125 Year Archival Retrospective

Transportation has always been a concern for students, but also for the citizens of Denton. In 1908, the Denton Traction Company sought to solve this problem with the introduction of street cars. The corporation was headed by H. M Griffin.  R. J. and W. W. Wilson purchased control of the operation in 1909.

The streetcars moved from the train depot to the downtown area. The cars then moved out to North Texas Normal College (now the University of North Texas). The streetcar moved west on Oak to Fry Street, then south one block to West Hickory where it turned and moved along West Hickory to Avenue C. At that point the line turned south and continued to Mill Street, turned west and stopped at the hill on Highland Park, a popular picnic spot, near what is now UNT’s Apogee Stadium area.  In August 1911, the extension of the line to the College of Industrial Arts (now Texas Woman’s University) was completed.

By 1912, public school students could buy a book of forty tickets for a dollar. Other members of the public could purchase twenty-four tickets for the same price. The streetcars operated on a 10-minute schedule in 1911. By 1917, the time schedule had increased to 20 minutes. 

The ability to catch a ride to the city center lasted for about ten years.  In 1918, the service was ended. The cause was a combination of financial troubles and the rise in popularity of the automobile. The rails, poles, wires, cars, etc. were sold by R. J. Wilson to the American Junk Company. The Denton Traction Company’s realty was not included in the initial sale. The right of way for the streetcar line near Texas Woman’s University was converted into a narrow street, the north end of Oakland Street.

The Denton Traction Company’s power plant, located south of the city power plant, was eventually sold. John Johnson broke ground in 1939 for the construction of the Raw Water Ice and Cold Storage Company in the company’s power plant location. The construction of the new business was estimated to cost $60,000.

Although cars and busses replaced the Denton Traction Company, the joy and efficiency of catching a ride on an electric streetcar was a brief part of Denton’s history.

A group of female students at North Texas Normal College met on October 12, 1902, to form the Mary Arden Club. The organization was named for William Shakespeare’s mother. The faculty member responsible for this new literary group was Miss Edith Lanier Clark. Clark, an English instructor at the time, wanted a club that would study the works of Shakespeare. Members analyzed two plays each session and performed a play each year for their fellow students. The first officers were Sadie Hanks, president; Tennie Malone, vice-president; Jennie Coller, secretary; and Jimmie Stiff, treasurer. Olive Murphy and Georgian Phipps served as sergeant-at-arms. The membership was limited to 30 students until 1914. In 1915, the club joined the Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs.

Club members chose the club’s name, colors (white and orange), and flower (white rose) during the second meeting of the club. The 1932 yearbook, The Yucca, stated that Eugene Chinn, a student, suggested the name of the club. During the first year the club presented acts from Hamlet and As You Like It in the area that is now behind the Auditorium Building. Elizabeth Hillyard, head of the art department, designed the senior club pin in 1906. It was a gold arrow with three pearls representing faith, fidelity, and friendship. At least three songs were composed for the club. Lois Rodgers wrote the senior club song, “When a Mary Meets a Mary” in 1925. Olga Borth composed a song for the Junior Mary Ardens in 1935. Virginia Haile composed a song to Mary Arden and dedicated it to Edith L. Clark in 1940.

The club originally met in the Normal Building, the first structure to be built on the North Texas Normal’s campus. Unfortunately, that building was struck by lightning in 1907 and burned down. Meeting in other campus structures (the Main Building, the Library [now Curry Hall], and later the College Club House) did not fully meet the needs of the club. The Mary Arden members raised funds for a structure to meet in by staging Shakespearian plays and through donations from former members. The lot was acquired between 1914 and 1915 with plans to build a club house. However, the lodge could not be built until after World War I. Bessie Shook, an English instructor, laid the corner stone. The Mary Arden Lodge was a shingled bungalow with French windows, a terrace and pergola. There was a spacious club room with a beamed ceiling and fireplace, a dining room, and a kitchen. It was located across Avenue A, east of the 10-acre campus of the Normal College. It was said to be the first clubhouse owned by a women’s literary club in Texas. It was also the second one by a member of the Federated Women’s Clubs in Texas (the other one was in Beaumont). Martha Simkins, artist and former UNT faculty member, presented an oil portrait of Edith Clark to the club in 1923. The painting was hung above the fireplace. The club made the last payment on the lodge in 1927.

