Wildcats, Phoenix, and Dragons aren’t the only valid mascots for universities in Chicago, and while the LU Wolf follows the theme, Mundelein has experimented freely and creatively with mascots over the years. From a spunky turtle named Terry to the façade of Mundelein itself, join me in looking back at some of Mundelein’s most iconic representatives.
And make sure you stick around till the end where I’ll show Mundelein’s most intriguing attempt at a university mascot.
Firgure 1: Mundelein College softball team poses for team photo straddling the Mundelein College sign in front of Coffey Hall, 1990.
Like many universities, Mundelein has deep roots in sports and competition. Ping pong, tennis, swimming, horseback riding, and even football make up just a portion of the physical activity offered to the young women at Mundelein. Mundelein students don’t appear to need help representing themselves, and plenty of photos exist in the collection that underscore the importance of sport to these college students. Uniforms, Mundelein signs, and posing with sports equipment replace a unified mascot across campus.
Figure 2: Mundelein College Horseback Riding Club raise hands while posing on horses at the Parkway Riding Academy during the MC Riding Club Annual Horse Show, 1940.
This is part two of a two-part post in which graduate students examined how Mundelein College students wrote about World War II in The Skyscraper student newspaper. This post spans the years 1942-1946, covering immediately after the U.S. enters the war and continuing a year after Japan’s unconditional surrender in September 1945, as the world works to rebuild and recover. Read Part One here.
Today a liberal education is recognized by civic and social leaders to be the solution to the problem of an intelligent analysis of the present conflict. As women, it is our duty to tap the resources which are ours, that, by the training of minds and the degree of emotional stability which we treasure, we may contribute our energies to the present war effort and to the future victory and peace.
Looking Ahead, Skyscraper, Mundelein College, May 22, 1942
Following the United States’ entry into World War II, Mundelein student’s coverage of events in the student newspaper, The Skyscraper, strongly centered around college women’s civic duties to aid the war effort. For young Catholic women attending school, these daily activities were bolstered along by spiritual practices of prayers as well as being driven through more physically tangible support. Their focus was to educate themselves to be independent, responsible thinkers who were civically active. With the uptick of the war, focus was also placed on personal sacrifice by way of responsible consumption and rationing. Fewer Cokes and candies purchased each week meant a few more dimes sent to the war effort.
“College Jeep Inspectors…” Rae Haefel and Mary Kay Jones meet with Lieutenant H. Benson at Camp Grant. The Skyscraper staff members received invitation after the soldiers heard about Mundelein’s Jeep Drive.
Mundelein students were active in partnering with the Red Cross, whose standard courses certified over 200 faculty and students in first aid. Numerous drives were held from 1941 through the war’s end to generate funds and materials for the war effort. Mundelein students sold war bonds, invested in War Stamps and gathered scrap metal. Many of these drives were for a specific goal of supplying the US Army with Jeeps. By the end of May 1943, students at Mundelein reported raising a total of $17,232.15, which including inflation as of July 2022, equals around $295,149. By December 1945, the Skyscraper reported their total drive efforts to be “well over $100,000” since 1942. With inflation, that total reaches nearly $1.82 million. Both inflation calculations are from US Inflation Calculator based off the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor in July 2022.
This is part one of a two-part post in which graduate students examined how Mundelein College students wrote about World War II in The Skyscraper student newspaper. This post spans the years 1937-1941, covering the time leading up to the U.S. entering the war following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Read part two of the series HERE.
China and Japan are fiercely waging a bewildering undeclared war; Spain is blood-drenched in a civil strife; Austria has been absorbed by Nazi Germany; hostile Arabs and exiled Jews struggle for supremacy in the Holy Land, and the press in all the world records strife, unrest, outrage, and terror.
The Skyscraper, April 5, 1938
Mundelein delegates at the Catholic Association for International Peace, held at Mundelein on November 1, 1941.
The period in the late thirties leading up to World War II, the United States was marked by the stirrings of conflict abroad. While still reflecting upon a world changed by World War I, students became increasingly aware and concerned about the trouble brewing in Europe and particularly with Japan and China. The January 22 edition of The Skyscraper in 1937 urged students to “re-arm [their] soul[s] for another year in conflict.” Many of the articles written around this time placed much of their emphasis and message on spiritual resilience, and the duties of Catholics to uphold and promote peace. Students participated in peace marches and attended lectures on how peace could be obtained through social reform.
