenberger became superintendent of schools down in the

Pittsburgh area.
School.
dead.

"Hoosie" Gold and myself.

Joe Moore was principal of Warren Junior High

He got his Ph.D. out of Pittsburgh later on.

He's now

Gold. his father was a dentist. he studied dentistry. and I

studied medicine.
They let

This was the group.

We were all about 14.

us go on through and tutored us.

So we had enough work

with the tutoring and so on that they let us enter the state
teachers college at the end of the second year.

So by end of four

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W:

years we had graduated. all of us. and we also had credit for two
years of college work, although we'd only been here four years.
One thing we used to do was race in the dining room.
was the president at that time.

Eisenberg

Their table was up about two

feet higher than the rest of the tables in the dining hall, in the
women's dorm there. and then, as you know. they always set the
tables with ten at a table and one of the instructors at the
head, then there would be two seniors. two juniors. two sophomores, and then they would maybe mix the others up.
people to wait on, each one of us.

So you had 20

So we would race to see

who had to set those tables up for breakfast and run to get the
dishes in the dishwasher.
had been watching us.

So we would race out the thing.

And he

So one day. one of us bunged "Hoosie" Gold,

and down went his dishes and smashed 20 plates and whatever he had
on the thing.
see Eisenberg.

So the next morning we got a call to come in and
"Hoosie" said it was an accident.

Yes. he said,

I'm sure you didn't do it on purpose. but I've been watching you.
You four guys have been racing.
was.

I don't know where Ellenberger

He didn't get mixed up in the thing.

He said, Joe Moore,

you and "Hoosie" have been racing to get throught that door.
accidents are half on purpose.

Now

So, he said, those dishes that

you got on that tray will cost the college eight dollars wholesale.

Now since accidents are half on purpose. the college will

pick up four dollars.

He said, "Hoosie," you were carrying the

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W:

tray, and you are going to pay two, and Joe Moore, you were racing
with them and you are going to pay one, and Russ Wright you were
racing and you are going to pay one.
his analogy.

I have always thought of

So it was pretty hard to raise that dollar, but

you had to give that. I think I paid a quarter of each weeks' pay.
But he collected it right down to the penny, and you paid him
at the office.

One thing I might add is this teaching in a country school.
I think there were six first grade students that had never
been to school before. and they sat on the front row.
I would recite. I would go up there. She was a

Then when

graduate and

music major with a minor in languages from Oberlin and she had
graduated summa cum laude.
there.

She had two uncles that lived down in

One was on the school board and of all the people to put

into teaching at a country school, she knew the

least about

anything else. but she was willing to learn. She lived in Grove
City and wrote a book on herself and had become a very fine
speaker and did a lot of religious speaking here.
until about ten years ago.

I saw her up

Anyhow, these little kids would all

sit there and being an excellent music student, she had a fine
voice. she sang all the endings.

Like a, ae. ai, am, a.

the ends of Latin. You know Latin has 10 endings on each noun.
Five singular. five plural.

So we'd sing. like tuba is the word

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W:

for trumpet. tuba. tubae. tubae, tubam, tuba. tubae. tubarum.
tubis. tubas. tubis.
there.

and all these little kids would be sitting

We'd sing the declension and those damn little kids. six

years old. everyone of them could sing every one of those declensions.

They'd sing too. tuba. tubae, tubae. tubam.

vocabulary.

They learned

I think they learned Latin as well as I did and all

six years old, kids that had never been in a school room before.
It taught me something about humanity.

The next year I pedaled out to Slippery Rock and I got a job.
Going on, the first thing was I wanted to go out for football.
We all did.

We were all like pint-size.

age. fourteen years old.

We were all the same

Imagine going out for football at 14.

You couldn't even go out for high school football. but Coach
Thompson never humiliated you. and he was this broad. and his
hand was like a vise when you put it in there.

So sitting here

filling out these forms and being a new one. I looked up there
and the first team got new suits.

The second team got the suits

that were thrown off from last year.

The third team got the

scrub suits that they were the scrubs last year and the shoes
were broken and the toes were out of them. but there were still
two nice shoes there. They were a nice pair of shoes.
those would be there by the time I got there.

I hoped

Well. at last I

I got through and turned in the thing. Zephiropolous was the only

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W:

one behind me and he couldn't write at all. so

shoes and one was size seven and one size nine.
running.

anyhow. I got the
We were having

We used to be up there on the hill and race for who was

the fastest.
C:

That's the baseball field that used to be used for football
practice.

W:

I could always win the 100.

I probably was running as fast as

anybody in the whole school when I came here.
a real fast runner.

We were running down there. and Coach

Thompson always had his eyes open.
Russ. have you got a deformed foot?
deformed foot?

My Dad was always

He looked at me and said.
How can you run with a

I said. no. should I say my shoes are deformed or

my feet didn't grow the right size for these shoes?
got me a pair of shoes.

