Weber's First Uniformed Cheerleader Heber Grant Jacobs '23 I loved basketball, but for some reason the school coach wouldn't let me play center. Maybe it was because I wasn't tall enough (5'4"). But I got even with him, and I became the cheerleader. It was a real thrill to have the whole student body respond to my bidding and believe in me. Although it was a small school, the students surely showed great school spirit. Up to that time I hadn't even seen a cheerleader lead with any kind of a uniform on. So I got a seamstress to buy some deep purple corduroy cloth and make me a pair of pants with bell-bottom legs. She attached a white tassel on each leg with a wide band around the waist. The top was a purple W on the back of a white shirt. When I came out for the next game, you would have thought I had won the game before it started. I still have my purple and white pants, and 1 still remember those wonderful days gone by, 73 years ago. It seems as years go by that all student bodies have the same problems - finances. Well, ours was dead broke. After my two years as cheerleader, Honor Day came along, and I was told there was no money to get me a block W ($10.00), but that if I would pay for it, the student body would get one for me as I had earned it - well! I still have my W and am proud of it. "...and the pants still fit!" Editor s Note: Heber developed an absolutely unique cheerleading style with hops and jumps. Everyone who saw him found a real show, and imitators never equaled. He was so popular that alumni groups would ask him to perform at special programs from time to time over the years. He even gave a rather rusty imitation in his '80s. And the pants still fit! Heber Grant Jacobs '23 was asked to say a few words about Weber's first winter hike to Mt. Ogden in February 1923. There were 11 of us plus Harvey Taylor of the faculty. Snow covered th mountains down to the foothills, and all trails were covered, we had to make our own. From Malan Heights up, so we stuck to the ridges as the snow was either hard or blown off the rocks. We all made it to the top and were greeted there by a freezing wind and the good old flag pole that we had planted there the year before. As usual, it was a great and beautiful sight - white mountain peaks as far as we could see. We didn't stay there long as the cold wind froze any of our clothes that were wet. Going down was, of course, a lot faster as we got to sled on the frozen snow in many places. All went well until Lawrence Budge, our best basketball player, couldn't stop and hit a pine tree. This was quite a ways down from Malan Peak, but he couldn't use one of his legs. It took several hours for us to help him down to a road where we could get help. We still had some basketball games to play so, for some reason or another, Merlon Stevenson, our great coach, lost all interest in winter hikes. In looking back seventy-three years and at our pictures, I'm not sure, but I think there are only four out of twelve old Weberites left that took that original hike. 1923 First hike to Mt. Ogden At the summit 4 Heber Grant Jacobs '23 In 1919 Weber Academy had two years of college and started its last years of high school. Because it was a church school, students came from not only our county but several others, even out of the state. I always liked this because no matter where I traveled later, I found friends. Of course, with the high school students there, it gave the college students more to look down on and harass. But we didn't care because we had our own athletics, drama, dances and music organizations, yearbook and school paper. President Tracy noticed me, and one day invited me to take a ride out to his little town and see the house he was raised in. He told me many stories of his boyhood and of the hard (and good) days he enjoyed. After that, Aaron W. Tracy became one of my ideals. Most of our teachers were friends like that. I believe most of the college students majored in education because there were Weberite teachers and principals not only in our county but in most of the surrounding counties as well. What did the old Weber contribute to the nation's business, education, and politics? These are just a few that I knew personally: Ernest Wilkinson, a well-known national lawyer and eventually President of BYU; J. Willard Marriott of Marriott Enterprises; David Kennedy, a leading banker, Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, NATO Ambassador, and later the Ambassador to the world for the L.D.S. Church; then last but not least, for the last graduating class, Donnell and Elizabeth Shaw Stewart, who carried the torch of Weber spirit at all times and dedicated their means and time and talents for the benefit of Weber and its students for many years to come. J. Willard Marriott Floyd Crockett Stuart '20 I recently had the pleasure of visiting in my home with Dr. Garth M. Blanch and Mrs. Jaciel Gray Blanch, South Ogden residents and members of the Emeriti Council of Weber State University. Mrs. Blanch is a sister of the former Gayleen Gray Drake of Ogden, who lived most of her adult life in Vinemont, Alabama, the home of her husband, Charles Franklin Drake. Through family research I had become well acquainted with the Drakes, who always visited me when vacationing in Ogden. In the course of the visit with Dr. and Mrs. Blanch, I learned that I knew Dr. Blanch when he was just a small boy living in his parents' home next door to a home that I was building on Ogden's 24th Street. Dr. Blanch asked me if I would record some of my memories of early Ogden, especially those related to one of its schools, Weber Academy, now Weber State University. It is appropriate to commence this narrative describing events of my early life. I was born January 13, 1903, near Lincoln Avenue on Ogden's 22nd Street. I grew up in the 2900 block of Wall Avenue, a neighborhood then considered desirable by Ogden's middle-class citizens. I attended the now non-existent Pingree School, located on 30th Street between Pingree and Lincoln Avenues. This school was named for pioneer Job Pingree, one of our near neighbors. When I was finishing the second grade, my teacher and the school principal took me out of that class and placed me in the fourth grade. The school principal was Inez Craven. As a result of this advancement, after I had finished classes in Pingree School and Lewis Junior School, on 26th Street, above Washington Avenue (it became Washington Boulevard in later years) and enrolled in Weber Academy, I was about a year younger than most of the students in that freshman class. The Weber Academy had been relocated from its previous quarters in the Second Ward at 26th Street and Grant Avenue to a new campus located on the west side of Jefferson Avenue between 25th and 24th Streets. By some, it was then called Weber Stake Academy. Red Nichols 5