I once heard a UMM chancellor, pre-Jacqueline Johnson, diss SCSU as a "party school." It was such an easy potshot to take. SCSU's woes with the image reached its annual climax with - sigh - Homecoming. Homecoming! How many students even know the true purpose of a school's homecoming, and just consider the superficial aspects: royalty and the football game mainly.
I sensed when I was at St. Cloud State that Greek life treated Homecoming as it deserved, mostly. They were "in" with the coronation and showed respect as you'd find at your typical high school. The queen got her crown and reacted ecstatically. Greek life was not without sin in the big picture, naturally.
A wild and disrespectful air permeated SCSU Homecoming in a previous time. I say "in a previous time" because SCSU has not had Homecoming in the past few years. That's how bad it got: the SCSU president, Earl Potter, felt the only approach to a longstanding problem was to get rid of the event. He didn't want to be the one going on the record about this decision in the Star Tribune. He delegated to a former classmate of mine, Mike Nistler, who's associated with the exquisite "Minnesota Moments" magazine. The Nistlers chose to send their own children to UMM. I was pleased to encounter one of them when taking a feature photo for the Morris newspaper at Newman Center.
Mike and wife Jeanine were both in mass communications at SCSU. It was the days when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, in other words pre-digital times. The idea of typing with some sort of electronic screen in front of you, was barely coming into the picture when I graduated. The typical newsroom included darkroom chemicals, waxers and scissors, the latter seeming almost so necessary they were like an appendage on your body.
Potter cancelled Homecoming despite knowing there would be ripples of pure amazement. It was so drastic. What school would simply nix homecoming? It was like an advertisement for the severe extent of the problem that existed there. SCSU had issues with Homecoming for a number of years, as well as with its overall reputation, but the apex according to CW was 1988. The Washington Post had an article at the time. You know, if you're going to have a "riot" of this type, it should at least be with some sort of good political cause in mind. It should not just be pure chaos. But chaos it was, as "hundreds of rioting students burned furniture and clashed with police in a second night of Homecoming-weekend violence that resulted in 50 arrests by officers clad in riot gear," the Washington Post reported.
And we learned that as many as 1500 people, including many St. Cloud State University students, were involved in the chaotic misbehavior over a four-block area. Jerry Witt here in Morris teased me (good-naturedly) by claiming to have seen me in one of the newspaper photos. No, I have rarely made the trip back to St. Cloud through the years. My last excursion was in 2006. I went mainly to participate in the morning 5K run for Homecoming, still in existence. The 5K by its nature is not going to be disrupted by idiotic behavior. It's insulated from the foolish stuff.
So I asked myself, why can't all of Homecoming be permeated by this kind of calm, respectful spirit? I guess it makes too much sense. I made that trip just a few months after my departure from the Morris newspaper. Despite having lots of free time to get in shape and prepare, my 5K performance wasn't very good. But it was a fun time and I enjoyed eating at the Perkins restaurant close to campus afterward. I remember being at the Perkins late in the evening, sitting at the counter by myself, when I was a student, and an SCSU custodian who recognized me sat down by me and was most pleasant. Such are the simple things that can get lodged in one's memory.
The rioters in 1988 tore down street signs and jumped on cars. They threw beer bottles and pieces of lumber. About 60 law enforcement officers shot tear gas to disperse the crowd! They made 46 arrests. Some law enforcement were enlisted from neighboring counties. The State Patrol was called upon. The unruly mob was "clever" enough to set a dumpster on fire.
Assistant Police Chief Jim Moline, who I once interviewed for a class project - I forget the nature of that - was quoted in the Washington Post coverage. Alcohol was the devil behind much of the wreckage of SCSU's reputation through the years, underscored by Moline's comments. "The catalyst for this whole thing was a lot of young people with a lot of booze in them."
Why? I must ask that one simple question. What psychological demon sprouted in so many young people of the 1970s, making them think it was necessary to behave in this way? Society did us a "favor" right at the time I graduated from Morris High School, by lowering the drinking age. Society was riddled by guilt over the Vietnam war and figured that if young men had been sent in waves to die in that needless war, their age peers should be able to avail themselves of the "adult trait" of gulping down alcohol-laced beverages.
The parents of the boomers had a lifestyle of going to establishments like the VFW, Legion, Eagles and Elks, there to drink and then to stumble home, in the days before MADD. The kids followed suit. Then society began to wake up, partly with MADD's resolution. I look back and shake my head.
I remember a PSA that actor Art Carney filmed as the change set in. He talked about how we bandied about the phrase "having a drink." It was just so assumed that "having a drink" meant having something that included alcohol, Carney noted. He said we seriously needed to re-think the phrase. Why not think of various juices, soft drinks or even "water," Carney implored. I felt this PSA was so insightful with its simplicity and directness, its common sense as it were.
Society was making progress but these things always take time. It's like turning around a barge in a river. Our parents weren't going to change much. (My own parents did not drink.) The wellspring for hope is always with the youth. Perhaps symbolically, Mr. Potter who was sincere in trying to stomp out the old image (perhaps mandated by the State of Minnesota), had alcohol in his system when he was killed in a car crash where he lost control of his vehicle.
Booze, booze, booze. There was a time when it seemed to make the world go 'round. Perhaps it took hold as a way for World War II veterans to deal with PTSD. Smoking was another vice with a like purpose, perhaps. Weren't the GIs presented with free cigarettes by the cigarette companies in the war? So to get them hooked? Think of the strides we really have made as a society. Today it's unimaginable to think of someone smoking in a restaurant. We accept this value as the norm today. Oh, but to slip into a time machine and go back a few years!
Can St. Cloud put its insidious history of the SCSU Homecoming behind it? There is an effort to move forward, to re-institute Homecoming. Perhaps the institution will benefit from the cooling-off period of a few years sans Homecoming, just like UND had a cooling-off period before adopting a new nickname to replace "Fighting Sioux." Thinking of the old "Sioux" moniker is just like re-imagining restaurants that were blue with cigarette smoke once. In each instance: What were we thinking?
Will SCSU be whistling past the graveyard as it contemplates bringing back Homecoming? Can we count on a new generation of students to be more mature and intelligent? I truly think there is hope. So, plans are in the works for a 2018 Homecoming at my old stomping grounds. Will it have a 5K run? I wouldn't rule out making a trip back for that. This time my "performance" standards would be nonexistent. I'd simply complete the course, then enjoy my little walk to the Perkins restaurant on the other side of Division.
Perhaps the highlight of my 2006 trip was to notice that a left turn lane and left turn signal are installed at the busy intersection there. There was no excuse back in the 1970s for not having that. We must pursue progress on all levels. No more manual typewriters!
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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