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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 10/2/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
August 1, 2002 All the shoes drop: Storm downs UWGB ritual By Paul Srubas
It was the Shoe Tree, upon whose branches rested one of the few established traditions at the youthful University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Students — mostly graduating seniors — tossed shoes into the branches of the 60-foot oak, leaving them to dangle there until either the wind or rotting laces caused them to tumble to the ground like ripe fruit.
Now the Shoe Tree is itself the victim of rot and wind — it tumbled in high winds in a storm Tuesday night to reveal the rot that had attacked it at its 150-year-old core.
"Everyone had the same reaction: 'Oh, no!'" said Grant Winslow, director of student life for the university. "It's like when a family loses a pet. People are stopping people in the hallways and saying, 'Did you hear about the Shoe Tree?'"
The campus lost other trees, too, but none with the might or myth of the Shoe Tree, which stood amid the college's oldest dormitories.
"It was a nice tradition," said 1995 graduate Jenny Osborn, Appleton, whose shoes likely dropped long ago from the branches. "It was a custom already when I started there in 1991. I don't know how long it's been there."
"There's a few stories about the origins of the tradition," said Nathan Vandervest, Luxemburg, a senior majoring in human biology. "One is that the seniors throw them there because they're leaving their 'soles' behind. I don't know who started that or when, but that's one story.
"The other is that this is a big campus and that students were wearing their soles out walking back and forth, so they'd throw their shoes up there."
Whatever its origins, the practice became a student tradition that even the administration perpetuated: The tree is featured in the college's "virtual tour," on its Web site at www.uwgb.edu.
"Many students claim it's a ritual to signify the end of your career at UW-Green Bay, and to mark the beginning of life in the real world," according to the virtual tour-guide.
The shoes, like acorns, didn't roll far from the tree when it came down. More than 80 were in a pile Wednesday morning as maintenance workers chain-sawed the tree into logs and rolled them into a front-end loader.
Sneakers made up the majority, but there also were a few pairs of dress shoes and one pair of work boots. Many had the names of their former owners written on the soles or across the toes. Some had labels affixed that included names, majors, year of graduation and occasional celebratory or inspirational comments.
"Keep swinging," wrote Mike Vuola, history major, class of '02.
"I made it!" wrote Nicki Enz, class of 2001.
The shoes likely will be discarded, as they always were when they dropped from the branches through the years, Winslow said.
Now that the tree is down, students and alumni are waiting for the other shoe to drop: what to replace it with?
Students and alumni have made several suggestions about other trees on campus that could serve as the new Shoe Tree, Winslow said.
And Osborn, who runs a disc jockey business with her husband, UWGB alum Eric Osborn, hopes to sponsor a benefit dance, with proceeds going toward planting a new tree.
"It might be something to bring people together," she said. "Even if you could only get 50 people and they each donate $20, it'd be a pretty nice tree."
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