As the club grew, the subjects studied by the members broadened to include art and current event issues (political, economic, and social). In 1933, the theme for the fall semester was “The Successful Woman of Today and Her Profession.”  During World War II, members also participated in gathering toys for under-privileged children, were active with the local Red Cross chapter, buying war bonds, hosting dances for service members, and contributing to kits for soldiers.

In 1935, the Club was split into the Junior Mary Ardens and the Senior Mary Ardens. The Junior Mary Ardens was composed of freshmen and sophomores, with juniors and seniors making up the Senior Mary Ardens. By 1945, the Junior Mary Ardens had one hundred members.

The Mary Arden Lodge was rented out for use by other campus organizations for meetings, dances, and other activities. However, after World War II, the Mary Ardens were the first club to donate funds for the building of a Union Building. Their donation reflected the expansion of the student enrollment and the need for more space to accommodate the growth of student groups.

Edith L. Clark retired in 1944 after working for the university for 42 years. Originally an English faculty member, the school’s president appointed her Dean of Women in 1918. Virginia Haile became the second sponsor of the Mary Arden Clubs.

Ms. Clark was honored at the 1952 Homecoming, the same time that the club celebrated its 50^th anniversary. The club held a luncheon in the Crystal Room of Marquis Hall. Grace Cartwright, a member of the Board of Regents and a former club member, was one of the guests.

The property, needed for the long-range development of the campus, was purchases by the school in 1959 for $10,000. The structure was torn down in 1960. The block it sat on was eventually the home of the Art and the Speech and Drama buildings. The Mary Arden clubs were once again searching for space to meet in. The Junior Mary Ardens initially met in the Women’s Gym.

The money from the sale of the lodge funded scholarships for the Edith L. Clark and Mary Arden Lodge scholarships. The scholarships were first handed out in 1960. Betty Joyce Peterson received the Edith L. Clark scholarship. Barbara Bristow received the Mary Arden Scholarship. The latter scholarship started out as a loan for members in need during 1939. Mrs. Elizabeth M. Fly of Amarillo provided the original money for the loan fund.

Edith Clark died in 1964 at the age of 90. In the following year, the Board of Regents approve a contract for the building of a new women’s dormitory with plans to name it after Edith Clark.

The Mary Arden Club continued to be active and listed in the “Student Handbook” until 1975.

Students walking on the south side of the University Union, near Highland Street, have the opportunity to view a sculpture by a world-famous artist and UNT alumnus, Jesús Moroles.

Jesús Bautista Moroles (1950-2015) was born in Corpus Christi. He was the eldest child in a family of six children. He was named after an uncle, who was sent to fight in the Korean War. He grew up in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, attending the Sidney Lanier Expressive Arts Vanguard School in that city. In high school, he learned silk screening. His work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit were on full display when he started to produce spirit items with his school logo. He eventually expanded to producing similar products for other schools. By the end of High School, he had developed his own business. 

After graduating from Crozier Technical High School, Moroles received his draft notice in 1969. He enlisted in the Air Force, but he had to take a test to prove that the Air Force should accept him. His math results were high, and the Air Force took him in to fill an emerging field, computing, that they needed to fill. He took two years of technical training and became an electronics repairman.  This was during the Vietnam War. He would serve for four years.

When he returned home, Moroles enrolled in El Centro College. He enrolled and took a year of nothing but art courses. He was asked who his counselor was and confessed that he did not have one. He then had to take the academic courses that he needed for a diploma. He earned an associate’s degree from El Centro College, Dallas.

He then enrolled at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas). Moroles studied sculpture with Mike Cunningham. It was during this time that he realized that he wanted to work with granite. His Bachelor of Fine Arts degree was earned in 1978.

“That’s [Granite] the only thing I work with it was the hardest thing I tried. I liked the challenge.” Jesús Moroles [Smithsonian Oral History with Ms. Cary Cordova]

His education also included working as an apprentice for Luis Jimenez, a figurative artist, for a year. He then spent a year in Carrara, Italy studying sculpture. Upon his return, Moroles moved to Waxahachie where he rented space in a stone carver’s factory.

He moved to Rockport in 1983 to live near his family.

“I moved here to be close to my parents, so they could keep an eye on me. You know, I grew up leaving home when I was drafted, and then gone for four years, then to college for four years, and then was an apprentice, and was gone- and then To Italy. So I was gone for 10 years, and so it was the first chance that I could kind of get back…” Jesús Moroles [Smithsonian Oral History with Ms. Cary Cordova]

He built a studio to hold his sculpture equipment and stones he had picked out for future sculptures. Moroles technique to carve the granite was to drill holes in the stone and then use wedges to “tear” the stone. This process exposes the interior of the stone, creating the design and the texture of the artwork.

