2026-09-29T23:29:47+00:00 Zend_Feed_Writer https://rattlersremember.stmupublichistory.org/ Rattlers Remember https://rattlersremember.stmupublichistory.org 2019-12-08T03:45:20+00:00 2019-12-16T02:48:10+00:00 https://rattlersremember.stmupublichistory.org/items/show/25 Edgar Velázquez Reynald A dirt floor welcomed visitors when Alumni Gym first opened its doors in 1938. Designed as a multi-use facility, the St. Mary’s College Alumni Association first proposed the building in 1927, the year of St. Mary’s diamond jubilee. Then in its twenty-fifth year, the Alumni Association sponsored a financial campaign to build the gymnasium, intending to provide students’ with proper athletic facilities. A committee attained the proper funds to begin construction in 1928. Architect, Leo Dielmann, drafted the blueprints and contractors Falbo and Guido began construction. The students of the 1928-1929 school year waited in anticipation for the new gymnasium to open. Unfortunately, the gymnasium never opened during their schooling at St. Mary’s. The gym remained closed for nearly a decade, seeing several students come and go without stepping foot into its dirt floor. While construction began in March of 1929, the gym remained unfinished for almost ten years. The Great Depression hit St. Mary’s University as hard as the rest of the country, and so the University delayed construction on the Alumni Gym several times. Finally, in 1938, St. Mary’s officially opened Alumni Gym by hosting its first basketball game. On February 22, 1938, the crowd filled the 1,500 seats gym to watch the Rattlers play against West Texas State Teachers College. The Rattlers lost 33-38. Despite the loss, the Alumni Association’s dream of providing Rattlers with a proper facility for athletic events soon became a reality. Alumni Gym housed many memorable games and events throughout the years. Rattlers celebrated Homecoming events, pep rallys, and “Campus Carnivals” in the gym. It even housed the “Great Codonas,” a flying trapeze troupe during their winter training sessions. Celebrated authors, such as Erskine Caldwell, and former alumni, such as Edward A. McDermott, director of Emergency Planning for President Kennedy, held speeches within the gym. Coach Buddy Meyer, a St. Mary’s alumni, led the Men’s Basketball team to several milestones in Alumni Gym. On March 8, 1989, the Men’s Basketball team beat Texas Wesleyan 74-60. With this victory, the Rattlers qualified for the NAIA National Championships, which they won later that year. After many memories and victories celebrated within the gym, Rattlers prepared to say goodbye to Alumni Gym at the turn of the century. A new gym adjacent to Alumni Gym began construction in 1999 with a completion date of late 2000. As Alumni Gym’s history came to a close, the Rattlers gave it a proper sendoff with various victories. On February 26, 2000, the Men’s Basketball team said goodbye to Alumni Gym by defeating Texas Lutheran University in the final home game of the 1999-2000 season. The Women’s Volleyball team won all nine home games that season and won the Heartland Conference Volleyball Championship. The Women’s Basketball officially wished their goodbye to Alumni Gym by defeating Southwestern Baptist University on November 21, 2000. With all these victories, the Rattlers honored Alumni Gym for its 62 years of service to St. Mary’s University. At the beginning of the fall 2000 semester, the Rattlers started a new chapter for St. Mary’s. The new Bill Greehey Arena of the Alumni Athletics and Convocation Center officially opened with the Men’s Basketball team defeating Texas A & M on November 27. The new gym seats 3,500 people at capacity, more than twice the amount of people that could fit in Alumni Gym. For more (including 5 images and 1 sound clip), view the original article. 2019-12-08T02:28:57+00:00 2019-12-15T16:40:58+00:00 https://rattlersremember.stmupublichistory.org/items/show/23 Edgar Velázquez Reynald The “Blue Goose,” a behemoth of a bus, transported St. Mary’s basketball and football teams cross country between the years of 1938 and 1942. Despite only transporting St. Mary’s athletes for four short years, the “Blue Goose” became known across the country.  St. Mary’s bought the Pickwick-engined “Blue Goose” from a California Greyhound company in 1938 to transport its athletic teams across the country. St. Mary’s debuted their bus on a trip to Houston in December 1938. The Rattlers beat St. Edward’s 27-7 on the last game coached by Frank Bridges, giving Bridges a satisfactory conclusion to his coaching career at St. Mary’s while launching the “Blue Goose” on a legendary start to its St. Mary’s career. The large blue bus, with its barred windows, was an eyesore. Upon seeing the bus for the first time, Senator John Stafford, a St. Mary’s alumni, gave it the nickname “The Blue Goose.” The football players embraced the name and it quickly stuck.  Paul Casseb, a student at St. Mary’s Law school in 1940, came across a definition for a “Blue Goose” in American Tramp and Underworld Slang: “A ‘Blue Goose’ is the general cage or shell, shared by all the prisoners, in a convict road camp or on a chain gang. Also, the general room in a prison or jail from which access is had to the cells. The open mesh or steel-barred sides of this enclosure through which small articles may be thrown, is responsible for the expression, ‘Like mud through a blue goose,’ which indicates any swift or easy passage through a town or district.” Upon reading this description, Casseb wrote The Rattler to ask if the originator of the nickname understood its full significance. Senator Stafford was encamped with the National Guard at the time, but The Rattler contacted a close affiliate who confirmed Stafford’s full knowledge of the term.  Indeed, the definition adequately fit the giant bus. It carried 53 passengers in full capacity. When empty, the bus weighed 22,000 pounds. The State license costs $110 in 1939, when adjusted for inflation, it cost $2,036.55, adjusted to 2019 standards. For the three years it was in use, the “Blue Goose” travelled 30,000 miles, guzzling 7,500 gallons of gasoline, which ran up a bill of $1,125 ($17,761.61 when adjusted for inflation). It packed in the football and basketball teams as it travelled cross country to various games. The “Blue Goose” made its longest trip when it transported the Rattlers to New Hampshire and New York City. It’s reputation preceded it wherever the “Blue Goose” travelled, so much so that Life Magazine wrote an article about how a group of brothers shuttled students across the country in the largest bus imaginable.  Considered an embarrassment by some students, the “Blue Goose” found an honorable second career during World War II. In October 1942, the Armstrong-White Motor Co, took the bus in for remodeling, making it suitable to transport war workers to their jobs. The “Blue Goose” had a short existence at St. Mary’s, but it’s impact on a generation of students is marked in road trips shared by the team and a bemused Life Magazine article.  For more (including 2 images and 1 sound clip), view the original article.