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Depression Era Exhibit

Student Life, Culture and Sports

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Like the rest of the nation, the University of Illinois certainly suffered the effects of the Depression. Jobs were especially scarce and students were even forced to sell personal items in order to make money. Elston Herron of The Y wrote in 1931 that “students are selling everything from needles to threshing machines, from electric refrigerators to shoe laces. And they aren’t making any bones about admitting that they’re selling things. The day has passed when fellows were ashamed, for some foolish reason, to admit that they were trying to make a little money in ways other than writing back to the old homestead.” Many students worked all summer in order to save up tuition money for the next school year. They were aware of their family’s economic situations and worked their hardest to be as self-sufficient and sustaining as possible. Instead of being brought down by the Depression, students used it as opportunity and motivation to better themselves. They knew competition for jobs after college was high and they had to push themselves if they wanted to succeed. Despite the extra workload required to make ends meet, student activities flourished; they gathered for parades, football games, dances, clubs, theater, and fraternity and sorority events. (“Student Life in the Great Depression”, Joe Gruzalski, University of Illinois Archives, 2013)
Like the rest of the nation, the University of Illinois certainly suffered the effects of the Depression. Jobs were especially scarce and students were even forced to sell personal items in order to make money. Elston Herron of The Y wrote in 1931 that “students are selling everything from needles to threshing machines, from electric refrigerators to shoe laces. And they aren’t making any bones about admitting that they’re selling things. The day has passed when fellows were ashamed, for some foolish reason, to admit that they were trying to make a little money in ways other than writing back to the old homestead.” Many students worked all summer in order to save up tuition money for the next school year. They were aware of their family’s economic situations and worked their hardest to be as self-sufficient and sustaining as possible. Instead of being brought down by the Depression, students used it as opportunity and motivation to better themselves. They knew competition for jobs after college was high and they had to push themselves if they wanted to succeed. Despite the extra workload required to make ends meet, student activities flourished; they gathered for parades, football games, dances, clubs, theater, and fraternity and sorority events. (“Student Life in the Great Depression”, Joe Gruzalski, University of Illinois Archives, 2013)
Like the rest of the nation, the University of Illinois certainly suffered the effects of the Depression. Jobs were especially scarce and students were even forced to sell personal items in order to make money. Elston Herron of The Y wrote in 1931 that “students are selling everything from needles to threshing machines, from electric refrigerators to shoe laces. And they aren’t making any bones about admitting that they’re selling things. The day has passed when fellows were ashamed, for some foolish reason, to admit that they were trying to make a little money in ways other than writing back to the old homestead.” Many students worked all summer in order to save up tuition money for the next school year. They were aware of their family’s economic situations and worked their hardest to be as self-sufficient and sustaining as possible. Instead of being brought down by the Depression, students used it as opportunity and motivation to better themselves. They knew competition for jobs after college was high and they had to push themselves if they wanted to succeed. Despite the extra workload required to make ends meet, student activities flourished; they gathered for parades, football games, dances, clubs, theater, and fraternity and sorority events. (“Student Life in the Great Depression”, Joe Gruzalski, University of Illinois Archives, 2013)
Like the rest of the nation, the University of Illinois certainly suffered the effects of the Depression. Jobs were especially scarce and students were even forced to sell personal items in order to make money. Elston Herron of The Y wrote in 1931 that “students are selling everything from needles to threshing machines, from electric refrigerators to shoe laces. And they aren’t making any bones about admitting that they’re selling things. The day has passed when fellows were ashamed, for some foolish reason, to admit that they were trying to make a little money in ways other than writing back to the old homestead.” Many students worked all summer in order to save up tuition money for the next school year. They were aware of their family’s economic situations and worked their hardest to be as self-sufficient and sustaining as possible. Instead of being brought down by the Depression, students used it as opportunity and motivation to better themselves. They knew competition for jobs after college was high and they had to push themselves if they wanted to succeed. Despite the extra workload required to make ends meet, student activities flourished; they gathered for parades, football games, dances, clubs, theater, and fraternity and sorority events. (“Student Life in the Great Depression”, Joe Gruzalski, University of Illinois Archives, 2013)
Like the rest of the nation, the University of Illinois certainly suffered the effects of the Depression. Jobs were especially scarce and students were even forced to sell personal items in order to make money. Elston Herron of The Y wrote in 1931 that “students are selling everything from needles to threshing machines, from electric refrigerators to shoe laces. And they aren’t making any bones about admitting that they’re selling things. The day has passed when fellows were ashamed, for some foolish reason, to admit that they were trying to make a little money in ways other than writing back to the old homestead.” Many students worked all summer in order to save up tuition money for the next school year. They were aware of their family’s economic situations and worked their hardest to be as self-sufficient and sustaining as possible. Instead of being brought down by the Depression, students used it as opportunity and motivation to better themselves. They knew competition for jobs after college was high and they had to push themselves if they wanted to succeed. Despite the extra workload required to make ends meet, student activities flourished; they gathered for parades, football games, dances, clubs, theater, and fraternity and sorority events. (“Student Life in the Great Depression”, Joe Gruzalski, University of Illinois Archives, 2013)
