Sing!

Editor’s Note: For now over 75 years, Baylor Line has been publishing vivid storytelling from across the Baylor Family. I don’t think our archives full of deep, inspirational features should live solely on shelves, so we are bringing them back to life in BL Classics. Many things have changed about Sing since 1979: the absolute $4,500 budget, the very few minutes allowed for pre-performance set up, the limit on practice hours allowed, and the judging criteria. But a few things have stayed the same, namely “the KOT turn.” Relive your time under the bright lights with this Classic article from June 1979.

Seconds click by in the electric darkness behind the thick curtain of Waco Hall – not the Monday morning Waco Hall where freshmen write English themes during Forum or the Wednesday evening Waco Hall where students sing hymns during Serendipity, but the once-a-year setting of All University Sing, the Waco Hall not so very far from Broadway.

This year, three nights during March, the curtain rose before the usual sellout crowds as the Baylor Student Union presented fourteen campus social organizations in the twenty-sixth annual All University Sing. Once again Joe College dipped into the greasepaint and slipped into glow-in-the-dark gloves and felt the bright lights and butterflies of the theater. This year’s glittering show proved to be even a bit more unbelievable than last year’s and, as a veteran of the first Sing in 1953 said, “It was a real shocker compared to the Sing I knew.”

The crowd of less than twenty people that attended that first show certainly didn’t merit the wobbly knees and sweaty palms today’s packed audiences bring about. Three loving cups were awarded that year to the top three of the eleven acts which were judged primarily on the percentage of the membership participating. Each club and class in the show presented two songs and a Baylor spirit song, and during the intermissions the audience joined in singing popular songs.

That year the Atheneans (now Kappa Kappa Gamma) sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”; and dressed in dark slacks, white shirts and black ties, the Baylor Chamber of Commerce sang “I Had a Dream, Dear.”

Brady Justice ’53 harmonized with the Chambermen that year in a barbershop quartet. He said that then the show was “literally a choral group performance” and he was “absolutely astounded” when he returned twenty years after his graduation to watch Sing.

This year Brady watched his son, David, perform with Sigma Alpha Epsilon (chartered as Alpha Phi Omega). When asked if he thought his father would be interested in being in Sing if he were in school today, David chuckled a little and said he thought so, “but I can’t exactly picture him dancing.”

Mrs. R. L. Mathis, then assistant to the dean of the Union Building and now director of the Student Union Building, first suggested Sing in a letter written in March, 1953. She wrote that “a production of this type would be a good thing for us to have at Baylor as an all-campus activity, in which all organizations could take part.” Mrs. Mathis attended Southern Methodist University, where, she said, they had a production somewhat similar to the Sing she had in mind, but without the choreography and detailed costuming that have since made our show “the best Sing in the country.”

Through the years “Baylor’s big jam session,” as Mrs. Mathis once described Sing, has become one of the highlights of the spring semester. Each year a few more dollars and rehearsal hours go into the show and the competition gets a little stiffer; but according to Ruben Santos, associate director of student activities, the main objective is to present a show that’s fun for the students involved and the audience alike. This kind of attitude was evident in a list of final instructions for Sing in 1955, when the last bit of advice was “Have a real crazy time, like; but keep cool, no matter.” Cash awards that year were $50, $25, and $15.

Preparation for Sing usually begins for a club more than a year in advance.

In 1964 admission was first charged for Sing and tickets sold out quickly. By 1966 some settings were more elaborate, although a few clubs still sang on risers. The themes of the acts ranged from a take-off on television’s Batman and robin series to the comic strip character “Peanuts” to a more serious medley of songs about patriotism. Prize money ranged from $50 to $125.

By February of 1967 the waiting list for tickets to the March 3 production of Sing had grown to 380 persons. That year the Atheneans won first place with a skit on women and the draft, concluding that women are stronger than men. Themes like that one, which reflected current social issues; patriotic topics; and new and imaginative attention-getting gimmicks have become increasingly important ingredients for successful Sing acts.

The tribute to Walt Disney done this year by Kappa Kappa Gamma wasn’t a new idea; but since it was presented in an imaginative, well-done manner, it was a hit. The changing attitudes toward women in today’s society were the subject of a skit presented by Zeta Tau Alpha this year in their first Sing act. Unlike the 1967 Athenean skit, the Zetas’ act portrayed the versatility of women.

Tradition and a few new gimmicks (like Delta Delta Delta’s lighted sparklers and Delta Gamma’s female drum soloist) were combined with months of hard work to produce a nearly professional show this year. The Saturday before Sing an elimination show was presented by eighteen clubs before a packed auditorium of club members. Four were cut from the actual Sing performance to shorten the length of the show. Students stood in line before dawn to buy tickets to watch the remaining fourteen clubs perform in front of judges. The top nine clubs will perform their acts once more Homecoming weekend at “Pigskin Revue,” and the number ten act will be presented at “After Dark” during parent’s weekend.