“The stone itself is the starting point. I always choose pieces that already suggest their final form. By working directly in response to the character of the stone, I hope to expose the truth of the material.”  Jesús Moroles [Dallas Independent School District]

“And so we drill holes in it and put wedges in it and play them like tuning forks and create pressure, and then all of a sudden it explodes open and falls apart.” Jesús Moroles [Smithsonian Oral History with Ms. Cary Cordova]

Moroles came back to UNT to participate in a performance combining music and dancers with his “tearing” the stone known as “Thunder in the Stone: Tearing Granite” in 1993. The concept for the piece came from his experience of being on an airplane and flying through a thunderstorm. David Shrader, dean of Music, and Larry Austin (musician), and Sandra Combest (choreographer) were involved in the production. The production combined dance, dramatic noise, and the visual show of the carving of the stone to make a sculpture. The show would also be performed at the Davis/McClain Gallery.

Moroles also traveled widely. His sculptures are now installed around the world. A few of these countries include Mexico, Egypt, China, France, Italy, and the United States. In Egypt, he was able to visit the quarries where the stone for the ancient carvings and monuments came from. He was also able to carve that stone. He ended up with an eighteen-foot granite sail. He made numerous trips to China. On his first trip to China, Moroles stayed for two months and created a Spirit Fountain.

His sculptures can be seen closer to the UNT campus at the Dallas Museum of Art; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston; the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico; the Albuquerque Museum; and the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas.

Among the honors Moroles received were the Texas Medal of the Arts Award for Visual Arts (2007), the National Medal of the Arts (2008), and he was honored as a Texas State Artist by the Texas Commission on the Arts (2011).

Moroles was killed in a car accident near Jerrell, Texas on June 14, 2015.

In March 2021, the Dallas School Board Trustees voted to change the name of the Sidney Lanier Expressive Arts Vanguard School to the Jesús Moroles Expressive Arts Vanguard School. Sidney Lanier was a Confederate poet.  Moroles was a former student of the school.

(1924-1989)

Generations of students learned to ride and care for horses at the University of North Texas thanks to a woman named Sweet Estes. Ms. Estes was born in Ennis, Texas. She was named Sammie Jean Estes and acquired the nickname “Sweet” from her big sister, Queena Jo Estes, shortly after birth. Sweet started selling rides on horses and mules as a child. The practice continued when she arrived on campus in the 1941-1942 school year. Rides on her horses cost 50 cents for the first hour and 25 cents for the second hour.  Before long she raised her prices to 75 cents an hour.   Soon the school approached her to give classes to her fellow students.  The stables were located on Maple Street. Her stables later moved south on Bonnie Brae. As a student she had a little time for anything but being a student, running her business, and teaching riding to her fellow students. However, she was a member of the Physical Education Professional Club. The horse rentals and a salary for teaching helped pay her way while earning a bachelor’s (Winter 1948) and master’s degrees (January 29, 1956).

“My sister and I rode at Sweet Estes’ stable on the far west end of Maple Street, a dirt street at the time….I can remember the names of 14 horses: Jitters, Indigo, Cho-Cho, etc. We rode west and south of town and around the golf course being built.”

              -Marjorie M. Dannelley Larson, North Texan, Fall 2011

              In 1948, Sweet was hired on as a full-time faculty member to teach horseback riding and other physical education classes. Shortly after her appointment she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She took time off from teaching to pursue treatment for the disease. Her name does not appear in the catalogs between 1950-51 and 1951-52 school years. The doctors had warned her that she might never be able to ride a horse again.  She proved them wrong, returning to teaching and riding in 1952-53.

The classes ceased in 1962, when the Texas Legislature removed funding for physical education courses they felt did not belong in colleges and universities. Ms. Estes continued as a Physical Education instructor. She also continued to act as the sponsor of the riding club, Los Caballeros, so students could continue learn horseback riding (just without course credit).  She also altered her business plan by renting her horses to summer camps and gave individuals and groups riding lessons outside her university employment.