You know. he

He_ got me a pair of shoes. Unbelievable!

C:

Probably out of his own pocket.

W:

I'm sure it didn't come from anywhere else.

Then we were getting

beat badly one day. and "Hoosie" Gold. you had to run with him and
sometimes he could beat me if it was a far distance.
air than I did.

So he said to "Hoosie. we were getting beat so

bad. we are going to kick off.
those fellows.

He had more

We had to kick it. Go down to

The first one down there. knock it out of his

hands. see if you can knock it out. and so he did and I caught it.
so the first football game I ever saw I played in and scored a
touchdown.

Now it was an awful long time coming for a second

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W:

one.

Coach Thompson always used to make some remarks.

One

day he said. I can lick anybody in this whole world. And when
he put that big vice hand up there on his shoulders, he was an
All-American from Ursinus College.
big statement.
it?

He said. oh. it is.

I said, Coach. that's a
I said. how would you do

He said. you keep fighting one minute after the other

guy quits.

But that's just some of his philosophy.

In working with Thompson. in the half. he prepared. He always
prepared his team well.

As Doug knows so well, so many men will

stand five minutes in preparation of their team and an hour the
next day explaining how they are down on their luck.
the team and what you knew.

He prepared

When you went in between the halves.

if you were making a mistake and he saw it. and it was something
you could do with it. he pointed it to you or any one of them and
what was happening and why they were successful. but he never
tried to teach you how to play football between the halves.
That was a kind of a time that you were to go out and feel
better.

We came in one day and we were getting the tar

beat out of us.

He sat there and laughed.

Everybody was

jittery. and I don't think they could have caught a ball
if they had it thrown right to them.
couldn't hold it.
up.

Apparently they just

So he had to do something to loosen this team

So he told this story.

The other day. at the opening of

school this year. a woman came up from down Butler way in her two

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W:

seater tin lizzie touring car with black robes on. That was all
dirt road. dust flying.

Everybody who had a car had a dust robe.

She come up to put her girl into school. and she's turning around
the old gym on Kiester Road.

She came out and there was this

fellow sitting there. an Amish guy.

She said to him . she wanted

her daughter to come home from school on the train.
is the station. sir?

So where

He took his finger and pointed out

Kiester Road. and he said. out there.

She said. how far is it?

Oh. he said. it's about five or six miles.
put the station way out there?
the track is out there.

She said. why did they

Well. he said. I reckon because

He loosened those guys up and they went

out and beat the tar out of the other team.

He took all that

jitteriness away.
What was the coach's name we talked about this morning at Michigan?
C:

Yost.

W:

Yost.

,

I

Hurry Up Yost.

That's what we always called him.

Michigan

has always been a great rival with Ohio State. and I thought how
much Yost was like Coach Thompson the way he figured out some
way that he would get the better of you in some manner .

So the

Yost team at Michigan was not near as good as Ohio State.

Ohio

State could win everybody.

There's

Michigan could only win some.

two tunnels that come out on to the field at the stadium. and Yost
waited till Ohio State was all in this tunnel. and they were all

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W:

loitering along,

just walking out, and then he waits till they get

into the right thing and then he sends his whole squad out scream ing and yelling to high heaven.
him.

They run on the field out past

They're so jittery that he scored three touchdowns in the

first quarter before they got their feet on the ground and beat
them.

Thompson had these kinds of tricks too.

one thing about him.

I want to tell you

One day I think he gained the respect and

courage of every man that played football on that team.

We were

playing somebody and at that time you lined up right on the line.
you pulled your tackle and your end and brought them in the inside
so you had your center and guard. That's all you had next to the
line there.

So he lined up the guard and the tackle and brought

his other over here.

There was only way we figured he could go

so we all blocked that way.
hit him.

This guy came up the thing. Somebody

We had the ball and we come right up here.

They were

all scattered out here so the coach said, shoot right into here
and knock these guys out of here and go right up through here.
So this is what we were going to do but our man stepped on the
line right there.

You had one umpire or referee or whatever you

call them that's all there was and he couldn't see everything.
The coach saw him step on the line and he scored.

I saw it and

several of our players if you walked along the line, they saw it.
Half a dozen of us saw it.
back.

Coach called that play and called it

That type of honesty. of sincerity, to give up a score

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W:

that they needed,
that knew him.

I think he demanded the admiration of everybody

That's what he did.

missed one point here.

He was so good to me.

I

I had told you about going down and

scoring the first football game I ever saw or ever played in and I
didn't know how to fall, and I fell and laid on my back and the
guy stepped in my mouth and knocked those two front teeth
out.

Now I

had been forbidden to play any sports, and I didn't know what to
do.

Now it was going to be time to go home at Thanksgiving.

