without their shoes. This torment from the sophomores continued. Each day a certain number of
freshmen had to report to the Athletic Department where they were put to work mopping the
gym whether it needed it or not, washing the dirty and smelly football uniforms, or any other
work that the scrub managers of the varsity teams invented for them to do.
Later that fall, freshmen erected in Ives Park the bleachers, shacks, and boards for the
hockey rink. The sloping ground of the Park was not the best place for a hockey rink, but it was
the only place. To get a reasonably level ice surface, the freshmen had to build up 13 inches of
ice at one end before there was any ice at the other end. All the while the frozen freshmen
labored, the wind whipped across the river with such ferocity that it made their work almost
impossible.
But the rink was finished, and the hockey team compiled an 11-1 record on it. Wally
Easton, All-American hockey goalie of the year before, was elected to the All-American second
team. In the middle of the season, Potsdam's first Ice Carnival was held on Saturday, February
7, at this rink. By the following year, however, the students had selected a permanent site on the
east side of Clarkson Avenue (the site of Walker Arena) and built a new ice rink.
New Ice Rink.
Work began on a permanent ice rink on College property between Clarkson
Avenue and the river. This 150-by-200 foot rink had bleachers for 800 spectators and an
adjacent field house 48-by-16 foot to provide four rooms, one for each team, and two others for
users of the rink. It was not covered, but was surrounded by a 10-foot high board fence. It was
flooded by a two-inch main laid from the village water system along Clarkson Avenue and was
illuminated by 10 floodlights totaling 15,000 candlepower.
Clarkson Skaters.
For the first time, Clarkson participated in the annual winter collegiate
sports festival at Lake Placid during the Christmas break when two Clarkson speed skaters,
Charles Marlak and Edward Dietz, Class of 1934, entered the 440 and the two-mile races. Dietz
took third place in both to earn four points; the race was won by Jack Shea and George
Mahoney, both of Dartmouth, in close-to-record times. Shea was one of America's foremost
skaters holding many records and championships during the last two years that he was North
American champion. Marlak later that year went on to capture second place in the Silver Skates
Derby at the State Fair Grounds Coliseum at Syracuse on March 6.
Point totals for the meet were Dartmouth 33, New Hampshire 16, McGill 15, Ottawa 10,
Penn State 6, Clarkson 4, St. Olaf 2, and Williams, Northwestern, and Maine, one each.
Pennsylvania, St. Michael's, and Bowdoin also participated but earned no score.
Michel Died.
On August 2, Dr. Carl Michel died in the Alice Hyde Hospital, Malone, where he
had been rushed after collapsing from a hemorrhage while awaiting to go through customs at
Trout River. He had gone to Montreal to pick up his daughter from a summer course at McGill
University.
Born in Germany on November 26, 1860, he had taught English, social sciences, and
foreign languages at Clarkson since 1905, and had served as acting president of the College in
1927-28. His place on the faculty was filled by Ira P. Baumgartner, a PhD candidate at Cornell
University, whose AB degree came from Indiana University and his master's from Columbia
University.
In 1955, his daughter left a bequest of $5,000 to establish the Michel Prize for freshmen
students ranking high in English; it is awarded annually at University Recognition Day.