Like the rest of the nation, the University of Illinois certainly suffered the effects of the Depression. Jobs were especially scarce and students were even forced to sell personal items in order to make money. Elston Herron of The Y wrote in 1931 that “students are selling everything from needles to threshing machines, from electric refrigerators to shoe laces. And they aren’t making any bones about admitting that they’re selling things. The day has passed when fellows were ashamed, for some foolish reason, to admit that they were trying to make a little money in ways other than writing back to the old homestead.” Many students worked all summer in order to save up tuition money for the next school year. They were aware of their family’s economic situations and worked their hardest to be as self-sufficient and sustaining as possible. Instead of being brought down by the Depression, students used it as opportunity and motivation to better themselves. They knew competition for jobs after college was high and they had to push themselves if they wanted to succeed. Despite the extra workload required to make ends meet, student activities flourished; they gathered for parades, football games, dances, clubs, theater, and fraternity and sorority events. (“Student Life in the Great Depression”, Joe Gruzalski, University of Illinois Archives, 2013)
Like the rest of the nation, the University of Illinois certainly suffered the effects of the Depression. Jobs were especially scarce and students were even forced to sell personal items in order to make money. Elston Herron of The Y wrote in 1931 that “students are selling everything from needles to threshing machines, from electric refrigerators to shoe laces. And they aren’t making any bones about admitting that they’re selling things. The day has passed when fellows were ashamed, for some foolish reason, to admit that they were trying to make a little money in ways other than writing back to the old homestead.” Many students worked all summer in order to save up tuition money for the next school year. They were aware of their family’s economic situations and worked their hardest to be as self-sufficient and sustaining as possible. Instead of being brought down by the Depression, students used it as opportunity and motivation to better themselves. They knew competition for jobs after college was high and they had to push themselves if they wanted to succeed. Despite the extra workload required to make ends meet, student activities flourished; they gathered for parades, football games, dances, clubs, theater, and fraternity and sorority events. (“Student Life in the Great Depression”, Joe Gruzalski, University of Illinois Archives, 2013)
The university had many different homecoming activities, but like the “Hobo Parade”, canceled in 1934, many were discontinued. Students seemed to be losing school spirit. The Daily Illini took note, reporting: “Homecoming appears to be back-sliding this year, not because of faulty management or any cause of the like, but seemingly because many students seem to think that all the frivolity and collegiate spirit connected with the weekend is more or less passé.” But while other traditions died, the homecoming football game lived on, the campus erupting in celebration and cheer in a time plagued with depression year after year. (“History of Illinois Homecoming: Depression and Wartime,” ExploreCU, accessed March 2, 2016,http://www.explorecu.org/items/show/262.)
During the depression, students seemed to be losing their interest in school spirit. The university had many different homecoming activities, but like the “Hobo Parade”, canceled in 1934, students seemed to be losing school spirit. The Daily Illini took note, reporting: “Homecoming appears to be back-sliding this year, not because of faulty management or any cause of the like, but seemingly because many students seem to think that all the frivolity and collegiate spirit connected with the weekend is more or less passé.” But while other traditions died, the homecoming football game lived on at such a scale that toppled the campus in celebration and cheer in a time plagued with depression year after year. (History of Illinois Homecoming: Depression and Wartime,” ExploreCU, accessed March 2, 2016,http://www.explorecu.org/items/show/262.)
During the depression, students seemed to be losing their interest in school spirit. The university had many different homecoming activities, but like the “Hobo Parade”, canceled in 1934, students seemed to be losing school spirit. The Daily Illini took note, reporting: “Homecoming appears to be back-sliding this year, not because of faulty management or any cause of the like, but seemingly because many students seem to think that all the frivolity and collegiate spirit connected with the weekend is more or less passé.” But while other traditions died, the homecoming football game lived on at such a scale that toppled the campus in celebration and cheer in a time plagued with depression year after year. (History of Illinois Homecoming: Depression and Wartime,” ExploreCU, accessed March 2, 2016,http://www.explorecu.org/items/show/262.)
During the depression, students seemed to be losing their interest in school spirit. The university had many different homecoming activities, but like the “Hobo Parade”, canceled in 1934, students seemed to be losing school spirit. The Daily Illini took note, reporting: “Homecoming appears to be back-sliding this year, not because of faulty management or any cause of the like, but seemingly because many students seem to think that all the frivolity and collegiate spirit connected with the weekend is more or less passé.” But while other traditions died, the homecoming football game lived on at such a scale that toppled the campus in celebration and cheer in a time plagued with depression year after year. (History of Illinois Homecoming: Depression and Wartime,” ExploreCU, accessed March 2, 2016,http://www.explorecu.org/items/show/262.)
The university had many different homecoming activities, but like the “Hobo Parade”, canceled in 1934, many were discontinued. Students seemed to be losing school spirit. The Daily Illini took note, reporting: “Homecoming appears to be back-sliding this year, not because of faulty management or any cause of the like, but seemingly because many students seem to think that all the frivolity and collegiate spirit connected with the weekend is more or less passé.” But while other traditions died, the homecoming football game lived on, the campus erupting in celebration and cheer in a time plagued with depression year after year. (“History of Illinois Homecoming: Depression and Wartime,” ExploreCU, accessed March 2, 2016,http://www.explorecu.org/items/show/262.)
Like the rest of the nation, the University of Illinois certainly suffered the effects of the Depression. Jobs were especially scarce and students were even forced to sell personal items in order to make money. Elston Herron of The Y wrote in 1931 that “students are selling everything from needles to threshing machines, from electric refrigerators to shoe laces. And they aren’t making any bones about admitting that they’re selling things. The day has passed when fellows were ashamed, for some foolish reason, to admit that they were trying to make a little money in ways other than writing back to the old homestead.” Many students worked all summer in order to save up tuition money for the next school year. They were aware of their family’s economic situations and worked their hardest to be as self-sufficient and sustaining as possible. Instead of being brought down by the Depression, students used it as opportunity and motivation to better themselves. They knew competition for jobs after college was high and they had to push themselves if they wanted to succeed. Despite the extra workload required to make ends meet, student activities flourished; they gathered for parades, football games, dances, clubs, theater, and fraternity and sorority events. (“Student Life in the Great Depression”, Joe Gruzalski, University of Illinois Archives, 2013)