I

went down to the dentist down here and he had to put two peg teeth
in there for me before I went home so I could go home.

In sports,

going through most of them, and I had been physician for 18 years
with the Tigers, and I was 25 years with the

international

weightlifting, and with our weightlifting team,
committee.

You will find probably that there are

profession and everything else, but you'll

the Olympic
rebels in every

never find a much

better assortment of people than you'll find in sports.

Don't

you think that's true?
C:

True.

W:

You get what you earn.

You earn it, and you expect it, and

you are willing to train for it.
tremendous job on this book.

Doug has done such a

We've all got our name on it, but

he's the guy that started the work.

His experience over

all of these years of teaching high school, and training and
coaching and physical education, and looking over theses and

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W:

helping people through school and lending a hand.
Coach Thompson.

C:

He is another

He has all the qualities that the coach had.

Would you want to share with them the story of how they started
to announce the Slippery Rock scores at the Michigan stadium?

W:

Yes.

My wife was a friend of Doc Holland.

Doc Holland was not

a physician.

He was the chief paint salesman to the Ford Motor

car company.

How he ever got that name, I don't know.

He and

Ty Tyson graduated in the same class at Penn State, and they
both came to Detroit.

So that's when station WWJ radio was just

getting going, and so he hired out with WWJ and what's his name
went to Ford selling their paint and he became pretty much the
paint top salesman for the Ford Motor Car Company.

So when you're

talking about selling paint. you're not selling a gallon, you're
selling a million gallons at a shot.

Anyhow, they were good

close friends. And when you went out to the ball game at Ann
Arbor, that's when I was interning, that would be 1929 or 1930,
right in that area, you went out to the stadium and then they had
a little cupola up there, not much more equipment than what you
have right here, and then they did the broadcasting from up there.
So they always were giving me the business about being from
Slippery Rock.

The other side of the tracks, why didn't I go to

a college, if you can't go to college, go to Slippery Rock.
did you go there. you couldn't go to college, giving you this
rib and Slippery Rock probably is getting beat 50-0 today and

Why

(20)

W:

then they'd use they're name and play Indiana and California and
they'd think their a great school.
so on.

Just rubbing this in and

So this day I started giving it back, and it's between the

halves when they're doing this thing and they give me this business, and so help me, the thing [microphone] was open. So at that
point all the air over the country heard about Slippery Rock, and
that's how Slippery Rock games and numbers started to be announced
at the games and that's how the Slippery Rock name became known to
the University of Michigan.
I

V:

At Michigan State

they always announce the scores.

W:

They still do.

C:

They pretty much do it all over the country.

W:

Now I'll come back to Slippery Rock, and I'd like to talk
a little bit about some of the faculty. Miss Mary here was a
Latin teacher who was a delightful person.

Herb Vincent became

principal of the high school, but his wife

was an art teacher, and

she and Miss Mary were very close
and knew Latin, Mrs. Vincent
student of some kind.

Then

she found out right away
give me an entree

friends.

So since I could write

thought I must be a pretty good
she thought I could do some art, but

that she had made a mistake, but it did

to her husband which finally became the assis-

tant coach, and he was down at the Model School.
Slippery Rock high
Model School.

They had a

school at that time, but that was held in the

That was the high school.

Then Headland was

(21 )

W:

the head of the Model School for teacher training.
did

i:ear o

That's where I

ractice teaching under Headland down there.

through Vincent and Miss Mary, again here I come back,
the breaks in the world.
young.

I wasn't a good student.

But

I got all

Here I was

I didn't understand a lot of things, but they gave me

the advantage of everything that there was coming along. Now
another guy we had was very interesting.
was a character.

He taught psychology.

His name was Hamm.
I often

today, I don't know whether he was good or
and he always looked like he had
looked like he hated

He

think back yet

bad, but he sat there

Limburger cheese on his lip.

everybody including himself.

He

I'm sure he did

me because I'd write but I couldn't spell. I think if he didn't do
any other papers he'd check my paper over, and so he read it
because every other word was misspelled.
red.

So he'd mark them all in

He said, you know, I'm thinking about flunking you.

well, you wouldn't do it would you?

He said.

Well, anyhow, he didn't. But he was up
maybe 60. and he had never had a nice

I said.

don't challenge me.

in age, pretty good age,
house.

So he decided he was

going to build the perfect home.

He must have drawn plans for a

half a dozen houses and they were

all either too expensive or

there was something he couldn't
finally he got a contractor

agree on with the contractor, but

to build a house.

He said to this

contractor, now if the fire place, he didn't have a fireplace. he
loved a fireplace. don't work, I won't pay you.

The guy said.

( 22)

W:

when I build

a house,

the fireplace works.

So he did good work.