              “Riding is a team effort where the human has the responsibility to make it work”

              -Sweet Estes, North Texas Daily, 1977-04-28

Horseback riding would return to UNT in 1972. In 1974 backpacking classes were also offered. She took students on field trips to hike in Colorado and New Mexico. During the winter the trip was to Blanca Peak in Colorado. Warm weather trips visited a different site on each trip.

“This is a great chance for them [students] to get out and see the country and learn how lucky they are to live in such a beautiful world and to get a chance to experience it. It also gives them a chance to learn what they can and cannot do, to gain confidence in themselves. And it’s a great way to put problems back home in perspective. It gives them and me a chance to clear out the cobwebs”

              -Sweet Estes, North Texan, Winter 1985

Sweet Estes was last listed as a faculty member in the 1989-90 Undergraduate Catalog. She died in Florissant, Colorado in 1989.

One of Ms. Estes favorite sayings was “Prepare for the worst, hope for the best and smile through it all.”  Her life gave her numerous examples of hard times and hardships she had to overcome. Throughout it all, she followed the course that gave her the most happiness – working with horses and bringing that joy to anyone who wanted to learn.

One of the most celebrated coaches of UNT history was the aptly named Charles C. Sportsman (Choc). Born in 1902 in McKinney, Texas, he attended Texas University in the fall of 1922 before transferring to North Texas State Normal College (now known as the University of North Texas) in the summer of that same year.  He quickly became active on campus, both in athletics and in a variety of organizations. He was the captain of the 1925 varsity football team, earning a letter for athletic accomplishments. He also lettered in track and field and was a member of the Lee Literary Society, president of the Athletic Council, vice-president of his senior class and president of the Collin County Club. He participated in three senior assemblies by performing vocal solos. In 1926, he joined with other campus athletes to organize the T-Club. The club was for athletes who had earned a letter and wanted to promote school spirit. The group elected him the vice-president and the first yell-leader for this organization. The other office holders were Bill Meyers, president; W. B. Hargrave, reporter, and Fay Vernaell, secretary-treasurer. He retired as the captain of the football team in 1926. He gave a speech at the season end banquet where he thanked the team and the coaches for their hard work in the past season.

1926 also saw Sportsman wed Jennie Tunnel, an alumna of the renamed North Texas State Teachers College.  The couple planned to live in Choc Sportsman’s hometown of McKinney, Texas.

In 1928, Sportsman became an assistant football coach under the direction of Coach Jack Sisco. By 1930, Sportsman was the coach of track and field. He continued to seek to improve and gain higher academic credentials. Sportsman travelled to Southern California to work on his master’s degree during the summer of that year.

During the 1930’s Sportsman’s track team won nine of eleven Lone Star Conference Championships and held ten Lone Star track records. They held the conference record in every running event except hurdles. He coached “The Flying Twins,” two sets of identical twin brothers (Wayne and Blaine Rideout and Delmer and Elmer Brown). The twins set the world indoor record in the medley relay. They would go on to set other world records as individual set of twins (outdoor distance medley relay) or as a single athlete (the world record in the three-quarter mile run).

The track team competed and trained at Eagle Stadium, the first athletic field at UNT. It was located on today’s Library mall. Originally, the fans stood and watched the competition. By 1929, stands were added to the west side of the field. The track was redesigned in 1930. Field stands were added to the west side in 1933. The east side received stands in 1937.  This stadium was dismantled in 1952, when Fouts Field was opened.

In the 1930’s the school held an inter-class track meet that was open to male students. Members of the Varsity Track team acted as coaches for the participants, who were divided into class teams. A good showing could help a man qualify for a place on the Varsity Team. Women were not included in varsity sports until Title IX was signed into law in 1972.

By 1942, World War II had started to drain campus of its male students and faculty. Among those who left to serve their country was Choc Sportsman, who joined the U. S. Navy. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the Navy and assigned to a training program in Annapolis, Virginia. He became the director of the track program at the Navy Pre-Flight School in Georgia.

Lieutenant Commander Charles Sportsman was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1945. North Texas wanted him to return to being a successful coach for the NT track team. Instead, Sportsman decided to return to California to continue his education at the University of Southern California. He would go on to work for San Diego State University for 21 years.

After the war, Sportsman would serve as a State Department athletic consultant at the Theater Athletic Staff School in Stuttgart, Germany. He also coached at other schools, such as the University of Virginia and St. Mary’s College. The State Department also sent Sportsman to Southeast Asia where he worked with the coaches in the Federation of Malaya to set up an athletic program. He commented that, “people are alike all over the world where sports are concerned, regardless of color or nationality.” [Campus Chat, 1959-08-07] He would also coach the 1968 Greek Olympic track squad.