Sigma Chi’s theme was “Goin’ Places” and they certainly did when they won first place in this year’s show. Using a train station as their setting, they presented a medley of such songs as “Rollin’ Along,” “Sentimental Journey,” and “Ain’t No Mountain.” A Lariat article had predicted the group’s clear vocals, elaborate dance steps and unique props would bring hem success. A member of the fraternity said they won with an “indefinable spark.”

Standing ovations and thunderous applause followed every performance of “Studio 5400 B.C.,” performed by Kappa Sigma. A take-off on Steve Martin’s popular song, “King Tut,” the act was low on expenses but, as a member of another club said, good humored and the type of thing that makes you feel good after you watch it. Audience response proved it to be the most entertaining act of the evening.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon (chartered as Alpha Phi Omega), a fraternity which consistently ranks in the top five among the winning Sing acts, did not place this year and will not perform Homecoming weekend. Mrs. Mathis called SAE’s loss “a big tragedy” and “a big surprise.” Using a stage band, the group performed Beatle songs in “Return to Sgt. Pepper” before an album-cover backdrop. A member of SAE said he hopes next year the administration will introduce the judges, who have always been kept anonymous. He said club members at first thought the judging was unfair, “but after the initial show we realized we got a lot out of it even without placing.”

Preparation for sing usually begins for a club more than a year in advance when a member of the club is chosen or elected to serve as Sing chairman. Sing chairmen begin to turn in song ideas for next year to Mrs. Mathis, work on choreography, and attend planning sessions with other club members and Student Union directors soon after each year’s performances.

Rehearsals began this year for some clubs soon after Christmas break. Jonathan Ford, Moody junior, was Sing chariman for Alpha Tau Omega (chartered as circle K). He said his club spent not less than 36 hours a week in rehearsals; and, as Sing chairman, he worked many more hours than that. Besides his Sing responsibilities, he carried a course load of 18 hours. He said that the “fun they had in ten minutes under the lights mad it all worthwhile and I wish everybody could go through it once. It shows you don’t have to be a perfect performer to perform.”

Each club has thirteen carefully timed minutes to get their backdrop and props in place, perform, and clear the stage. The boys are faster than the girls, Mrs. Mathis said, “but the girls are getting better.”

There are two basic smiles you see during Sing season, Ford said; one comes with the make-up and one comes with a good audience. “The excitement is indescribable. You don’t have to lean on your memory after twelve weeks of practice,” Ford said. “You know the steps unconsciously.” The audience makes a total difference and you’re aware of their reaction, he said. “When I heard someone yell ‘Go Jonathan’ before our act this year, it helped me tremendously.”

The men of Alpha Tau Omega weren’t the only ones devoting themselves to their act. Jonathan Ford’s mother, Mrs. Marion Ford, stitched together sixty red, blue, and green satin shirts in two weeks. She said she loved every minute of it and “to see them perform was payday.”

The judges, however, weren’t as impressed. The ATO’s didn’t make the top ten and won’t perform this year at Pigskin.

“I expected fourth or fifth place,” Ford said, “but I never promised the guys we’d win. We wanted to walk out as the closest knit group in Sing; and after the judges’ announcement, although it hurt, I realized we’d accomplished what we’d worked for.”

Regardless of whether a club ends up with and act tat brings them first place or first cut, many teachers, parents, and students are beginningv to question if Sing is really worth all the effort, time, energy and money the clubs are expending.

Clubs spend anywhere from $1,000 to $4,000 on costumes, musicians, props and backdrops and don’t always break even. Money from ticket sales is divided among the groups after the Student Union pays its expenses. The clubs also may receive cash prizes – $300 for first prize and $15 less for each succeeding place. But if an act doesn’t receive a high score from the judges, it often means the club will go into debt.

Sing judges have always been kept secret because, Mrs. Mathis said, “the students wouldn’t know who they were anyway and I don’t see any point in introducing them. Ruben Santos said that judges are identified by number and their qualifications are given to the Sing chairmen. There are nine judges, three each night.

Mrs. Mathis said that judges usually aren’t professional people but student union directors from across the nation. “Once in a while,” she said, “we’ll have a Baylor ex who wasn’t a club member.” In past years judges have come from New York, Washington, Virginia, Boston, Alabama and other places, usually outside of Texas. “This was the first year, she said, “that students ever acted like they wanted the judges introduced.”

In an April 3 letter to the Lariat editors, David Brothers, Houston sophomore, said “Any participant in any Sing, past or present, will admit that the competition is getting greater and fiercer each year and that professional judges are desperately needed.”