Built him a nice house. But he wouldn't give him the ten percent.
He had held back

percent.

ten

He said,

fireplace working.

the ten percent till I see the
said, if

The contractor

ten percent the fireplace will work.

you give me the

They argued about this

I'm not going to pay you

for months.

So finally he said, I know

Well, Hamm went over and built a fire in the

what he's got to do.

fireplace, and it just filled the house full of smoke.
you know I knew that fireplace wouldn't work.

So he got himself

a ladder, as old as he is, climbs up on the roof,
he can see daylight right through.
work.

So they get together again and he

ten percent, the fireplace will
it and said, what's

fair enough.

If it don't,
So now the

on the house, but he

So Coach Thompson gets into
Coach says, tell you
Okay, I'll put

fireplace works, I'll give it to the

I give it back to you.

Said, that's

contractor gets a ladder and he gets up

takes a rock with him about this big and

plunks it down through.
fireplace so it wouldn't
the thing out and he

I knew it wouldn't

percent of the money?

it in this hand. Now, if the
contractor.

work.

looks down and

said, if you give me the

in it. It's deadlocked.

what you do, what's the ten

goes.

He said,

He said,

That bugger had put a glass across the
work.

So he got his money.

He knocked

put some kindling in there and, whew, up she

And so the coach had to hand over the ten percent.

the kind of esteem that Coach Thompson was held

n.

If

That's
it was an

( 23)

W:

argument. he was the moderator.
baseball today?

They sit down and a guy tries

they're going to take.
cally everything.
The best

Like what do we

Anyhow. he was the

call that in
to tell them what

moderator in practi-

We had a history teacher by the name of Murphy.

story teller. I think I have never heard one better

before or since.

He taught English history and everybody loved to

go in to hear his jokes.

Now they rang the bell. and if you

weren't seated five minutes between the bells. and if there was an
extra seat. anybody could take it. and his classroom would just
be solid with students.

Just packed in.

But if you weren't

in there by the second bell. you lost your seat.
rule.

That was the

So everybody out of classes ran for history class to

hear Murphy talk.

He used to sing about Henry the VIII.

Two

widowed. two died. two survived and some other damn thing about
his eight wives.
history.

Mary.

her out and
IV of

He had all these things. and we all loved
Queen of Scots. and what she did.

Elizabeth put

said whack her head off and then her son was James the

Scotland and he came down and said, Auntie don't you think

that was real severe to cut my mother's head off.

She said.

would it ease your pain at everything if you knew that you were
going to be James the I. the King of England?

He had all these

tales and they were just indelible the way he put it out.
one of the greatest instructors I have ever
I want to mention one other thing about him.

had.

He was

Now Eisenberg.

With Eisenberg you

( 24)

W:

might get by with being late for class.
being out of class.

.

I
/

I

You might get by with

He was understanding.

But there was no excuse

for you not to be in chapel.

It

From'a:--00 to 8:45 and you ha

better be in chapel.

all came and they
and if

was one class for 45 minutes.
The faculty

checked the roll of all the students and faculty

you weren't at chapel, you were in trouble.

wanted you at breakfast.

He also

I recall one morning, I wasn't in the

if
Cb

dining room at that time, for some reason I slept in and I didn't
go to breakfast.
around to see you.

They took roll at breakfast.
So the first thing she

So the nurse came

did when she made the

rounds then, she stuck a thermometer in your mouth.
be around so I got some hot water and I kept it
stuck the thermometer in.

I knew she'd

in a glass and I

I didn't know how hot the water was/

Maybe 105 or 106. Oooh! She ran out of the room and was going to
send me to the infirmary.
right.

I said, oh, I don't think that thing's

I shook it down and I let it sit in the

said, oh, the thermometer never did that before.
trouble if you didn't even go to breakfast.

water and she
But you were in

So these were some

of his peculiarities and as I said he sat up on that little
pedestal and watched everything that was on the ground. Then in
the dining room, we had coal mine kids, farm kids, and so on.
most of them didn't know whether to eat with a knife or pick the
food up in their hands and so on.

They probably had never been

in where there was electricity or any inside plumbing or anything

( 25)

W:

such as that.

So we needed somebody to teach them etiquette.

we had Emily Post Day in the classes.
there and show how you would serve
your soup and you take your soup
here and you dipped your soup
the side.

Then your

cut one bite.

salad.

So

somebody would sit up

them. and how you must take
like this with your hand down

away from you and you sipped it out
Then your meat.

If it's meat. you

Might cut two if it was on the corner. Then cut it

off and pick it up.

Or if you were ambidextrous. you could eat

with this left fork and then your coffee and so on.
that.

How can you teach any manners to

don't know them.
his thinking.

opposed anything she said.

But when we were here in
We didn't

Taught you how to graft a tree.
Taught you how to farm so your

One day

Slippery Rock? I said. the
coming and you never

I noticed that you took all

to plant rotation crops.

greatest educators of all

He said. well.

