During our annual stint on the Great Day to Be a Bobcat livestream yesterday, we shared a few CatFacts — fun morsels of information — with viewers, which we now share with you.
Great Day 2025 was another great success for Bates and the Bates Fund: 2,499 donors made gifts totaling $1,247,332 — both representing increases over 2024, with a few more mailed gifts still to arrive.
The annual Bates giving day is named after the famous Bates cheer, “It’s a great day to be a Bobcat,” coined by the late, beloved football and lacrosse coach Web Harrison ’63.
On with the CatFacts!
100 years ago: The beginning of chemistry research
Under the legendary Walter Lawrance, Bates chemistry students engaged in research projects for the first time.
The new opportunity was offered to second-semester seniors, reported the Daily Kennebec Journal in March 1925.
“The fundamental idea underlying this policy is to enable the students to think for themselves, to develop resource and initiative, and give them confidence in their ability to handle problems in chemistry.”
A 2025 philosophy thesis gets lucky
A senior is now working toward completion of an honors thesis that suggests that “authentic self-respect must acknowledge the role of luck in our lives.”
True self-respect, including a complete understanding of the self, can’t be created without acknowledging the impact of our environment, including luck.
100 years ago: An immigrant nicknamed Zippy
Euterpe Boukis Dukakis, Class of 1925, was the first Greek-American woman in the U.S. to go away to college. In March 1925, she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Born in Larissa, Greece, and coming to Bates from the Greek immigrant community in Haverhill, Mass., she earned the nickname “Zippy” at Bates.
Besides academic prowess, she was also a cheerleader, “a leader of songs and cheers, marshaling us into Hathorn and the rallies,” said the Mirror yearbook.
Her immigrant story was referenced in a recent Boston Globe profile of her son, Michael, a former Massachusetts governor and Democratic candidate for president in 1988.
50 years ago: Bates’ first NCAA hosting gig
In March 1975, Bates announced that the college would host the following year’s NCAA Skiing Championships, with Alpine events at Sunday River in Newry and Nordic events at Black Mountain in Rumford, home of the venerable Chisholm Ski Club.
It was a triumph for head coach Bob Flynn, who had resurrected the dormant program.
60 years ago: Notes to the actors
In Feburary 1965, the Robinson Players put on a production of Antigone, directed by the legendary Bates theater professor, Lavinia Schaeffer.
“The entire presentation was carried on in the Greek tradition, and patrons were asked to refrain from applauding, but a few did at the end of the play,” reported The Lewiston Daily Sun.
Staged several years before the construction of Schaeffer Theatre, the play was presented in the “Little Theater” located in Hathorn Hall.
75 years ago: Tips for the boys, like don’t mansplain
In 1950, newspapers around the country ran a column by a nationally syndicated columnist, Dr. Ralph Habas, reporting on the results of a survey conducted by a Bates psychology class.
According to Habas, the survey sought to “find out what suggestions might be most helpful to young males who hadn’t had too much experience with the fair sex.”
Habas organized the findings as a series of “don’t do this” tips, including:
- “Flirt or kid with the waitress when you have a girl with you”
- “Blow your automobile horn instead of coming to the door when calling for a girl”
- “Clean your fingernails or use toothpicks in public”
- “Put sticky hands on the back of a girl’s dress when dancing”
- “Attribute all bad driving to women”
- “Indulge in fast or spectacular dancing without asking if your partner enjoys it”
- “Consider the opinions of your sex vastly superior to those of the fair sex.”
60 years ago: Ali’s knockout remembered in a big way
A 10-foot bronze statue of boxer Muhammad Ali, honoring his victory in Lewiston 60 years ago, will be dedicated in Lewiston in May.
On May 25, 1965, Muhammad Ali knocked out Sonny Liston to win the heavyweight boxing title. The unlikely location of the fight was The Colisée, then named the Central Maine Youth Center.
The Lewiston Evening Journal sports editor, Norman Thomas, was spot-on when he reported the next day that the fight, though only 1 minute long, would be remembered as great because it would give “food for argument for years to come.”
Ali’s knockout punch is famously known as the “phantom punch” — neither Liston or his fans saw it, said the Evening Journal.
Lake Andrews and its denizens
Muskrats, Ondatra zibethicus, are among the many animals that call Lake Andrews their home.
A semi-aquatic rodent, muskrats are good for the Puddle because their feeding habits prevent shoreline overgrowth. This guy was seen swimming (and ultimately diving) on April 11, 2024.
A 2025 economics thesis gets in-personal
A Bates economics major is now completing an honors thesis that looks at whether employers are biased when it comes to evaluating in-person work and remote work.
That is, might employers view in-person work as better than remote work, even when the actual work quality is exactly the same? Stay tuned.
100 years ago: Digging it
On June 21, 1925, Bates broke ground for the Gray Athletic Building.
Here, Bates Trustee Hervey Cowell, Class of 1875, joins the ceremony. He was principal of Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Mass., at the time. The first spadeful of dirt was turned over by President Clifton Daggett Gray.
Categories Academic Life Alumni
