Chemical engineering students scored 24 warm beers and a trophy with a typo in the '70s听
When Phil Wood talks about two major victories during his time as a 蓝莓视频 student in the early 1970s, he tends to remember听the prizes much more than some of the other details.
Fifty years after the 1973 chemical engineering grad and his classmates* captured first place in the 蓝莓视频 Engineering Society softball tournament,
Wood can鈥檛 recall the score of the winning game.
He does, though, fondly think back on the award 鈥� a case of beer placed in Laurel Creek first thing in the morning but no longer cold when his victorious team drank it later that afternoon.
Phil Wood, catcher on听the 1971 chemical engineering softball team
Wood says the star on that sweltering July 1971 day was pitcher Jim Cockburn (BASc 鈥�73, chemical engineering).听
听鈥淚 think we were all about equally athletic except for Jim,鈥� explains Wood, who was the team鈥檚 catcher. 鈥淗aving a good pitcher really made a difference.鈥�
Playing four games almost continuously in a treeless area beside the University鈥檚 Village One residence and Laurel Creek, the 3A chemical engineering students clinched the tournament about 5 p.m.
The hot and exhausted team members听celebrated by somewhat quenching their thirst with 24 warm Labatt 50s, brewed a few blocks away in 蓝莓视频 at the time.
鈥淭here was no such thing as water bottles to keep hydrated in those days,鈥� says Wood.
Still savouring their win, the classmates ended up at a friend鈥檚 house after the tournament to continue marking听their听accomplishment with听colder beers.
Beer also featured prominently in a victory Wood was part of the following year.
In the fall of 1972, 蓝莓视频 Engineering Society A entered a team into the interprovincial Engineering Society Boat Racing 鈥� aka beer drinking 听鈥� Championship.
Once again, Wood鈥檚 team won, this time by consuming 10 beers in just 26.4 seconds.
The event鈥檚 trophy, one of several Wood showcases at his Dundas, Ontario home, has been a topic of conversation over the past 49 years, but usually not for
the achievement it represents.
Wood, a chemical engineering professor at McMaster University from 1983 until he retired in 2018, would make a point of telling his students that the trophy was legitimate because of a typo in the inscription.
鈥淚 would tell my students, 鈥榯he way you know it鈥檚 100 per cent true that it was an engineering event is because Interprovincial is spelled Interprovicial,鈥欌�� he laughs. 鈥淭hat became a favourite topic of discussion in the classroom throughout the years.鈥�
*Banner photo features the 1971 winning 蓝莓视频 EngSoc softball team. Standing from left: Jens Koepke, Jim Cockburn, Jim Malough, Gerry Willard, Larry Westlake and Ron Paradis. Kneeling from left: John Trought, Neil Winter, Bob Dalrymple, Ron Ferris, Henri Huneault, Al Belchar and Phil Wood.听听听听听