We called it botany and zoology

all of it.

ahead of his time in

down to the roots.

biggest reason is my mother said I was

do you do.

those children if you

I think he was one of the

he said. Russ. why did you come here to

He

leader into a commu-

Eisenberg lived a lifetime

times because he educated you right

take.

So we had all

Then they'd have inspection on Emily Post manners.

said. rightly so. you're going out to be a
nity.

So

what do you like?

What

the agriculture you could
then.

I took the botany.

school. they taught you how
have pesticides or anything.

Taught you how to bud a tree.
soil wouldn't wash away.

In your

( 26)

W:

trigonometry, taught you how
Take levels on things.
with stones, there

to do a survey.

How you could do it.

If you were putting in ditches or running

are so many stones in Pennsylvania there.

We

would dig a big ditch and put a stone pile in it, put the sides
and the sand rock and laid them on the top, then fill it in and
have to cut through and you surveyed.

So in your class here in

agriculture, you learned spraying, surveying, grafting, budding,
rotation of crops, taking care of the land and all of those
things.

I thought I'd go back and be a farmer.

planned.

That's what I

Our milk check when I came to Slippery Rock in 1919

was running about $50.

When I got back in four years with the

same cows, same everything, was running about $30.
that probably wasn't it.

I decided

It looked like a dying business, if it

had gone down to that. We'd buy some more farms and gradually do
that.

Well, I taught school two years, country

get a school.
unemployed.

When I left Slippery Rock,
No job.

I was 18.

I couldn't apply for a

to teach in the state of Pennsylvania.

school.

Couldn't

I was

school till I was 19

I walked across that stage

and flipped that thing. And I looked

for a job.

me a hundred dollars a month if they

were going to hire me because

I was a graduate of a teacher's

college.

They had to pay

They could pay a high

school graduate $85 a month. So they put in all high school
graduates. So one of the schools
farming was done and they

had all these big boys as soon as

came back to school. So they carried the

( 27)

W:

teacher out one day and she
teaching school was

quit.

So the only reason I got a job

because she quit.

to teach it so the

They couldn't get anybody

path of least resistance they hired me.

taught in the country school a couple of years.

In the meantime,

I thought what Thompson said to me in playing ball.
to talk about sports.

I played football,

track. And as you got older you helped
younger ones.

We had one coach for

boys or boys that were good on

So I

Now I'm going

baseball, and ran on the

on the track with the

everything.

So the senior

that would help in track, or

somebody else helped in basketball, or somebody helped in football
and so on.

As

you moved

phases, and I recall
here, and I played
with the mining
throw pretty

along with him, and helped him in these

at the gym we had a place we could throw down
quite a bit of ball before I came here, played

teams. So I pitched in the winter time.

I could

hard, and I thought I bet I get in this spring to be

a short reliever.

Maybe a mini.

Then as I went on I threw

better, and I thought I bet I get to be a long reliever.

Come

spring I was hooking the ball pretty good, and I said, I'll bet
I'll be a starter.

Well up from Parker's Landing down on the

Ohio River and West Virginia, they all come out of those hills,
and I think we had something like 12 pitchers, and they were
guys that either were in school or wanted to get a couple of
credits in the spring term, school was out to do that, and when
I looked at them I went up and I saw guys throwing the ball

(28)

W:

better than I'd ever seen it thrown. so I immediately changed
to shortstop.

So I played there.

If I had a good day. and if

you knocked a nice fast ball to me. and I should make a double
play. but for some reason I must have had a mental block because
that ball was there and I reached down for it. but I looked up to
how fast that guy was running to first base and I reached behind
the ball. and the ball went through the field and everybody was
safe.

If it was a bad day and I didn't have time to look to see

where that guy was going. I could probably make the play. so I did
and I made a couple of real good plays that day. double plays.
I got three hits.

The Pittsburgh Pirates scouted me and wanted

to know if I was interested in playing ball with the Pittsburgh
Pirates.

So I said to Coach. what do I do?

you the best ball player at Slippery Rock?
how many are better?
fair.

I said. three.

What do you think will

How many will be better?
think that's true.
fingernails.

You're

chief custodian
mercurochrome
study medicine?

He said. Russ. are
I said. no.

He said.

He said. yes. I'd say that's

happen when you go to Class A ball?

I said. oh. probably three.

He said. I

and it won't change much. You'll bite your
not a natural ball player.

You have been our

of the band-aid bag and did things and putting on
for everybody here. wrapping them up. why don't you
I said. Coach, I haven't any money.

did you have any money when you came here?
you can get through school just as well.

He said,

I said, no.

He said,

This man interested me

( 29)

W:

in studying medicine.
here.

Gave me the opportunity

Then carry the first aid bag.

