93 Years Ago
The September 24, 1931 Colorado Transcript described a series of raids conducted by students of football rivals Denver University and the Colorado School of Mines.
The fray began on a Friday, when an airplane passed over Golden and dropped postcards saying “To Hell With Mines” on a Mines military formation. That evening, a statue on the D.U. campus received a coat of paint. This may have been done by Mines students, “but the action was disavowed by President M. F. Coolbaugh and Student President Arthur Bennet.”
Tuesday morning, a raiding party attempted to blow up the M on Mt. Zion. The explosion awakened townspeople, but did little damage to the M.
Tuesday night, more dynamite was set off near the Mines campus. This might have been done by D.U. students, or could have been Mines students trying to incriminate the other school.
That same night, the county sheriff’s department found 11 sticks of dynamite and 50 feet of fuse–which had burned, but failed to set off the dynamite–near the M. Mines students tried to catch the culprits by barricading local highways, which just got them in trouble with the Sheriff.
At that point, both schools were under threat from the Rocky Mountain Conference, saying their upcoming game would be cancelled if they didn’t knock it off.
The next week’s Transcript (10/1/1931) stated that all previous attendance records were broken at the Mines-DU game. Sadly, Mines lost, 26-0.
Many thanks to the Golden Rotary Club for sponsoring Golden History Moments for the month of September.
