The story of Apple Day

By Randy Roberts
University Archivist

Apple Day is a tradition, unique to Pittsburg State University, which dates back to 1907. In was in March of that year when the Kansas Legislature passed an appropriation bill that funded the construction of what is now Russ Hall. The appropriation for the building was crucial to the institution’s survival. When Pittsburg State University opened its doors on September 8, 1903, as the State Manual Training Normal, 54 students and five faculty members were meeting in the Central School building, a building owned by the city of Pittsburg, located on the northwest corner of Fifth and Walnut. Enrollment grew rapidly to over 300 within three years. The need for a larger building was acute.

Senator Ebenezer F. Porter from Pittsburg led the campaign for a building appropriation in the State Senate while Crawford County representatives Fred Wheeler and J. W. Montee worked in the House of Representatives. Further assistance came from Russell S. Russ, the principal of the college; from members of the faculty; and from community leaders who lobbied on the floor of the legislature in Topeka. The Pittsburg Daily Headlight reported that while a western Kansas legislator harangued against the Pittsburg appropriation, citizens of Pittsburg were at work on the floor and when the orator finished he found they had done a better job than he had. The vote in the Senate was favorable and the vote in the House was 77 to 8 in favor of the building appropriation.

When the lobbyists returned to Pittsburg, the celebration was underway. On the morning of March 4th a group of students met Principal Russ as he emerged from the Pittsburg Post Office. Russ was gathered onto the shoulders of the students and carried some five blocks to the steps of the Central School where he was met by a jubilant faculty and student body. Later that evening, the students paraded up and down Broadway carrying banners, drums, and Chinese lanterns. As the story of the appropriation victory was told and retold, an interesting feature concerned apples. Sometime prior, the Kansas Legislature had created an Apple Committee. The committee’s responsibilities included levying fines against anyone other than a legislator found on the House floor without permission. After the appropriation measure to build Russ Hall was passed, the Apple Committee fined Clarence Price, the mayor of Pittsburg, one barrel of apples for his lobbying efforts.

In the spirit of the celebration, a motion was made by the Pittsburg students at a school assembly to fine the faculty members a barrel of apples. In those days students were penalized for truancy. Because members of the faculty left their classrooms in order to attend the legislative session in Topeka, the students reasoned that faculty members should be penalized for their absence.

Twelve months later, on March 6, 1908, classes were dismissed for the entire day in honor of the first Apple Day (officially titled Commemoration Day). During an afternoon program in the assembly room of the Central School building, the students once again fined the faculty a barrel of apples. Thus began the unique, annual, tradition at Pittsburg State of the teachers bringing apples for their students.

---Pitt State---