BLAIR COUNTY CLUB OF STATE
Great Plans Being Made - Organization One of the Largest of Institution.
Great plans have been made by the Blair County Club of State College, many members of which were home for the Thanksgiving season, to insure a pleasant term for the members. The club is one of the largest in the college and contains no less than forty-two persons, including two members of the faculty and two young ladies. State college does not have a great many young women in its enrollment, but this county furnishes two of the number.
The club met in the early part of the term and organized for the year by the election of the following officers: President, John Heeter, vice president, George Leman; secretary, Paul Reinhardt; treasurer, Pascal Barr.
Among the social activities planned by the club are a smoker and luncheon to be tendered the boy seniors of the Altoona and other Blair county high schools in the University club house in the Christmas vacation. The Blair County club annually gives one of these receptions, the idea being to bring old State favorably before the youths who the next term will be ready to enter the college. The receptions are informal in character and much of the time is given over to telling college yarns and singing State's famed songs. The reception is looked forward to by the county's high school seniors as one of the most promising social events of the year. The members of the committee to arrange the Christmas reception are Joe Snyder, Walter Gaines, Fred Moffit and Paul Sheldon.
The Blair County club is also arranging another event to take place in this city. A dance and reception will be held in the Easter vacation. This event is also held annually and is attended by all the members of the club, a number of their friends and the alumni of the college. The committee on this event has not yet been appointed, but it will be chosen soon and will get to work arranging the details. The dance is one of the most popular of the local social season. The hall will be decorated with college colors and the orchestra will mingle college music with popular selections.
The Blair County club meets in one of the rooms of the Engineering building of the college. Its sessions are held once a month, except when something special is brewing, when the gatherings occur at more frequent intervals. All the county clubs meet in the Engineering building, the college furnishing the room. The institution gives a hearty stamp of approval to the county clubs, as they not only make the lives of the members more pleasant but are certain to advertise the school in the members' home county.
The first social event of the club's season was a reception to the freshmen from this county. One night these neophytes were led into the woods, where cider and cigars were enjoyed by all the men from Blair. The freshmen were given such a royal welcome that they have felt perfectly at home in State ever since.
The club is active athletically as well as socially. A basketball team is being formed by the members and expects to meet some of the local basketball stars in the Christmas and Easter vacations. The team will not play a regular schedule at the college, but will meet some of the other county cub teams there. The lineup will be chosen from the following: Centre, Reinhardt and McDowell; forwards, Harvey, Crawford, Heeter, Flick and Wyrough; guards, Gaines, Sheldon, the two Moffits and Dosch. Some of the members of the team have seen activity in basketball in this city, while others have cropped out as artists of the large round ball since they have been in State. Crawford, one of the members of the team, last year was a forward on the Susquehanna university 'varsity team.
At the meetings of the Blair County club the members convey to one another the latest they have heard from Blair. The gatherings are always sociable and are looked forward to with pleasure.
The Blair County club of State college was formed about 1904, with eighteen members. It has grown until it now has forty-two. Mr. Harvey Ridenbaugh, instructor of forge and foundry work, and Mr. Hall, his assistant, both hale from Blair county, being products of the great works of the Pennsylvania Railroad company in this city. They are expert mechanics.
Three Blair county boys will get their diplomas at State next spring. They are Joe Snyder, of the school of agriculture; Jack Cliber, of the school of mechanical engineering, and William Stahn, of the school of liberal arts.
State is growing in popularity in Altoona and every year the number of boys enrolling from this city and county grows larger. The Altoona high school has sent many sons to state, and the college has the distinction of having more Blair county boys as students than has any other college or university in the land.
Altoona Tribune, Altoona, Pa., Monday, December 4, 1911, page 5