Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Intercollegiate Athletics At Gettysburg College, 1920-1975, Robert L. Bloom

College History Publications

Some historians suggest that despite markings on the calendar the Twentieth Century did not begin in America, culturally speaking, until after the 1917-1918 war. Until that time, they assert, Americans thought and behaved as they had in a prior and more innocent age. After 1918 Americans adopted the more frenetic life-style of what has become known as "the Roaring Twenties," the "Jazz Age," or the "Mad Decade," a period which ended with the onset of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The era saw the emergence of such athletic titans as Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Harold "Red" Grange, Bobby Jones, …

Intercollegiate Athletics At Gettysburg College, 1879-1919, Robert L. Bloom

College History Publications

In 1932, as a part of Gettysburg College's Centennial observance, Dr. Samuel G. Hefelbower '91, a quondam member of the faculty and from 1904 to 1910 President of the College, wrote and edited a largely filiopietistic volume entitled A History of Gettysburg College, 1832-1932. In this 446-page narrative. Dr. Hefelbower devoted considerable space to the development of extracurricular life on the campus. He allotted forty pages to the rise of Greek letter fraternities. eight pages to the Woman's League. and nine additional pages to such now-defunct student pursuits as the Bible Society, the Linnaean Society, and the Y.M.C.A. Honorary fraternities …