partan entinel MSU Varsity Alumni ‘S’ Club NEWSLETTER VOL. 55 ISSUE 1 A Very Special Spartan Joe Barrie remembers a time likely remembered by no other Spartan. Showing a picture of himself in his playing days: at right is Joseph Barrie, an ‘S’ Club member who lives in Altadena, California. Joe sent us a note last spring telling how he was enjoying his 100th birthday, and about his most exciting day: an early September Saturday in 1934 in Ann Arbor, when Michigan State College beat Michigan (the undefeated national champions in ’33) in football, 16 to nothing. It was State’s first victory over Michigan in 19 years, and only the second ever. Joe told how he was State’s center and played all 60 minutes, and how the Michigan center was Jerry Ford, later President of the United States. He was proud that he played for 55 minutes in 1935, when “MSC” again beat Michigan. This writer has been in contact by phone and email with Joe’s daughter, Judie, who said that Joe’s only difficulty these days is that he is hard of hearing. So she emailed this picture and .... -see Barrie page 2 W I N T E R 2 0 1 2 2011-2012 Michigan State University Varsity Alumni ‘S’ Club Varsity Alumni ‘S’ Club 535 Chestnut Rd - Rm 276 East Lansing, MI 48824 Board of Directors Phone: (517) 355-8523 Fax: (517) 355-7708 Executive Committee Email: [email protected] President Cheryl Gilliam ’81 Website: www.msuvarsitysclub.org 1st Vice President Wally Dobler ’58 2nd Vice President R. Paul Vance ’01 Secretary Mike Vorkapich ’94 We value your opinion and want to know what Treasurer David Brogan ’56 you think about the Varsity Alumni ‘S’ Club Past President Colin Cronin ’94 Newsletter. Send us an e-mail, call or fax with Board of Directors items or topics you would like to see included in Don Behm ’67 Ron Berby ’64 future newsletters. If you have suggestions on Tim Bograkos ’04 Michael Decker ’80 Sue Selke ’76 Eldon Vanspybrook ’60 how to improve the publication, let us know. Donald Weatherspoon ’67 Young Alumni Elections for the Board of Directors of the Varsity Ashton Henderson ’10 Kelly Moffitt Mooradian ’10 Alumni ‘S’ Club are held each spring. If you would like to serve on the Board, simply visit our website, click Office Staff: Marilyn Bria (Office Hours: M-Th, 12-4; F, 12-3) on the application tab, print the form, complete, and Newsletter Editor: Ron Berby mail to the ‘S’ Club office. Barrie -from Page 1 At a century, Joe is amazingly active, and tells of a Depression-Era ‘30s campus and an accomplished life ....relayed her father’s memories to us. First though, she described this very notable man who last competed for State 77 years ago: He didn’t quit driving till he was 99. He visits a library nearly every day and is a voracious reader. He goes out to eat lunch and dinner every day. He is “full of sparkle and a great sense of humor.” On turning 100 years old, when a local paper’s reporter asked him how a person can live so long, he said, “You’ve got to just keep breathing.” He dislikes “Dial-a-Ride” because they’re so often late when he wants to get out, which is often. He’s passed his love of football on to his family. Judie said that she and her brother went to UCLA, and that “football season tickets are still in our blood”. Joe went to one game with them last fall. Joe remembered that the first victory over Michigan was only in State coach Charlie Bachman’s second season, and was followed by several more of the coach’s winning seasons. He said that MSC’s president canceled classes the following Monday so the whole school could be “in celebration.” Joe remembers living in Wells Hall, a freshman dorm, and then at a local fraternity house which later became the Delta Chi. He told about the MSC Spring Water Carnival and Saturday night dances: 15 cents per couple, 5 cent Cokes, and music by Nat Frye’s Orchestra He said in those days smoking wasn’t allowed on campus, but that “everyone smoked.” So they all walked to campus and the curb at Grand River Avenue was “a huge ash tray because students had to get rid of smokes!” The south end of campus then was the Red Cedar, except for Macklin Field (now Spartan Stadium) which held 20,000 while the college enrollment was only 3,500. In the middle of the Depression, Joe was a business major until he realized that the only guys in his fraternity who quickly got jobs after graduation were the Hotel Administration majors. So he changed his