Shortly after Trinity’s move to the Waxahachie campus around 1902, the tradition of the freshman beanie hit Trinity’s campus.
By the 1920s, they had become a fully fledged rite of initiation. First-year students were asked to wear these beanies with their name and class sign sewn above the bill. Upper-class students, on the other hand, were asked to wear name tags of designated colors representing the sophomore, junior, and senior classes.
The beanie accompanied a complex, sometimes overzealous set of social codes and customs enforced—and at times abused by—upperclassmen. In the 1940s, for example, first years wearing the beanies were required to stand for each upperclassman entering a room; women wearing them were not allowed to wear makeup their first month on campus; and freshmen were not allowed to “organize” into groups.
At this time, freshman had to keep their beanies on through the end of orientation, which culminated with a day of friendly inter-class competitions—including a campus-wide hunt for a hidden flag—known as Flag Day. If the freshmen won this day's series of events, they were finally allowed to remove their beanies.
However, on years where the freshmen failed to find the flag or accumulate enough points, they were penalized to bear an additional week of the beanies.
The freshman beanie would eventually disappear with a whimper during the orientation of 1970. University of Texas philosophy professor John Silber chided Trinity first-year students in his orientation lecture for wearing what he termed "ridiculous hats." After his remarks, the beanies disappeared, never again to appear on the Trinity campus.
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