On these Promising Shores of the Pacific by Ronald Eugene Isetti

Author:Ronald Eugene Isetti
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE DIAMOND JUBILEE

Archbishop Mitty’s purchase of Saint Mary’s was fortuitous. “Coming as it does, at the beginning of our Diamond Jubilee year, we are very hopeful for the future,” Brother Albert declared in September 1937. “Relieved of the financial burden and worries concerning the future of the College, we now have something upon which to build. With the existence of the College assured, I look forward to the coming year with great optimism.”169 On May 15, the feast of Saint John Baptist De La Salle, the diamond anniversary commencement ceremony was held on campus. Monsignor Peter Guilday, the president of the Catholic University of America, delivered the major address of the day. He told the graduates:

The basic principles of Christian citizenship—right thinking and right conduct—the Brothers brought to San Francisco three score and ten years ago; and in spite of many a sad and serious setback, every day of that long span has been given generously to this State for the education of its youth. Who can measure the service? What pen can describe all that the Brothers by precept and example have added to the cultural advance of this great commonwealth of the West?170

The words in this address that stand out are “serious and sad” setbacks, of which there have been many in the history of Saint Mary’s. Bankruptcy was surely among the worst.

In late 1938, while Saint Mary’s was celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary, Robert Maynard Hutchins, president of the University of Chicago, published a provocative article in the Saturday Evening Post entitled “Gate Receipts and Glory,” in which he blamed football for the college’s financial woes. Declaiming that “athleticism, like crime, does not pay,” he noted that “last summer St. Mary’s College, home of the Galloping Gaels, was sold at auction and bought in by a bondholders’ committee. This was the country’s most sensational football college. Since 1924 it has won eighty-six and tied seven of its 114 games.” Despite “inexpensive” academic efforts and “immense” gate receipts, the institution still went bankrupt. “The bondholders were surprised to learn it was running $72,000 a year behind its budget. They were even more surprised to learn that football expenses were almost equal to football income.” However, as the president of a major university with a big-time football program, Hutchins was not. He knew that “to make big money in athletics you have to spend big money” on stadiums, equipment, coaches salaries, travel expenses and publicity, which is exactly what Madigan did.171

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