Old traditions lost, eliminated over the years

Lehigh-Laf week is referred to as the best time of the year by students who revel in traditions and festivities leading up to the rivalry game on Saturday.

While the Turkey Trot and Bed Races occur every year, students sometimes are unaware of the traditions they are missing out on from the university’s past. Over the years, many traditions have faded away and then been rediscovered through either Lehigh’s special collections or by tales from faculty and staff.

Barb Turanchik, the director of club sports, grew up in the Bethlehem community and remembers the impact that Le-Laf week had on her childhood.  

“When I was little, all the fraternity houses and other living groups would decorate the front of their houses, but not just decorate,” Turanchik said. “They would use their engineering skills. You would see mechanical parts moving. You would see a guillotine moving down on the head of a leopard, and then it would come back up. Things would be dunking a leopard. Whatever it was, obviously the leopard was not winning.”

Turanchik said Bethlehem citizens ventured up to campus to see the displays put on by the fraternity and living group houses and believes the tradition faded away during the 1960s. Another favorite event was a charity event in which a junker car was brought to campus and people could swing at it for a dollar throughout the week to raise money for charity. According to Turanchik, a lot of the events throughout the week were centered on philanthropies.

A large bonfire was another former tradition. Students would gather wood at the start of the week, and it was up to the freshmen class to guard the bonfire and protect it from Lafayette students who attempted to light the fire prematurely. Turanchik said the fire laws would make it difficult to host a large fire on Goodman Campus. Additionally, other universities have had incidents with bonfires that now make them more of a safety risk for the school.

In terms of participation today, Turanchik believes students have too many options and might not prioritize traditions.

When Turanchik was an undergraduate, football games were played in Taylor Gym’s current location in the old stadium, and were much more accessible. Morning football, though, was not about tailgates or MoCos.  

“We just went to support our friends,” she said. “It’s different now. I think, students go over to party and then take the bus back before the game starts. We pretty much looked like you guys did on Parent’s Weekend, with brown and white on and not pajamas, tutus and crazy stuff.”  

Lehigh-Lafayette week is a time for celebrating traditions, but professor Stephen Buell said some of his favorite traditions from the past once went beyond the week leading up to the Lehigh-Lafayette game.

“House parties, fall and spring, were two weekends equal to or even greater than Lafayette,” Buell wrote. “All students moved out of the fraternities and the girls stayed in the house (with a chaperone) for the weekend.”

Adriana Vukmanic, ’16, is an athlete on the Lehigh Women’s Track Team. She said she appreciates the surge in school spirit in tradition when Le-Laf week rolls around.

“My favorite Lehigh-Lafayette tradition is the game itself,” Vukmanic said. “As an athlete, it’s nice to see the Lehigh community come out in such a great show of support for our athletic program.”