Take

care of anybody, and

gave me the inspiration and the confidence

in me that I never

would be a great ball player but he thought
physician. And I have felt indebted to him
lovely as any person could ever be.

and his wife who was a s

house and had our hand i n

She always enjoyed it, and

She died this last year.

it was always full.
My folks lived here,

and I always went up to see her, and she
person.

I could be a fine

Whenever we got hungry, we

were across Kiester Avenue over at their
her cookie jar.

to help originally

just was a charming

The picture that hung next to her

bed up there of the

Coach, some student had done it in charcoal.

It hung there.

said, we'd like to have that.

something about Coach

Thompson.

We want to do

I

Then we took a drawing off it.

C:

We took a picture of it.

W:

We took a picture of it.

This book that comes out here is

going to have his picture, Coach Thompson, and this book is
dedicated to Coach Thompson, and his picture will be on the
front page of this new book.
C:

Dr. Wright has a real busy day and he has three or four other
places he has to be and he has a wedding today, so is there
anything specific that you would like to have him continue with?

W:

I want to go to the Fitness Center, and the wedding is in Mercer,
and then we go to the reception.
Are there any questions?

I go home in the morning.

(30)

R:

I would like to know how the Russell Wright Fitness Center came
about if we could get that?

W:

He [Clinger] could tell you more about that.
it.

R:

He's the cause of

He caused that.

Well, we kind of got part of his version, and we're going to
tape him again, but if there's anything you would like to say
about the prime movers.

W:

I would say that Doug had everything to do with it.

He came to

me, and he said, you know, we need a type of facility like this.
Somebody would have to sponsor it.
So that's the way it started.

We got a few dollars together and

put them under Doug's direction.
C:

I said, Doug, I'd be glad to.

He started the fitness center.

I did share with them all the history of all the correspondence
between you and me, and the correspondence between the dean and
me, and each of the phases that we went through was all part of
the history that I did give to these folks and they will put it in
the Archives.

W:

It was his idea to do this type of thing.
area.

I love this area.

I think there's no place in the world

nicer to live than right here.
mines.

I was concerned of this

I played ball with the old coal

A lot of those people, we didn't know what it was.

Today

we call it black lung, but when I would butcher pigs at the farm,
their lungs were always pink, and when I posted (did a post
mortem) a man. his lungs were black.

So that's where we get the

( 31)

W:

word black lung.

Carbon does not absorb. and it gets in your

lungs.

So these fellows

fever.

They start sneezing.

breath.

start first with some asthma. or hay
Then they get a little short of

They're losing their lung capacity.

Then as they go on

ci

down. they don't get enough lung.
sitting down and in here where
up. instead of opening up

that this is some way. now

it again.

bypasses.

sums of money here. Now we're going to do

surgery.

quarter to a half a million
produced nothing for America.

This was just

could probably start in when

Now he's going to die

and we've spent anywhere from a

dollars on him of money that's
I

don't mind spending a dollar. but
do some good.

So we do bypasses on them.

you need it again, and we've spent all

This man is not protected.

either from that or the

So I felt

on their chair for another year to two

years. and then they say
this money. tremendous

losing more capacity.

these people developed a cardiac

Now we start doing

and they go back and sit

they should be opening this thing

their lungs. it's a good place for

bacteria to grow. and they're

problem.

so they start not exercising and

always wanted to be solvent.

I want to see that it's going to

throwing money away knowing that we
he's with asthma and do a great deal

better job through physical

fitness than any surgery would do.

And they were just going to

go on downhill from that, plus all

this expense.

I

This was my interest in

this.

Now we started in

and the interest in getting these students all worked into this

( 32)

W:

thing.

Doug has had such a wonderful experience in education,

in coaching, in watching people
r

able what can be done, and
that's why I was so
I was very

succeed that it's just unbeliev-

nobody knows it better than he, and

glad to be a part of it when he suggested it.

much in favor of doing the thing.

I wanted to show you

one thing here.

Here's an exercise we call thumbs up exercise.

Come over here.

This is she [Gay Vela] in the book [see appendix

A].

Thumbs up your spine as far as you can reach.

All right.

Now drag them down and you turn your hands down and over.
take a big deep breath.

Your head back.

Now

Now walk on your toes.

Try to make them walk 30 steps or 30 seconds to hold that.
are we doing?

We're putting that air, all in their clavicles, in

the first and second ribs.
Thumbs up.

There's the exercise

Where did I learn that?

right there.

I was about six years old

or seven when I had my business of selling apples.
Mccurdy. That's her farm where our
that back there.
fence.

She was in her

One day she fell and

cut out a piece of wood,
out.

She pushed it

the skin back,
her hand
this area,

What

hunting camp is.

Old Granny
We bought

eighties and she was out fixing

broke her arm.

a splint.

She had her daughter

Split it out.

