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Show stands the U . • Back in the days when there was no Annex, no Homecoming, and, believe it or not, no Utonian, there was a great deal of class spirit. Every year the campus would break out in a rash of class numerals, which were painted on every available surface. In the spring of 1905, the class of aught-seven, the really remarkable class which published the first Utonian and sponsored the first sack rush, had a brand new idea. Under the leadership of Carl Scott; Stayner Richards, who was student body president; and Richard Hart they planned to put their mark on a large pile of black shale just north of the present block U. One day in April, when a trusting pro-fessor was late to class, they seized their opportunity. Of course the other classes immediately retaliated, and for the next few days school practically stopped as the battle raged and the numerals became a smear of sevens, eights, and nines. Finally someone proposed a compromise, a large U. On the first U Day in April, 1905, the entire student body climbed the hill and installed in lime the first block U. Of course the life of the lime U ended when winter began, and two years later the same class promoted their plan for a permanent concrete emblem. After three days of strenuous effort (all the materials were hauled from town on mules borrowed from Fort Douglas and the concrete was mixed by hand) the project was completed. The appearance of the symbol was considered a minor scandal in some circles; one prominent clergyman even preached a sermon on the desecration of the mountain, and many newspapers printed editorials berating the students. They, however, were unperturbed, and their work remained. Today the U, which is warped to fit the hill and still give the impression of a symmetrical monogram, is a hundred feet high and contains a hundred cubic yards of concrete. It is thought to be the very first of all such insignia and has a certain distinction because of that fact. But the U's most outstanding characteristic is not its age or its popularity as a model for other such emblems or its interesting history. ' For the forty-one college generations who have climbed the hill to repair its white surface it is a symbol of the proud tradition that is Utah. It represents college people from the wide-eyed freshman to the student body president and from the C. I. play-boy to the three-point medical student. It has stood guard over them, and it knows them well. 8 |