There are currently no limits placed by the administration on rehearsal time or expenses. Mrs. Mathis says she goes to rehearsals and “tells the kids what looks good and what doesn’t,” but “we don’t give them very much advice – they don’t need it.” She said her job was mainly to coordinate and be sure everything runs smoothly.

“Twenty years from now who’ll remember an economics test? I will remember that we won Sing.”

Grades sometimes become secondary during weeks of grueling practice. One professor commented that it was easy to tell which of her students were in Sing because they had such a tough time staying awake.

“The amount of energy spend on Sing is criminal,” according to Greg Barnes ’76, former Baylor yell leader and presently field director for the alumni association and a coordinator for Baylor Nationwide. A four-year Sing veteran, Barnes said he things rehearsal time needs to be limited to cut down the sacrifice of grades and relationships so many students put themselves through. Students aren’t really aware of how Sing affects them, he said. “It’s hard to be in the forest and get out and look at the damage.” An alumnus of Kappa Omega Tau, he said the real benefit of Sing is “in the unity that comes from getting to know people in a way only adversity brings.”

“I’d do it all again,” Barnes said; “I put aside grades, but twenty years from now who’ll remember an economics test? I will remember that we won Sing.”

Ann Miller, an associate professor of English at Baylor who sponsored a women’s club for ten years, says she has ambiguous feelings about Sing. “I understand and am sympathetic to Sing, and I fell it is a valid and commendable thing and an excellent public relations presentation for Baylor; but in a way I believe the university is defeating its own purpose and that Sing has gotten out of control,” she said. “It’s like a bureaucracy that eddies out and out – it’s hard to bring it back into control.” She said she feels limits are in order, and she’d like to see the administration address itself to the clubs and give them some perspective.

“The university expects participation from the clubs and they must feel left out if they don’t take part,” Mrs. Miller said.

Others said they felt that the administration pushed Sing too much. Ford said he thought clubs would like to see a little less stress placed on Sing. “With their more relaxed act, Kappa Sigma this year proved that maybe all our work wasn’t necessary,” he said. “Sing doesn’t have have to be what it is. I’d like to hear the administration say, ‘Listen, this is all just for you to have fun.'”

Kappa Kappa Gamma’s Sing chairman said she thought that having different categories for different size clubs might help the expense problem but that for her sorority “each year pays for the next year.” She said she had few problems with Sing and her grades did not suffer but may even have improved. “I didn’t agree with lots of the judging, but that is the risk you have to take,” she said.

Another member of that club said that she, too, felt that Sing was good experience, but that it was too expensive and “about to go over our heads.” She said most of the money they put into dues now goes into Rush and Sing.

Other reviewers felt the show needed more variety. A feature of the Kappa Sigma act was the “KOT turn”; they brought applause and laughter from the audience as they parodied this step, which is frequent throughout Sing and especially in the Kappa Omega Tau act.

“I felt like I was watching fourteen half-times of drill teams,” said Joseph Mooney ’55. He and his wife went to Sing this year for the first time since his graduation. A couple of the acts were very good, he said, but many of the acts were “too slick.” Mooney’s son, Mitchell, was Sing chairman for Pi Kappa Alpha. This was his fraternity’s first time to enter the competition, and they were cut during the Saturday eliminations. The elder Mooney said he felt Sing would be better if it were simpler, and he didn’t feel it was worth all the heartbreak, pain and sacrifice. “I’d like to see Sing go back to the old days,” he said.

A member of Delta Upsilon, a fraternity that did not participate in Sing this year, said that “until more equitable judging procedures are established and financial limitations are placed on the clubs’ spendings, I feel it will become more and more difficult for new organizations to become involved.”

“If you can’t spare the time and don’t have the ability, you ought not to do it. No one is forced into it,” Ruben Santos said. “If I didn’t think it worthwhile, I wouldn’t be involved.”

When asked if he thought Sing had gotten out of hand, Santos said, “No. I think it’s getting more expensive, but so is everything else. Perhaps we need to reconsider some of the rationale – it is to provide a show that can be enjoyed by students and audience alike. The experiences and leadership are very educational because of the commitments involved,” he said.

“We have Sing because students want Sing and it’s grown to be a traditional way of life at Baylor,” Santos said. “I think it’s something we can all be proud of in spite of all the little difficulties. Winning in Sing is like winning at anything else in life,” he said. “It depends on creativity and ingenuity – if you build up a winning attitude, you’ll win.”

Even with all the problems and disenchantment, most of those involved agree that Sing is something that should make Baylor students feel proud. Sing stars are quick to tell about the pride, enthusiasm, and team spirit they felt during those long, hungry, sleepy hours of rehearsal and those few glorious minutes on stage.

“It hurts to be a loser,” Mrs. Mathis said, “and it always hurts, and there’ll always be one group it hurts more than any other. They’ll be awfully blue for about two weeks, but then they’ll just wipe it off and try harder the next year.”