The bone stuck

back in and had her daughter pull it, pushed

took some silk thread and sewed it back up and put

in there, and it made an uneventful recovery.

Now in

there was a lot of tuberculosis around Jackson Township

(33)
W:

when I was a kid.

I tested positive for tuberculosis.

did. she said. this is the exercise.
your back.

Your thumbs are way up

Now you drag them down over there and turn that way.

head up straight.

Big deep breath in. and then walk.

she did to us. and we didn't have a kid die of
worst tuberculosis area there was.

That

when I was about six or seven years
time was helping the doctor.
was Coach Thompson. and

I've got

thing about

That's what

tuberculosis in the

was one of my first times

old in medicine and the next

being his assistant.

The next time

I thought this about the time and I

practiced about 50 years.
it.

What she

and I practically enjoyed every day of

a son that is a physician. and he doesn't care a
practice.

I've got a grandson that is third year in

orthopedic surgery. and then I have another one that is in
research.

Found a cell in the brain that they believe has to do
•

with Alzheimers.

He's on degree research at the

University of

Southern California. and she's [Gay Vela] working on her
doctorate degree at the University of Nebraska. and then I
have another one that's a freshman starting at the University
of Kentucky in medicine this year.
chickens.

The other one is cutting

I had one that graduated at the University of Denver

in hotel management.

Then she went up to Johnson

wrote me a letter that said I'm cutting up

and Wales.

She

chickens and guts.

I

said. after four years at Denver University. don't you think you
have the cart before the horse?

She said. no.

I think I'm going

(34)

W:

the right way.

You know, she has.

They all are interested,

most of them, in some phase of medicine.
making money, and he made a

My son's interested in

lot once and lost it all, so he thinks

he's going to do it again.
R:

Do you see a turnaround out there in terms of a commitment to
physical fitness by institutions that are rearing children or
educational institutions?

W:

I don't think it's gotten down to the children's level yet.
No. I don't.

Now I'm not a good authority on this, but I

think we're reaching it.

Doug could probably answer that.

I think we're reaching it in our college group today.

Don't

you think, Doug?
C:

More in the adult population probably than in the younger
groups.

There's been a trend away from it, and hopefully with

the emphasis that the parents are putting on today, it should
get back into the elementary school where it ought to be in
the first place.
this time.

Society doesn't value health very much at

None of us do.

We're all immortal until we don't

have our health.
B:

I think just one example that the fitness center has made a
tremendous difference and a great benefit to the faculty at
Slippery Rock.

W:

Is that right?

( 35)

B:

Oh. we've really benefited tremendously.

I'm an example of

that.
R:

Right after it opened we had about ten bypass surgeries.

B:

The rest of us have avoided that.

It's made a difference in

behavior.
C:

The administration feels strongly about the relationships that
are created there between faculty and staff. faculty and students,
staff and students.

In fact. our past vice-president. Hulbert.

felt that the experiences that we had with the initial phases of
our wellness program were some of the best things that ever
happened on campus during his tenure at that time.

I think that

Dr. Aebersold recognizes the value of that. and the value of these
relationships that have been developed as a result of the Russell
Wright Fitness Center.
W:

I didn't tell you.

He called me last Thursday or Friday.

He

said he heard I was going to be down. and he wouldn't be here.
He won't be back till Monday.

He was going to Maine.

he was sorry he wasn't going to be here.

He said

I told him I was going

back Sunday so I would miss him.
Doug's had such an experience. so wide an experience. coaching.
physical education. selection of students.

I think this is the

greatest thing that's ever been written to my experience.

What

every coach really needs to know to pick out the right guy for the

( 36)

W:

right job, and to make him the best for that job. And he's the one
that's put the basis to this thing.

C:

Gay had an opportunity to take it to Tom Osborne, the football
coach at the University of Nebraska, and you could share that
with us.

V:

I got a call just within about a week, and he said, Gay, I want
to tell you that's one of the finest books that I've ever read.
He said, it's right up to the latest research.

It is outstanding

and I'd like to write an endorsement for that book.

He was very

enthused about the book.
R:

And one of the most respected men in the country in that profession.

C:

What we tried to do was not focus it just on football.
coach of any sport.

It's for a

It approaches it in a global approach to the

whole coaching field rather than to be sport specific.

There is

so much you can do with sport specific things that if a coach is
interested in basketball, he can go to a whole day clinic, but
you can't get to all the coaches that way so we went this route.
W:

This chap here I saw him on television.

He's coaching the Russian

team now.

Did you see him?

One of the coaches, Alexeev.

The

heavyweight weight lifter.
I saw him in the Olympics.

C:

Yes.

W:

Yes. Another interesting thing.

The Russian doctor and I worked

together for 25 years, and so we wanted to have a master's thing.

