Archives and Special Collections student assistants work with some of the most rare and unique materials on LMU’s campus. From Their Perspective: Student Assistant Discoveries in ASC, a 2013 exhibit curated by the students themselves, featured some of these objects and why the students found them interesting, compelling or, simply, fun. This is the fourth installment featuring some final exhibit selections by Monique Williams, Cullan Shewfelt and Alec Lee:
Ever wonder what happened to LMU’s football team? Business Major Monique Williams did. Determined to solve this mystery she dove into documentation found in the University Archives:
“Everyone wonders why and how LMU lost its football team. In the 1950s Loyola University yearbook described the football team as, “An unprecedented winning streak, national recognition and captivation
of the public fancy.” I wanted to uncover why our football
program was cut if our team was doing better than ever. So when I came across this letter in the University Archives, I
was thrilled to finally delve deeper into this perplexing matter.
From what I have learned there are two main reasons for the downfall of what was then the Loyola Lion’s football team: financial issues and racial segregation. I found through the book Loyola Marymount University 1911-2011: A Centennial History that the football program was spending more money than it was making. Through several articles in the Los Angeles Times, I discovered that Loyola was having trouble scheduling games since big universities such as UCLA and USC would not play them. So when Texas Western University would not field the African American players on Loyola’s team, Loyola University responded by cancelling the game. Although Loyola received congratulations on their stand against racial discrimination, the incident diminished the number of schools the Lions were able to play and sent them
deeper into financial crisis.”
Recording Arts Major Cullan Shefelt explored ASC’s Art and Artifacts Collections, in particular the Max
Thalmann Collection. Writing about Thalmann’s piece Amerika im Holzschnitt 3 (c 1924) Cullan explained:
“The style of this woodcut immediately struck me because of my interest in Expressionist art (it reminded me of something Wassily Kandinsky might make). I
really like how the seemingly random geometrical shapes actually form the scenic landscape of an American city. There is also a captivating point of perspective that draws your eyes down the city.”
Alec Lee, majoring in Entrepreneurship, discovered some frightening images that help further illustrate the horrors of the Holocaust. One image he selected shows signage displaying concentration camp badges. The various badges were used to “code” people by their religion, race, sexual orientation, nationality, etc.
“The detail of the Nazi’s final solution plan really surprised me; I never knew there was such a sophisticated classification system for prisoners in the camps. It is saddening to think that the Nazi’s discrimination extended right into the hell
of the concentration camps.”