UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #455
SCHELFHOUT, DONALD

SCHELFHOUT, Donald (1930- )
Undergraduate Student, Engineering
At UW: 1948-1953

Interviewed: 1994	
Interviewer: Mailed questionnaire
Length: 2 hours, 43 minutes 

Background; Housing; Jobs; Fraternity; Course of study; Clubs and organizations; Dean of men; Finances; Student publications; Leisure time; Athletics; Baseball and Dynie Mansfield; Engineers and lawyers; Discrimination; Membership in UW organizations.

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:03	DS gives background information on himself. He was born June 6, 1930 in Kimberly, Wisconsin, the third of eight children. His mother died in childbirth when he was six. His father, a mill worker, raised DS and his siblings until he remarried. DS tells how he made money renting cats for mouse-killing purposes to his great-uncles.

00:06:23	DS attended a Catholic grade school. In high school he did well both scholastically and athletically, playing basketball and football. As the second-ranking student in his class, he was offered a tuition scholarship for his first year at a state university. This is the primary reason he came to UW.

00:11:01	DS talks about several high school teachers and coaches who influenced him.

00:13:28	He gives reasons why he decided to come to UW and study civil engineering. 

00:18:00	DS's brother and sister encouraged him to go on to college. He was the first graduate of Kimberly High School to graduate from college. It was assumed in Kimberly that he would go. He had little input from his father about college. His uncle discouraged him from coming to UW because he thought it was radical and anti-Catholic and encouraged him to go instead to Marquette. DS tells a story associated with his visit to Marquette as a prospective student.

00:27:27	DS came to Madison before he attended UW. He immediately found a room in a private home and a job in a restaurant. The second semester of his freshman year he shared a room with a roommate close to campus. He talks about his roommate. DS liked going to a big university because one could always find people with common interests. 

00:37:33	He moved into a rundown rooming house on campus his second year. He discusses life there. He worked at the restaurant, the Chocolate Shoppe, for two years and frequented The Pub next door with co-workers.

00:43:34	DS talks about why he joined the Alpha Chi Rho (AXP) fraternity and moved into the house his junior year. He was never very involved in the fraternity.

00:46:52	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:47:00	DS talks about working as a part of the registration crew. He made some extra money selling tickets for the homecoming game and doing odd jobs.

00:51:07	He only ate at the AXP house Monday night because he had a meal job at the Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) house. Though he was not a model member, the fraternity kept him on because his GPA increased the house average. He talks about his fraternity brothers and life at the house, including parties, homecoming displays, one of the first TV sets, and false fire alarms.

00:58:31	The KKG house was the best sorority on campus. They were refined, nice girls, and there were always some Badger beauties among its members. The early 1950s were the "panty raid days." DS talks about one of the other waiters with whom he worked at KKG, Murphy, and his involvement in panty raids.

01:03:31	DS chose civil engineering as his major. He was reunited with a school chum during his first registration. DS met his future wife through this friend's wife; they were both nursing students. DS did not enjoy his courses, which were extremely difficult. His high school education did not prepare him well for college.

01:07:19	DS got to know Kurt Wendt, Dean of the School of Engineering, and his assistant quite well. He talks about a technical student job the latter helped him find.

01:09:43	He did not have a minor and took only one elective, Marriage and the Family (he was married in September of 1952). He feels his instruction in civil engineering was sufficient. He completed his course of study in four and a half years.

01:11:30	DS did not join the W Club until after he left UW. He was involved in the Civil Engineering Society and Chi Rho, an honorary fraternity. His GPA fell due to a B he received on his undergraduate thesis because its binding was the wrong color. 

01:15:10	DS talks more about AXP. A campus organization existed to oversee the fraternities and sororities.

01:16:20	DS became acquainted with the Dean of Men. He tells a story about an experience with the Dean after a run-in with the police.
End of Part 1

01:22:30	The AXP house was on the corner of Langdon and Henry streets. The Dean of Men used his influence to help DS get student loans, which he talks about. He never received money from home to help pay for his education; in fact, he contributed to his family's household expenses in the summer. He got clothes from his brother Gene, who was in the Marine Corps, and socks from the UW Athletic Department.

01:26:43	DS read the Daily Cardinal religiously because the articles were good, and it was free. The Badger was too expensive. He enjoyed a campus humor magazine.

01:28:32	DS did not have much leisure time. He did not date very much until his junior year. After he met his wife, a student nurse at St. Mary's, they went out to the bars. An evening out, including transportation, drinks, dinner, and smokes, for the two of them cost less than $2. He could buy a pound box of chocolates at the Chocolate Shoppe at the employee rate of 90 cents. $25 a pint was the going rate for blood. DS and a friend bribed the scheduling girls at the hospital with chocolates so they could give blood more often.

Tape 2/Side 1

01:33:44	The relatives of the patient paid donors in cash. 

01:35:04	DS talks about playing intramural basketball.

01:37:14	He attended mass regularly. The church charged a quarter fee, which he evaded because a friend was the collector.
	