In 1976, he was honored during the Homecoming celebrations with other Golden Eagles: architect O’Neil Ford and Dorothy Babbs (founder of “Old Maid’s Day”). He was inducted into the UNT Athletic Hall of Fame in 1981.  The other inductees were Coach Odus Mitchell, “Mean” Joe Greene, Ray Renfro, Johnny Stovall, Don January, Wayne Rideout, and Ted Wright.

In 1987, he attended a reunion of the NT track and Field Hall of Fame members during that year’s Homecoming.  All those who had participated in track and field were invited to return to UNT for the celebration. The plan was to fully endow two scholarships: the Pop Noah Scholarship and the Choc Sportsman Scholarship.

After retiring in 1968, Sportsman moved to a cattle ranch near Tyler, Texas. He died in 1994.

Sportsman was posthumously inducted into National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics as Track and Field coach for San Diego State University in 2013

The Sportsman family’s connection to UNT was continued when Choc Sportsman’s nephew was hired by UNT In 1992. Ken Garland was selected as the track and cross-country coach, the same position once held by his uncle.  Garland had followed a similar path as his uncle: he was a member of the McKinney High School track team (1961-1964) and a member of the UNT team (1965-1969).

Students on campus will find Bain Hall located on Highland Street and used primarily by music students as practice rooms.  The structure was originally built in 1947 as part of the Quadrangle, a dormitory for men. It was renovated and renamed in 1991 to honor the former Dean of School of Music. Dr. Bain has been credited with building a strong foundation for the development of today’s College of Music.

            Wilfred Conwell Bain was born on January 20, 1908, in Shawville, Quebec, the son of James Alexander Bain and Della Hawn Bain. He came to the United States, with his parents, in 1918. He would graduate from Cattaraugus (New York) High School in 1925.

            He was educated at Houghton College, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree with a major in music and a diploma in piano performance, in 1929; an A. M., was earned at Westminster Choir College in 1931; he received a Masters and Doctorate, in Music Education, from New York University in 1936 and 1938.

            Dr. Bain rapidly rose in academic music positions throughout his career. He worked as the head of the music department at Southern Wesleyan University (central South Carolina) 1929 to 1930. In 1931, he was the head of voice and choral music at Houghton College. He joined the North Texas State Teachers College (now the University of North Texas) in 1938 as the head of the Department of Music. He learned of the opening for the head of the Music Department after meeting Gladys Kelso, a piano instructor at North Texas, at New York University. He expressed his feelings about coming to Denton in an oral history interview, “…I can’t tell you how welcome everybody made me feel. I fell in love with the place immediately, because these people were outgoing and they were considerate.”  During his time at UNT, the students studying music grew from twenty-five with four full time faculty members to four hundred and fifty students and an expanded faculty to instruct them in a full program of study. He established the requirement that music majors had to meet an ensemble requirement – each student had to be a member of a choir, band, or orchestra. He also founded the A Cappella Choir during his second semester at North Texas. When Dr. Bain arrived, the music facilities consisted of a former president’s home (Kendall Hall), the Orchestra Hall, and another cottage used as classrooms. The Music Hall would be built in 1940. Among the faculty he hired were Frank McKinely (choral music); Frank McAdow (marching and concert bands); Helen Hewitt (musicology and organ); Silvio Scionti (piano) and Mary McCormic (opera). In 1939, Julia Smith, an alumna of UNT, asked Bain if he could produce her first opera at UNT. “Cynthia Parker” helped placed UNT and Bain in the national spotlight. Due to restrictions on travel during World War II, he initiated a plan for the orchestra performed a radio program.

            1947 saw significant changes in Wilfred Bain’s life. He became a naturalized United States citizen at the Federal Court in Sherman, Texas. Dr. Bain would also leave UNT in 1947 to join Indiana University as the dean of that university’s School of Music. Dr. Bain claimed that leaving Denton was hard. “I was very happy and very pleased to be there and riding, shall I say, the crest of a wave of popularity and endeavor, and everything seemed to be at a level that would be completely attractive.” He left due to problems acquiring necessary items and plans for growth for the department.  He placed the blame on a Board of Regents shared with other teachers’ colleges that was in use during that time.  He would hold the dean’s position at Indiana University until 1973, when he retired. He held the position of professor emeritus of Indiana University from 1973 to 1997.

