Marquette History
THE BEGINNING
A typical day started with a voluntary study hall at 7:15 a.m., followed by Mass at 8:30. The school day
ran from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with an hour and 45 minutes for lunch. ... Class sessions lasted from 30 to 60 minutes, usually five days a week. Thursday was a “recreation day,” while Saturday was a regular
class day. The reasoning behind this particular schedule was that it avoided a long, distractive
interruption from Friday afternoon to Monday morning. ... Thursday remained a “recreation day” for
28 years, until the fall of 1910.
The arrival of a collegiate program in 1883 seems to have inspired other student organizations. ... Others became fixtures, including the German Literary Club (two incarnations), the St. John Berchman Acolytical Society, the Apostleship of Prayer and The Marquette College Journal.
An informal athletic society appeared at the opening of the school’s second year when a Jesuit scholastic won Father President’s permission to use the schoolyard west of the college building for an hour each afternoon. A 10-cent-per-month fee paid for the equipment.
In 1883, the Athletic Association of Marquette College was established. … For more than a decade, baseball dominated organized sports at Marquette College. In 1892, a high school-level football team was assembled. It played a three-game season that year, with one victory. Admission cost 10 cents.
Without question, Marquette College’s fiscal survival depended upon the vow of poverty taken by members of the Society of Jesus. With the exception of a very small number of lay faculty who taught primarily preparatory and commercial students, the faculty consisted of Jesuits. These religious received no salary; their living expenses were simply charged to the college budget. Every expense was recorded, from $5 for a pair of boots to $1 for a pair of slippers to $5.25 per week for four bottles of Mass wine. ... For a dozen individuals, the Jesuit community spent in 1885 between $4-$13 per month for butter, between $5-$9 for eggs and up to $6 for pears, but only 20-40 cents per month for the streetcar and — once in that span of three months — 30 cents for candy. … Unusual charges included 25 cents for a necktie, 90 cents for a baseball and bat, and 25 cents for medicine; in June of 1887, $13 was set aside for pipe tobacco and cigars.
| Learn all about Marquette’s admission of women, the dental students’ revolt when the administration tries to put a damper on hazing, and proms in the roaring ’20s in the Winter 2007 issue of Marquette Magazine. |
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