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== Queen's Grease Pole Climb == | == Queen's Grease Pole Climb == | ||
[[File:1956-10-16 First Grease Pole Climb.jpg|thumb|150px|Photo of the first Grease Pole Climb at Queen's, which took place on October 12, 1956.]] | |||
Queen's University engineering students organize an annual Grease Pole Climb during orientation week around September of each year. In general, the incoming engineering class (named "Sci's") have a certain amount of time to climb the pole and retrieve a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tam_o'_shanter_(cap) tam] (a traditional Scottish hat also worn by Queen's students as a traditional symbol) placed at the top of the pole. The pole itself is thickly coated with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanolin lanolin] and placed in a pit, sometimes watered down to form a mud pit. If the class does not complete the climb within a certain amount of time, upper year students and/or alumni would be enlisted to assist in the effort. | Queen's University engineering students organize an annual Grease Pole Climb during orientation week around September of each year. In general, the incoming engineering class (named "Sci's") have a certain amount of time to climb the pole and retrieve a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tam_o'_shanter_(cap) tam] (a traditional Scottish hat also worn by Queen's students as a traditional symbol) placed at the top of the pole. The pole itself is thickly coated with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanolin lanolin] and placed in a pit, sometimes watered down to form a mud pit. If the class does not complete the climb within a certain amount of time, upper year students and/or alumni would be enlisted to assist in the effort. | ||
=== History of Queen's Grease Pole Climb === | === History of Queen's Grease Pole Climb === | ||
The first recorded Grease Pole Climb at Queen's took place | The first recorded Grease Pole Climb at Queen's University took place on Friday October 12, 1956 at 4:30pm at the practice football field, as part of initiation for the incoming Sci '60 class. The ''Queen's Journal'' that week recorded that a "tam was placed on top of a 20-foot pole liberally smeared with grease. If the tam was removed in two minutes the wearing of tams was to be discontinued. The final time was eight minutes, ten seconds."<ref name="Journal_1956-10-16">""... Who Through Coventry" Rode Into Queen's Stadium". ''Queen's Journal'' (October 16, 1956), p. 1 ([https://archive.org/details/queensjournal84/page/n27 Archived]).</ref> | ||
However, after the Varsity Stadium goalposts were taken again by Queen's in October 1958, it | The idea for a grease pole climb apparently came to the Queen's engineering orientation committee from one of its organizers and originated in an old high school tradition.<ref name="Goulem">Brigid Goulem, "[https://www.queensjournal.ca/story/2016-08-01/in-focus/grease-pole-a-history/ Reaching for the tam: An almost-comprehensive history of the grease pole tradition]". ''Queen's Journal'' (August 2, 2016).</ref> According to those present at the 1955 Varsity Stadium football game and the first grease pole climb of 1956, the first grease pole used in 1956 was not from the goalposts from Varsity Stadium at all, but was a taller pole with a narrowing top.<ref name="Goulem"/> This is likely accurate, since Queen's was not in possession of the Varsity Stadium goalposts in the fall of 1956 as they were taken by Western students within a week of Queen's theft and returned to Varsity Stadium in November of 1955. The ''Queen's Journal'', which extensively reported on the goalpost incident in 1955, did not in its 1956 article about the first grease pole climb at all mention the provenance of the pole, although the photograph accompanying the article is not conclusive of the matter.<ref name="Journal_1956-10-16" /> | ||
However, after the Varsity Stadium goalposts were taken again by Queen's in October 1958, it may be that the following years' grease poles were made from parts of those goalposts. | |||
Early grease poles were covered with axle grease, although beginning in around 1988, lanolin (a much thicker grease) began to be used because Queen's did not have permits to dispose of the non-biodegradable industrial waste from using axle grease. Lanolin had the side effect of being significantly more slippery than axle grease and made the climb more difficult.<ref>https://robburke.net/greasepole/LegendWeb/Legends/Ascents/events.htm#sci60</ref> | Early grease poles were covered with axle grease, although beginning in around 1988, lanolin (a much thicker grease) began to be used because Queen's did not have permits to dispose of the non-biodegradable industrial waste from using axle grease. Lanolin had the side effect of being significantly more slippery than axle grease and made the climb more difficult.<ref>https://robburke.net/greasepole/LegendWeb/Legends/Ascents/events.htm#sci60</ref> | ||