            Dr. Bain died, at the age of 89, in Indiana, on March 7, 1997.

The quotes are from an oral history with Dr. Bain that was conducted by UNT College of Music Dean Marceau Myers on December 12, 1978.

Transportation has always been a concern for students, but also for the citizens of Denton. In 1908, the Denton Traction Company sought to solve this problem with the introduction of street cars. The corporation was headed by H. M Griffin.  R. J. and W. W. Wilson purchased control of the operation in 1909.

The streetcars moved from the train depot to the downtown area. The cars then moved out to North Texas Normal College (now the University of North Texas). The streetcar moved west on Oak to Fry Street, then south one block to West Hickory where it turned and moved along West Hickory to Avenue C. At that point the line turned south and continued to Mill Street, turned west and stopped at the hill on Highland Park, a popular picnic spot, near what is now UNT’s Apogee Stadium area.  In August 1911, the extension of the line to the College of Industrial Arts (now Texas Woman’s University) was completed.

By 1912, public school students could buy a book of forty tickets for a dollar. Other members of the public could purchase twenty-four tickets for the same price. The streetcars operated on a 10-minute schedule in 1911. By 1917, the time schedule had increased to 20 minutes. 

The ability to catch a ride to the city center lasted for about ten years.  In 1918, the service was ended. The cause was a combination of financial troubles and the rise in popularity of the automobile. The rails, poles, wires, cars, etc. were sold by R. J. Wilson to the American Junk Company. The Denton Traction Company’s realty was not included in the initial sale. The right of way for the streetcar line near Texas Woman’s University was converted into a narrow street, the north end of Oakland Street.

The Denton Traction Company’s power plant, located south of the city power plant, was eventually sold. John Johnson broke ground in 1939 for the construction of the Raw Water Ice and Cold Storage Company in the company’s power plant location. The construction of the new business was estimated to cost $60,000.

Although cars and busses replaced the Denton Traction Company, the joy and efficiency of catching a ride on an electric streetcar was a brief part of Denton’s history.

            The Current Literature Club, an organization for women who shared an interest in literature, decided to bring the arts and lectures on current events to campus. The goal was to expand access to drama, music, and knowledge of world events to the student body.   In 1903, the Current Literature Club sponsored the first “Lyceum Entertainment.”  The performance consisted of a reading of “David Harum”, which started as a best-selling book, first published in 1898, by Edward Noyes Westcott.  Edward P. Elliot portrayed each of the twelve characters.

            “From the interest shown in these entertainments, and from the

            packed house that greeted Mr. Elliot, we feel sure a complete

            course of lyceum lectures would be appreciated by the students,

            and hope that arrangements for such can be made for the coming

            year”

                        The North Texas Journal, 1903

            That hope was fulfilled as fine art programs and lecturers were brought to campus to expand the cultural horizons of students and the citizens of Denton. Among the early acts booked were the Metropolitan Grand Quartette, Grand Opera Singers, Henry Lawrence Southwick (a performer of Shakespeare’s works), Maude Powel (violinist), and Sir Douglas Mawson’s Antarctic Motion Pictures.

            The Lyceum Series, or popularly known as the Lyceum Course, was also a popular place to meet or take a date. This social aspect was captured in a poem that was published in the 1925 Yucca:

            “Any girl can be gay, in a nice coupe,

            In a show they can all watch you slumber.

            But the girl worthwhile is the girl who can smile,

            When you take her to a lyceum number.”

            By 1917, the performers were booked by the Calendar Committee and tickets could be purchased for $1.50. By 1919, the Lyceum Series was paid for by a student activity fee. Season tickets were also sold to the citizens of Denton. Tickets could be purchases at the college library or Curtis’s Drug Store.

            The Mary Arden Club also sponsored the Lyceum Series into the 1920s. Then the Fine Arts Committee was formed. Dr. Sam B. McAlister served as its chair for 31 years, until 1963.           

            The composition of the Fine Arts Committee has been altered many times over the years. By 1971, there were no students on the committee. However, in 1972, the committee was reorganized to have an equal number of faculty and students.

            The Fine Arts Series was not stopped during times of war. However, the world pandemic of 2020 did temporarily stop the program.

