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Sept. 1, 2007

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The Bell

As the Trinity receiver snatches the ball in the air and races across the goal line, the crowd explodes at E. M. Stevens Stadium. The band plays, students sing the fight song, PA announcer James Hill whips the crowd into a frenzy, and the Victory Bell rings in the score.

Well, while we have had a band in the past, it was more like a jazz band. And even though it didn’t march, it was a band – our band. Currently, there are not enough students available or interested in reviving the band. We actually have an old fight song too, and no, it isn’t “Eye of the Tiger.”

We still have the Victory Bell, and like a lonely mistress waiting for her sailor to return from a two-year voyage from the sea, she sits and waits. Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic. But the Bell does sit, under a layer of dust, at the Trinity swimming pool, where it is stored just off the men’s locker room, waiting to ring anew.

When the old Student Association and Residence Hall Association merged in the early 1990’s, the new, streamlined student government, the Association of Student Representatives, emerged. In 1994, the first ASR President, Mark Montalbano, was single-minded in his quest to bring a bell to Trinity. This bell would ring throughout campus on momentous occasions, such as any Tiger victory – home or away – or when Will Maddox would discover a new campus restroom.

Montalbano, with help from Student Affairs Assistant VP Thurman Adkins and Physical Plant Director John Greene went on a quest to find a bell that would make Trinity proud. This was before Google and E-Bay, so they had to do research the old-fashioned way, like talking to people. After many calls, they located a bell for sale in Pennsylvania.

They struck gold (or cast iron metal) when they found a bell that was forged in 1869 – the same year that Trinity University was founded. The bell would be the perfect fit. It was paid for with student money and shipped to campus, arriving in the summer of 1995.

The University found a blacksmith on the south side to construct the cart the Bell rests on today. When it was brought to campus, John Greene and I were anxious to show the Bell off to Vice President Grissom, so we hitched it to Greene’s golf cart and commenced on a journey up the hill. Mr. (Unsafe at Any Speed) Green took a fast corner just past Storch and we heard the Bell ring for the first time as it crashed to the sidewalk when the bell and cart flipped over.

It was not the glamorous start we envisioned. It soon made its appearance at the first Trinity football game and Montalbano returned to campus to see his dream realized.

After a few years, though, the Bell went silent. Students lost the interest and passion for this ritual, which required that someone actually tend the Bell. For a short time we got groups to tend to jump-start the tradition. That also hit a bump when the Chi Delta Tau fraternity members rang the Bell, and ASR Senator/Delt Andrew Coulton forgot that his hand shouldn’t be inside the Bell when it was ringing -- and broke his finger. The Ninja Community Initiative floor/IM team next took the Bell’s helm and since their graduation it has remained silent.

Unhappy with spirit and traditions at Trinity? Think about volunteering to ring your Bell. Otherwise, we may have to draft students for a marching band.

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