( 37)

W:

Bring the best weightlifters. gold medal winners all through
Europe and then with ours at Las Vegas and put on a thing.
Alexeev was to come.

So I was surprised at the Russians.

didn't want to go to Las Vegas.
this.

I

I didn't have the time to do

They said. well. Alexeev isn't coming

Wright will be there. so we know who is going
what.

So

I wondered why they were so

me like a king out in Las Vegas.

and at least Dr.
to be taking care of

interested and wanted to treat
I found out that the Russians

wouldn't let Alexeev come out side of the Crimean.

His picture is

in here somewhere. This is something I had in mind. and I sat down
and in two months I wrote the damn thing. and
worldwide.

Here's a thing one night I

ceived this idea of treating a man's
night.

The Russians are magicians

get cold.

people I visited

might tell you.

I con -

back over in Moscow one
at making you wait until you

Outside the temperature

is maybe fifty degrees and you

warm up a guy and you're going to put him on the stage and then
they shove in another
on.

They're

weightlifter or they jump the weight and so

great manipulators.

done by the Russians.

The best coaching I ever saw is

Anyhow. the British had a weightlifter. and

it looked like he could win. but they made him sit and wait till
he got cold. and hold things up.

So he went to get up.

He had

been sitting on a bench and he can't straighten up. They said he
had three minutes to get on the stage and here's the gold medal.
And he can't get it straightened up.

So the

British all start

( 38)

W:

yelling to me, where was I.

So I was there, and I went down.

I couldn't figure out, no table, I

just put

I have him there, and I threw my hip
up.

He ran up on the stage just

minutes, picked up the weights,
The English hadn't won a medal
have their anthem, God Save
I said play the Stars and
English jumped

into his.

and lifted and won the gold medal.
for so damn long that they didn't

Stripes.

The guy said what'll I do?

I'd like to hear that.

up and said, who did that?

to hear that than the Russian anthem.

I did.

The

It was better

I never got over that.

When the only medal they ever won,

and they played the Star Spangeled Banner.
conceive that treatment, and I

He straightened

as the whistle blew the three

The Queen.

They'd never forgive me that.

him up on my back like

That's how I came to

've treated a lot of people like

that and now they're using this method of treating backs pretty
much all over the country.
R:

Thank you so much.

W:

If you get down south, we're right on the ocean.
have you.

I'd love to have you as my guest, go to dinner.

you get down there, stop and see us.
on campus.

We'd love to
If

I remember the long walk

They've cut it out now and have a highway there.

That was two walks down there, but the boys on the south side
never were allowed to walk on the girls' side of the long walk.
His picture's up there.

Dale

His father was a preacher.

Houk.

We went to school together.

Dale was in the first kindergarten in

( 39)

W:

Slippery Rock.

Started here. Then he came back and he was here

and going to school.

He

used to go with Elsie Haines.

him played tennis together on those courts down there.
morning the courts were
woods.

This

full and they took a walk down in the

He came back and

the president called them in and he said,

Dale. you weren't playing tennis.
courts.

Elsie and

Dale said. there weren't any

He said, yes. but were you

Dale said, well, we were down there.

courting down in the woods?
He said, Dale, I know you

won't lie, but you've done so many things that I don't know about
that I don't feel that I'm
school.

And he did.

ler's.

Her brother

fencing.

Thousands

embarrassed at all to throw you out of

So then Dale goes out to Emma Guffey Milhad a farm down in Butler.

So he ordered high

of dollars for the fencing.

So the inspector

came up to see what the hell

they did with all the fencing at

Slippery Rock. but they found
brother's farm down there.
got in.

it down on Emma Guffey Miller's

In

the meantime. Emma Guffey Miller

The Democrats got in. So she came up to Dale, and, of

course. he built the house.
president's house. but they
they fired him.
the house.

So he never

He was the

her brother built the house. the
found out this thing about the wire so
got to live in it.

first guy to get in it.

So Dale moved in
So about the first

thing Dale called

was he said, the rebels are back in. come on

down.

I was the first guest to be in the president's

house.

So I think

(40)

W:

You went to Brown University that weekend they had a hurricane
and water was coming down over Slippery Rock.
a bonfire.

We got to have

I thought the chapel was was going to wash away.

Anyhow, Dale then left and went through and got his Ph.D.
at Pittsburgh and was teaching as assistant superintendent at
Allegheny College and then they took him out, put the Republicans
in and so they hired Dale that day as president. So when she
(Emma Guffey Miller) got back in the first thing she did, she got
elected like tonight, she was up here in the morning and said,
Dale, you're fired.

He said, you can't fire me till you have

another president. I'll have another one here at ten o'clock.
Then he ran an educational system in Korea on an airplane.
Teaching them English back and forth.

Dale always stopped in

Detroit to see me and his son came up there and went to Wayne
University. There are so many rich memories of all the people
here.