Correspondence

Connecting Alums Back to Lehigh

Just sped through this season’s copy of the Bulletin and wanted to simply say that this was perhaps the best edition yet! Some favorites: From Bethlehem to Broadway, A Campus for Tomorrow and most of all, Opening Doors, Changing Lives. I really loved hearing these students’ stories and how Lehigh had made an impact on their lives.

I typically make my annual donation in June, but, halfway through Changing Lives, I made this year’s donation six months early! Thank you for connecting alum like me back to the place we all hold so dearly in our hearts, and big kudos to our new President, whose bold vision for Lehigh enables exciting new content that makes every Bulletin edition even more exciting than the last.

Lauren Bloch ’10

Remembering the 1950 Football Team

Kudos to the Lehigh 1977 football team and their accomplishments and to Mike [Unger]’s lengthy, informative story. But, the LU 1950 football team is STILL the ONLY undefeated, untied team in the history of LU. And, not only did the 1950 team rank 19th among ALL the colleges in this country (at that time there were no divisions separating the colleges and universities by size), but the LU administration turned down (3) bowl bids and stated that Lehigh is an academic school and not a football school. In that era, the 1950 team was primarily a RUNNING TEAM generated by backs Dick Gabriel and Dick Doyne and coached by William Leckonby.

I also totally agree with the Blake Eisenhard ’76 letter-to-you that the historical Engineers are still the Engineers (and not just a bird atop South Mountain). Mention Lehigh, and Response—“Oh, that Engineering School!”

Jack Bergman ’52

Packard Lab Revisited

Having spent many hours in Packard Lab (1960-1964) I found the Winter Edition of the Lehigh Bulletin of special interest...

For over 50 years, I have appreciated receiving the Bulletin. Much has changed over the years ... and all for the better. Makes me wish I could start all over again. You have raised the bar even higher as the latest Editor. Thank you for your good work.

Bob Schuman ’64

Engineers vs. Mountain Hawks

While the “Engineers” vs. “Mountain Hawks” controversy over the proper nickname for Lehigh sports teams continues among some alumni, there seems to have been little consideration of the origins of the “Engineers” nickname. Namely, when did it arise, how, and why? Answers to these questions can be found with some patience from the online searchable digital files of the Brown and White.

The results of this search are interesting and enlightening. First, nicknames for college sports teams were not common until the 1920s and 1930s. Early sportswriters made up their own, in a haphazard way; there is evidence that in the early 1900s Lehigh teams in the local papers may have been called the “Bears,” the “Steelworkers,” the “Chestnuts,” or the “Engineers.” But for the most part they were referred to simply as “Lehigh,” the “Big Brown,” or the “Brown and White.” Lehigh’s early “fight” songs such as “Lehigh Will Shine” and “Raring Tearing” make no reference to engineers.

Around 1930 there were suggestions in the Brown and White about the desirability of a nickname; some argued that “Lehigh” was better than any nickname! Nothing came of these suggestions. Only in 1932 did the “Engineers” nickname appear in the Brown and White, and then only sporadically. Not until the mid- to late 30s does “Engineers” seem to have caught on. There is no evidence, however, that “Engineers” was officially established as a nickname, and no indication that its use was connected to Lehigh’s founding years.

Further digging reveals that as early as 1948 there was a move to adopt a nickname other than “Engineers,” for it was recognized even then that Lehigh was not a technical institute but a university. As a result, students were asked to suggest a replacement nickname, and the winner was “Packers.” This was the official nickname for quite a few years, and it did honor our founder. However, “Packers” gained little traction, was seldom used, and faded into oblivion. Further quests for a replacement took place in the early and mid-70s, to no avail. All of these, including the process which led to the “Mountain Hawks,” were motivated by the makeup of a university which was providing a much wider selection of areas of research and teaching than had been the case in the ’30s when “Engineers” began to be used.

Since the “Engineers” nickname did not flourish until some 70 years after Lehigh’s birth and some 40 years after intercollegiate sports took root here, it seems unlikely that it referred to Asa Packer or the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Rather, it almost certainly referred to the nature of the institution in the 1930s in which perhaps 75 percent of freshmen and 50 percent or so graduates at that time were engineers.

Beall Fowler ’59