            By the 1930’s the Fine Arts Committee, composed of faculty and students, brought nationally and internationally known artists to campus and funded performances by the College Players.  In 1938, The Eva Jessye Choir performed in the auditorium, in what is now called the Auditorium Building. She was the first African American woman to be an internationally known choral conductor. She also served as the musical director with George Gershwin on Porgy and Bess. The Martha Graham Dance Company and the premier of the opera “Cynthia Parker,” by composer and UNT alumna Julia Smith, were just two of the offerings that the activity fee made possible in 1939. In 1945, the Yucca (the school yearbook), stated that “…since its inception, [it] has attempted to provide a series of programs in which every student regardless of individual tastes would find numbers that he would enjoy. These various types of programs are alternated throughout the year.”

            Lectures were part of the diverse educational offerings.  John Dewy, Margaret Bourke White, Senator Robert La Follette, and Lech Walesa addressed the students.  The Campus Chat (now known as the North Texas Daily), stated that “…the Normal has always maintained a strong course of lectures and entertainments, each year securing the best available talent.  Men and women of national reputation, famous as leaders in public life, noted artists, musicians, and writers have been secured, who have contributed much to the student’s realization of the college purpose of helpfulness and spiritual uplift.” [Campus Chat, 1963-05-07]

            Maria Tallchief appeared with the Chicago Opera Ballet, Jose Ferrer, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra were among the artists that appeared in the 1950s and 1960s. Not all acts that appeared were successful. One, Love is a Ball, received bad reviews from the audience. It closed soon after playing Denton. Other acts, such as Hal Holbrook’s performance in Mark Twain Tonight, were great successes.  Other well received programs included the rock musical, Your Own Thing, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Dame Judith Anderson playing Hamlet in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the Hip Pocket Theater production of A Saga of Billy the Kid, the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, the Nishikawa Dance Troup, and the artists Janet Fish and English potter Richard Batterham.

            The conviction that the student experience should be enhanced by bringing the best performers in fine arts (drama and music), exposure to the visual arts, and thought-provoking lectures has continued and become a hallmark of the well-rounded student and graduate of the University of North Texas. The program was honored by having a newly constructed, five hundred seat, auditorium named the Lyceum in the Union Building.  The auditorium name was continued when the Union was expanded in 2015.

            Pursuing higher education has always been an expensive activity. Students in the 1910s and 1920s faced monetary shortfalls just as today’s students do. However, there was no scholarship office, no grants available to help a student in financial straits. According to the Denton Record Chronicle, the North Texas Normal Student Aid Fund was organized by the senior class of 1914 and Professor E. D. Criddle. By 1916, a faculty committee, composed of Criddle, W. E. James, and Edith Clark, provided oversight in making loans to needy students.

The loans to students varied from $15.00 to $150.00 (the highest amount a student could receive in any one year). To place these amounts in perspective, the entrance fee was about $15.00 during the 1910s.  The textbooks were furnished by the school, which if returned in good condition, could entitle the student to a $2.00 refund. Room and board could be $16.00 to $20.00 per month. The loans were made without interest, but students repaying the loans often added a contribution that was equivalent to interest.

The students’ contribution was raising money for the fund. They held a “circus” every year to provide entertainment to students and the wider Denton community.  The circus was a collection of public performances that were presented outside.  The circus began with a parade that moved down Hickory Street, around the square, and back on Oak Street. The participants in the parade varied by year, but usually included clowns, cars filled with students representing their clubs, displays of circus “animals” (students wearing costumes), and the Normal Band. In some years the circus was held in the college’s athletic park. This was an area from Avenue C to Welch, along Highland Street, that held tennis courts, an archery range, and other areas set aside to provide fresh air and physical activities for the students. The displays could include a wild west show that included exhibition horse riding, a concert by the Normal Band, singers, poetry reading, tableau presentations, skits, and rope walkers. Football and basketball games were also played.

No major campus event would be complete without a queen. Each class nominated a candidate. The winner was the one whose backers bought the most tickets. The queen and her court, after doing their part to raise money for their fellow students, were presented to the public while riding in their own car in the parade.  The queen was also frequently honored by having her image displayed in the college yearbook.

When Professor Criddle died in 1925, the school yearbook noted that 500 students had benefited from the Student Loan Fund. From the mid-1920s on other organizations on campus organized and sponsored additional loan funds. Some of these were targeted at the organization’s members, others were for specific majors. By 1939, Dixie Boyd, the college’s business manager was in charge of the distribution of loans from the various student loan funds.