ask Anne Questions for Anne Turkos, university archivist for University Libraries, may be sent to terpmag@umd.edu.
I recently met an alumnus who told me he was the original
Mic Man. What
can you tell me about the beginnings of this football tradition? A. The alumnus to whom you are referring, Dale Rickenbach ’81, made his —Sammy Popat ’04 Q. A few years ago, I came across a PDF version of a handbook from maybe the 1930s, educating female students at the university on how to behave. It was historically accurate but hilarious from our point of view. There were tips on how to accept dates and when and how to behave at dances. Could you help me find it again? —Taruna Tiwari ’04
debut as Mic Man at the Band Day football game vs. Villanova on Oct. 2, 1976. He was asked to dress as Superman during the band’s halftime performance and later to cheer into the microphone. The Mic Man was so well received that he led cheers from 1976 to 1980 wearing a red and white tuxedo and anything from a top hat to a football helmet covered in tree branches.
A. We know precisely the handbook you are describing. It’s called To Do or Not to Do. There were two editions of it published, and we have both in the University Archives. We encourage those interested in reading the handbook to visit the Archives in Hornbake Library, where we keep many such gems.
MIC MAN PHOTO COURTESY OF DALE RICKENBACH; IMAGES COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES
Q. I am doing research on beanies and their role in hazing within the university. I came across an article about beanies at Maryland. I was wondering if you could send me more information for my research. —Katey Beverlin A. Our students were required to wear these hats,
also called dinks or rat and rabbit caps, from the 1920s to the 1960s. Freshmen wore beanies everywhere they went on campus, from their first day of school until the freshmen-sophomore tug-of-war, held during the spring semester. Supposedly the beanies were used to help freshmen identify other freshmen, but I do believe that there was a certain amount of teasing involved, as this yearbook photograph from 1968 shows.
TERP FALL 2008
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