The M has looked out over the Gallatin valley since 1915. Rick Jackson photo.
Good times, good people, good memories — Hanging out MSU style
by Jean Arthur
Over the decades when MSU students needed to blow off steam, they routinely chose familiar haunts: skiing at Bridger Bowl, supping at Manny's, imbibing at the Rockin' R or hiking to the M. An Alumni Association spring survey indicated that fond memories of academic life are sprinkled with reminiscences of "hanging out."
One of the most beloved spots was initiated in 1915, when members of Montana State College's class of '18 whitewashed stones on Mt. Baldy to form the giant letter "M." Since then, the hike to the M has become a handshake to new students, albeit a very early morning introduction. For decades, initiates to college life scrambled up the 0.8-mile trail at 6:30 a.m., carrying water and lime to whitewash the icon of Bozeman.
College campuses of the 1920s celebrated the Jazz age with flagpole sitting and dance marathons, and MSC's engineering dean Earle B. Norris trained students for "research work in the laboratories of the large engineering corporations."
During the 1930s, when bread was nine cents a loaf, the 1933 Montanan yearbook enlivened a dismal year by besmirching college life with an irreverent annual that included a fictitious student named Mjork, the "campus playboy."
"The yearbook was a great thing," said John Cromer, '34 EE, of Butte. "In those days, we gathered at the student union. Coffee was five cents, and we attended dances in the Romney gymnasium. Small bands played for these functions. The professors chaperoned, and we had to wear a suit and tie."
While World War II thinned the number of 1940s students, war production rescued the economy out of the Great Depression. Big Bands led by Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Duke Ellington waltzed onto the crackly airwaves. Thirst quenchers topped Main Street menus.
"The Bungalow on Main Street was a soda fountain," said Helen (Sandvig) Chauner, '40 PE. "They served cokes, root beer floats, milkshakes, candies, etc. It was a great hang-out for college kids in my era, 1936-1940."
In the 1950s, the American literati went "On the Road" with Jack Kerouac, heard Allan Ginsberg "Howl," and imagined "The Martian Chronicles" with Ray Bradbury, while Montana State College experienced a boom in post-World War II student population. The Great MSC Panty Raid of 1957 made national headlines after police used anti-riot tactics to disperse a howling Hannon Hall mob.
When not studying or attending six-day-a-week classes, students squeezed into Manny's Burger Inn, a tiny downtown diner. "If you looked like you were hungry, and at 6-foot-2 and 150 pounds, I looked hungry, you'd get a plate of ham and eggs and hash browns," said Bob Korizek, '61 CET, of Helena. "Manny served my food on two plates, piled high. At Manny's they'd tell you what you were going to eat. There wasn't a menu." Korizek's wife, Merle (Quammen), '60 Eng, said that things were different for women on campus.
Students painted "Hello" in many languages in what came to be known as the Hello Walk
A curfew prevented them from staying out late. "If the girls were late returning to the dorms, we got 'campused,'" she said. "It meant you were locked out of the dorm. I did get campused once with a whole group of girls who went to a movie that was extremely long. We hoofed it home -- no one had a car -- and were locked out."
They waited until a dorm mother let them inside. Their punishment meant forgoing the next Friday night out, perhaps missing dancing to "Blue Moon" on a special date to Melody Lane in Livingston.
As the Beatles tossed aside their matching black suits and grew out their hair, American feminism took a foothold on syllabuses with titles from Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. Other books like "Catch-22" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" explored disillusionment with the establishment. Meanwhile, Elvis Presley, The Supremes and Bob Dylan crooned about love, war and peace.
In Montana, the universities played the Name Game. Montana State College became Montana State University (and Montana State University became University of Montana). The Bobcat football squad touched down on several successful seasons, and won the national championship in 1976.
Bobcat kicker, Jan Stenerud, '67 Bus, attracted attention with a collegiate-record 59-yard field goal. The Norwegian came to MSU to cross-country ski race. He was drafted into the NFL and later inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.
Joe, '79, and Diane Sanders, '79, in the front of the Rockin' R Bar
"Once I had some success," said Stenerud, now of Colorado Springs, Colo., "teams went looking for (soccer-style) kickers like myself."
After class, students ordered milk shakes from Watson's Drive Inn until it became the Haufbrau.
"The Hauf was part of the Bermuda Triangle, or Bar-Muda Triangle, as we called it," said Bill Gum, '66 Bus, of Stanwood, Wash. "The Haufbrau, The Scoop and Molly Brown were a short walk apart. While it was easy to cover three bars to check on the action, some college kids seemed to disappear in the 'Triangle,' only to resurface hours or days later...and many had no recollection of how they got there...or how they returned."
The Hauf was littered with peanut shells and miscellaneous flotsam. Students snacked on pickled eggs and burned their names into a wood board. The boards are still on display.
As the Eagles were "Takin' it Easy," students met at the SUB for a Tab diet cola. Bobcat paw prints lined the Hello Walk, the north entrance to the SUB, where it was "required" to say "hello" to others.
"I miss the Hello Walk," said Kathy McCleary, '76 SpCom, of Billings. "We couldn't cut across the lawns on campus when we were in our Spurs uniform. Even today when some of us are on campus, we don't cut across the grass."
If MSU had a patron saint in the 1970s, it might have been St. George who slew the dragon, saved the king's daughter from sacrifice then resided in downtown Bozeman. The bar befitted Bobcat men and maidens who lifted frothy mugs from tables that hung from the ceiling by heavy chains. The decor, Mandarin-orange shag carpet, was to evoke medieval times, yet it was more like a suds-sloshed moat around pool tables.
By the 1980s when "Lonesome Dove" stampeded across America's coffee tables then a river ran through it, students munched burnt cookies in front of the fireplace in the old Deer Park Chalet and favored The St. Bernard on sunny winter afternoons after mogul mashing on Bronco at Bridger Bowl. They also toyed with MTV moves: slam dancing, break dancing, hip hop and Western swing, then breakfast at the Baxter.
"Every Sunday morning, my friends and I would meet at the Baxter Hotel Cafe," said Colleen Buchanan, '81 Nurs. "First person there would grab the big round table by the front window and door. We would spend hours eating breakfast and sipping coffee while we observed who arrived with whom for breakfast. Then we would laboriously speculate about events that may have transpired during the previous night."
During the 1990s, as the electronic age logged on for nearly one billion people nationwide, computer-savvy students downloaded Grunge: Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Sound Garden. Virtual hangouts aside, Gallatin Valley's trails became very popular. Coffee houses sprouted like winter wheat in the Plant Growth Center. Caffeinated Bohemians were booted from downtown sidewalks, North 19th Avenue became a thoroughfare, and the Alumni Association decorated a new office.
In the new millennium, the face of Bozeman maintains a youthful vigor while indelible favorites remain student hangouts.
Skiers on their way to Bridger Bowl in the 1950s
Bridger Bowl Ski Area will celebrate a 50th anniversary in January. The powder-packed peaks influenced generations of alpinists who in the early years paid $1 for an adult lift ticket.
Roskie Beach, Norris Hot Springs, Hyalite and Yellowstone remain fashionable haunts. The Pickle Barrel and Joe's Parkway are staples of campus life. A few spots morphed with the times like the Rockin' R Bar which added doors on the men's room and subtracted smoke from the atmosphere.
As one survey respondent noted, no matter the favorite hangout, it was special because of the "Good People. Good Times. Good Memories."