I follow Mrs. Birminghams model in teaching vocabulary, calling for a weekly list of words drawn from assigned reading. In class I ask students to share words they find interesting, to which I respond with enthusiasm and with what I hope is good humor, elaborating on cognates, roots, and affixes a standard way of accelerating vocabulary growth. I also suggest that they review their lists regularly. Keep them in the bathroom and study them while using the toilet, I suggest. Or, for you church goers, keep them in your purses and pull them out and secretly study them during the sermon. Also take them along to the stomp Friday night. Given current techniques of dancing, no one will notice that you are studying words. I also pull out a pocket notebook and write on the board several of my own recent acquisitions. Last Monday it was lucubrate and lucubration, which refer to laborious, scholarly, and pedantic writing (literally, writing done by lamp light). You may not find use for these words, I told my students, but I certainly want to learn to use them because they describe my own writing, which is all too often laborious, scholarly, and pedantic. Then I had to pause and define pedantry. I asked them if they knew any pedants. They honored me by saying I was one. I hope my students are acquiring not just new words but a respect for words, an appreciation for the connection between words and ideas, between writing and thinking. I hope they are not simply mastering the basics of writing, which is one particular of civilization, but are also acquiring a curiosity about and a hunger for all its particulars. I hope Freshman English does a little to give them a motivation and a direction, a pleasure in learning for its own sake and a permanent ambition for cultural enlargement. The truth is, of course, that freshmen are not complete barbarians. Fundamentally decent, my students are always willing to be, if not impressed, at least polite. They arent cynical or ruined or despairful; they believe they have a future. They cheer me up greatly and make me feel good for the rest of the day. Reviewing my roll the other day, I noticed certain students were behind in their themes. It isnt my method to lower grades or refuse late papers. I simply nag. I asked a young woman, whom I will call Cindy, when she expected to hand in her late paper. She hummed and hawed, whereupon I bent my head to the lectern, clasped my hands, and prayed in a loud voice, O, God, motivate thy handmaiden, Cindy, who is in arrears on her assignments; also endow her teacher with patience and long-suffering. Amen. The students roared and I felt great. Athletics at Weber Lee Sather The exact origins of interscholastic athletics at Weber Stake Academy are not known. It can reasonably be surmised that the program evolved from frequent inter-class sports competition to contests against other schools, particularly in basketball and baseball. By 1902-1903, however, Weber had adopted Purple and White as its school colors and had organized a basketball team. In addition to games against Ogden High School, Weber also soon began playing other LDS institutions in the state - Brigham Young Academy of Provo, LDS University of Salt Lake, and Brigham Young College of Logan. In 1908-1909, Benjamin E. Harker, the academys coach and first athletic director, chaired a committee that established the first official high school basketball league in the state. Weber thereafter generally fielded competitive teams in regular season divisional play and won the high school state championship in 1910, 1913, and again in 1919. Several individuals played important roles in the early development of Weber athletics. Thomas McKay is the first known teacher-coach at the school. Sylvester D. Bradford fulfilled the same task from 1905-1906 to 1907-1908. Harker served at the school from 1908-1909 to 1911-1912. William McKay coached at Weber Academy during 1912-1913 and the state championship year of 1913-1914. Malcolm Watson, who had played for the academy from 1910 to 1913, returned to coach at the school from 1914-1915 through 1922-1923. He therefore bridged the gap from Weber as a high school to a junior college and also introduced football to Webers athletic program. The physical facilities available for Weber athletics changed greatly during this period. Through the 1904-1905 school year basketball games were played in the Lester Park Pavilion, an open court available only during daylight hours. The teams first uniforms, baseball pants and turtleneck Lee Sather is a Professor of History and has been at Weber State College since 1970. He has been a member of the Athletic Board for three years and served as its chair in 1987-88. He wishes to thank Merlon L. Stevenson, Gary Crompton, Mike Price, James Cartwright, Dick Gwinn, Carol Westmoreland, Sports Information Director Brad Larsen, and Assistant Sports Information Director Nan Holyoak for their assistance in this project.