major, graduated in 1936 “...and got a job within a week of graduation!” He worked at the Orington Hotel in Evanston, Illinois, and that’s where he met his wife, who was in a master’s program at Northwestern. They see Barrie page 3 W I N T E R 2 0 1 2 2 President’s Message Once a Spartan, Always a Spartan! We are off to another exciting year. Thanks to those who attended the Play 4 Kay women’s basketball game, and congratulations to those Young Alumni chosen to watch the men’s away basketball game at Northwestern on TVs in the player lounge at the Breslin Center. We congratulate also Ashton Henderson and Kelly Mooradian in their success at increasing the ranks of Young Alumni, keeping them in touch with MSU and the ‘S‘ Club after graduation. You can help by reaching out to young alumni, urging them to stay in touch. One way is to join them in their Facebook and LinkedIn pages. Our main goal this year is to be the best letter winners club in membership numbers and satisfied members, not only in the Big Ten, but for all Division 1 Universities. You can help by reaching out to old teammates and friends, encouraging them to join the ‘S‘ Club and participate in our events. Mark your calendar for our Annual Golf Outing (June 6) and Reunion Weekend (Sept. 20 - 22): the MSU vs. EMU football game. Reunion changes this year include: anniversary pins for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60 years, and a Spartan blanket for the 70th year. Also, if you and your teammates would like to host a reunion that weekend, we are planning decade reunions for teams who competed in 2002, 1992, 1982, 1972, 1962, 1952, and 1942. If you wish to be included you must supply a few volunteers to organize and oversee along with our help. This will be limited to one male and one female team per decade, first come/first served. So contact us ASAP. Visit us in the stadium or on the website. Send us your Spartan Sagas. We hope to see you at the Green and White football game (April 28) and in the Stadium Club Room. We are a Spartan Family Cheryl M. Gilliam, President -- Track 1978-81 -- B.S. College of Agriculture, Packaging Barrie - from Page 2 But Joe’s real story his how he found his way to the little campus on the Red Cedar ..married in March 1940 and decided to move to California on a Wednesday that December, and left on that very Friday! Joe left the hotel business in arriving in California, and became a manufacturers’ representative for textile mills - for the next 50 years. His daughter says that over the years Joe has always been happy he ended up at Michigan State instead of “anyplace else.” He brags that Michigan State is the “only school to have beaten the U of M in football four consecutive times” (now for a second time). Which brings us to where “anyplace else” could have been: Joe grew up in South Bend --- Indiana, that is. A logical choice for a top football prospect there would have been Notre Dame. But legendary Irish coach Knute Rockne died in a plane crash and Joe wasn’t so sure about Notre Dame’s chances. Who should come to the rescue but the University of Michigan! In June of 1930 the U of M alumni club of South Bend gave Joe their trophy for the outstanding senior at South Bend’s Central High School (Joe still has the clipping from the paper). Here comes the good part: As part of his scholarship to play football at Michigan, he would have to agree to work as a ticket taker at an Ann Arbor theater - a very time consuming job for a Depression era college student playing football. But at the state college a couple hours away, they offered him a job that would only take up from 6:00 to 7:00 each morning. He would work at the college cafeteria’s kitchen - peeling potatoes! The rest is Spartan history. Who would have ever thought that we’d be able to tell this remarkable story because peeling potatoes is better than taking tickets? Joe has it on his schedule to turn 101 on March 10th. Ron Berby, Editor W I N T E R 2 0 1 2 3 Board Announces 2012 ‘S’ Club Award Winners Biggie Munn Extra Effort Award ---- Herb Washington Henry Bullough Service Award ---- David Brogan Jack Breslin Lifetime Achievement Award ---- Dr. Jack Beattie Nell Jackson Alumna Award ---- Diane D’Angelo Honorary Members: Richard Bader Matt Gianiodis Kathie Klages Robert Skandalaris Spartan Football - A Force to Be Reckoned With It’s been building since Mark Dantonio took the reins.