DOWN MEMORY LANE
Touchdowns
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ALUMNI MEMOIRS BRING ROSE’S PAST TO LIFE
From strolling through downtown Terre Haute in a gorilla suit to record-setting plays on the gridiron, two recently published alumni memoirs offer colorful windows into Rose-Hulman’s past. In one, “Rose Poly and Me,” 1959 civil engineering alumnus Carl (Rocky) Herakovich describes a hardcharging football star diving into a muddy end zone to score a record-setting touchdown, etching his name in school lore and NCAA records for all time.
The other memoir, “Our Mascot was a Fire Truck,” 2006 mechanical engineering alumnus Ben Vosmek reveals the inside scoop on one of the best-known pranks ever committed on campus—the filling of a Resident Assistant’s Jeep with thousands of taco sauce packets. There’s also a score of other examples of what can happen when engineering students let off steam from their studies.
“I had a lot of fun writing it,” says Herakovich, the author of three academic textbooks as an emeritus professor of civil engineering at the University of Virginia. “I wrote it as much for my descendants as for the people at Rose.”
NO ANIMAL HOUSE LIFESTYLE Working for approximately five years, Vosmek wrote his book, in part, as an antidote to the stereotype of college and, especially, fraternity life that’s perpetuated by Hollywood. “I wanted to show that you can have a great education and a great fraternity experience, and it doesn’t have to include any of those negative connotations,” he says. “Rose Poly and Me” takes you from Rocky’s upbringing as a second-generation American growing up outside of Chicago through his career as a talented studentathlete, and finally to his days coaching and teaching at the institute for the 1962 and 1963 seasons. It features remarkably detailed descriptions of plays on the gridiron, including each of the four touchdowns he scored at Earlham College in his final game. Those scores helped secure an undefeated season for Rose in the fall of 1958 (the last in school history). That gave Herakovich the points needed to be the top-scoring player in the NCAA that season with 168 points. His 21 points per game average set a national record that would stand for 30 years. He was named a Little College All-American by the Associated Press and his name is still scattered throughout Rose-Hulman’s football record books today. Vosmek’s book includes stunts such as his appearance on the sidelines of an Indiana State University basketball game wearing a gorilla suit. Then, there’s the time he wrapped every item in a fellow student’s dorm room in tin foil. Other antics, that Vosmek calls “neardeath stupidity,” leave you wondering how he survived
Pi Kappa Alpha's fire truck makes several campus appearances each school year, as do several pranks by students.
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STORY BY ARTHUR FOULKES