01:39:22	DS was not active in politics while at UW, but has been since he left. Harry Truman stopped in Madison on a whistle stop tour in 1948.

01:40:21	To DS's knowledge, drugs were non-existent on campus. Almost everyone smoked; he smoked a pipe. Alcohol was the basis for parties. 

1:41:53	He went out for baseball spring of his sophomore year. Dynie Mansfield was the varsity coach and Gene Calhoun was the junior varsity coach. There were some extremely good players on the team that year, including Harvey Kuehn, Gene Evans, Red Wilson, and Thornton Kipper. Seven of the seniors signed with the White Sox team at Colorado Springs. 

1:43:20	DS talks about how he got onto the team, his first meeting with Mansfield, and how he became an outfielder. He tells how he made the traveling squad for the spring trip to Bradley University. There were not enough new warm-up jackets to go around, so he and Johnny Coatta, the football quarterback, had to wear old ones. Coatta was not used to that kind of treatment; DS was just happy for the opportunity to go along. Neither of them played much, and Coatta suggested sarcastically that they were taken along as bat boys.

1:50:20	DS played on a pretty regular basis with the junior varsity team. Mansfield was "very astute" — he was a good coach and a fine person. The UW varsity team played against class D ball clubs in Wisconsin, one of which was Appleton, which is close to DS's hometown. He played in a varsity game there and visited with relatives at the same time. UW won 12-8. 

1:53:18	He had six at-bats and four hits: a single, a double, a triple, and a home run. This is still a UW record. Only two players in UW baseball history have hit "for the cycle." The game against Appleton was the only time his father saw him play any sport. It was an outstanding night. 

1:54:47	DS's career on the varsity team was short. He talks about his last varsity game, at Purdue. UW and Michigan were co-champs of the Big Ten in 1950. He was bumped from the team for the Michigan game because he had a final. He went out for baseball the following year, but ended up taking a job instead.

1:59:14	DS's father made the offer to help him out financially so he could continue to play baseball. He turned down the offer because he knew his father could not afford it. 

2:01:23	DS and Mansfield got to know each other better because of later school board involvements. DS genuinely liked him. He talks about some amusing interactions with Mansfield while he was still playing ball.

2:04:26	End of side.

Tape 2/Side 2

2:04:33	DS continues his "Dynie-stories." 

2:10:32	DS followed most UW sports. He got to know some of the boxers and football players. He talks about experiences with some of the other baseball players he knew, including Wilson, Kuehn, Evans (who was also a running back on the football team), and Coatta.

2:16:07	The wrestling program was just starting while DS was at UW. In order to gain an audience, some of the matches were held during basketball halftimes. DS did not know many of the basketball players, although he was acquainted with Ab Nicholas.

2:17:14	The football coach was visible as always. Mansfield was a character. DS tells a humorous story about the swimming coach, who doubled as a broadcaster at basketball games.

2:18:17	The student body was overwhelmingly supportive of athletics. 

2:18:54	It was a tradition that every year the engineers marched down State Street and the lawyers threw rotten eggs at them. A number of lawyers and engineers always ended up in jail. The University organized a basketball game between the two groups in an effort to prevent this practice. DS played two years on the engineering team and managed it the third year. One year the players on the engineering team dyed their hair green; the dye ran when they began to perspire. The lawyers marched from one end of the football field to the other and threw their canes through the goalposts. If one caught it before it landed on the opposite side, it meant that he would win his first case. 

2:21:56	Students were reasonably well-behaved at athletic events.

2:22:37	DS was never discriminated against while in Madison, but he witnessed discrimination. He tells stories of blatant discrimination against an inter-racial couple. Jews had a difficult time finding housing. He does not recall discrimination against women. There were no women in ROTC, but there was one in his civil engineering courses. Out-of-state students were not discriminated against, though UW did have a quota for them.

2:29:18	DS knew the Dean of Men. He never had contact with the president. 

2:29:50	He did not attend his graduation. He was the first in his family and from his high school to graduate from college. 

2:31:16	"Josh" the banjo player was a campus personality DS remembers.

2:32:41	DS's goal was to do the best he could with resources available to him. He and his wife had eight children, seven of whom hold college degrees. He talks about his family.

2:35:12	End of side. End of tape.

Tape 3/Side 1

2:35:21	DS's education at UW was valuable for instilling self-discipline. Technically, it was not as helpful.

2:36:19	He wishes he had become re-involved with UW sooner. In the last decade, he joined the Alumni Association, W Club, and Dugout Club. He became acquainted with Steve Lowell, the women's volleyball coach. He considers volleyball to still be a "ladylike" sport. He belongs to many volleyball booster clubs, including UW's. 

2:39:50	DS did take advantage of plays and programs. A performance of "The Red Shoes" was his first excursion into the arts. He was exposed to a number of good plays and movies while at UW.

2:41:17	DS made very little use of the Memorial Union.

2:42:11	DS gives his address and phone number. He started at UW in the fall of 1948 and graduated in January 1953 with a B.S. in civil engineering.

2:43:24	End of side. End of tape.

END