{"id":4670,"date":"2019-09-19T09:00:56","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T13:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cmubuggy.org\/news\/?p=4670"},"modified":"2025-11-10T21:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T02:51:10","slug":"100-years-of-buggy-history-intro-and-1920","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cmubuggy.org\/news\/2019\/09\/100-years-of-buggy-history-intro-and-1920\/","title":{"rendered":"100 Years of Buggy History – Intro and 1920"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Table of Contents<\/span><\/strong>: Intro & 1920<\/span><\/a>; 1921-1923<\/span><\/a>; 1924-1927<\/span><\/a>; 1928-1932<\/span><\/a>; 1933-1935<\/span><\/a>; 1936-1939<\/span><\/a>; 1940-1945<\/span><\/a>; 1946-1949<\/span><\/a>; 1950-1953<\/span><\/a>; 1954-1956<\/span><\/a>; 1957-1959<\/span><\/a>; 1960-1963<\/span><\/a>; 1964-1966<\/span><\/a>; 1967-1969<\/span><\/a>; 1970-1973<\/span><\/a>; 1974-1976<\/span><\/a>; 1977-1979<\/span><\/a>; 1980-1983<\/a><\/span>; 1984-1986<\/a><\/span>; 1987-1989<\/a><\/span>; 1990-1993<\/a><\/span>; 1994-1996<\/a><\/span>; 1997-1999<\/a><\/span>; 2000-2003<\/a><\/span>; 2004-2006<\/a><\/span>; 2007-2009<\/a><\/span>; 2010<\/a><\/span>; 2011<\/a><\/span>; 2012<\/a><\/span>; 2013<\/a><\/span>; 2014<\/a><\/span>; 2015<\/a><\/span>; 2016<\/a><\/span>; 2017<\/a><\/span>; 2018<\/a><\/span>; 2019<\/span><\/a>; Recap & 2020<\/span><\/a>; 2021<\/span><\/a>; 2022<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those of you who haven\u2019t been refreshing this site every 5 minutes since Raceday 2019 ended, this year is the 100th<\/sup> anniversary of Buggy at Carnegie Mellon!  This year\u2019s Raceday, which we are affectionately calling \u201cBuggy 100\u201d (#Buggy100), takes place on April 16-18, 2020, so make sure you\u2019ve got the dates marked on your calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

As part of our big push to celebrate the Buggy Centennial this year, we are diving extra deep into our history.  While the \u201cHistory\u201d tab of our site may give you the winners and their times, this year we wanted to take a more in depth look at the past 100 years of Buggy History at Carnegie Mellon. So with that said, we are introducing the \u201c100 Years of Buggy History\u201d series, which will run weekly (roughly) on the cmubuggy.org site.  We\u2019ll not only give you winners and times, but where possible, we\u2019ll go into more detail about each year of Buggy.  That includes information about Raceday \u2013 the weather, the crowds, the heats, the incidents, and the excitement \u2013 as well as any other interesting Buggy-related storylines that popped up over the course of the school year.  We\u2019ll also be loading up these posts with whatever photos, videos or other juicy gossip we can get our hands on from each of those years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I doubt any of you were around for the early years (someone who participated in 1920 would be 117 years old today, and it turns out that as of today, the oldest living person is only 116).  But if you have any interesting stories from the years of Buggy that you were<\/em> around for, or if you know people (especially people like parents or grandparents, who may have participated in the early years) who have told you stories from their day, please let us know \u2013 you can email me at bryan.arsham@cmubuggy.org<\/a>!  We\u2019d love to include that stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The information that we put into this series is sourced from whatever records that we can get our hands on from the various years.  Other than any stories we get from you all, the vast majority of this information comes from the excellent archives of the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries Digital Collections, with a significant percentage coming from The Tartan (other sources include the Thistle, the CIT Alumnus, and various Pittsburgh-area newspapers).  But with that comes a couple of caveats, that I wanted to get out of the way now.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. The digital archives are not 100% complete, and coverage of Buggy was better in some years than others.  For example, the digital archives are unfortunately missing 1937 (our current white whale), so we have very little information on that year, whereas the Tartan in 1976 essentially included weekly Rolls Reports, so we have a ton of information from that year.  <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. We weren\u2019t around for a lot of these years, so if something was printed in our main sources incorrectly, or was misleading, we may not know.  You might be surprised to find out that over the past 100 years, the reporting on buggy has not always been the most accurate! Take, for example, the 2019 Tartan article on Raceday, titled \u201cSDC Wins Buggy For Second Year In A Row\u201d, which isn’t technically wrong, but ignored that it was SDC\u2019s third<\/em> consecutive Women\u2019s victory, and record eighth<\/em> consecutive Men\u2019s victory.  Therefore, if we have any indication that a fact was incorrect (either it conflicts with something in our historical database, or it conflicts with another written report), we are either ignoring that piece of information or will call out the conflict in our post. Otherwise, for purposes of this series, we are accepting the written reports as true.  <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The number of years covered in each post will vary a bit based on how much information we have about the given year, but as of now, the plan is that most posts will cover roughly 5 years (give or take).  We will also use today\u2019s terminology (for example: CMU, rather than CIT, to refer to the school) as appropriate to make the history as understandable as possible for today’s readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So without further ado, let\u2019s kick off the 100 Years of Buggy History series with the origins of Buggy: 1920.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1920<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Raceday<\/span>: May 14, 1920<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sweepstakes Chair<\/span>: R.M. Crosby<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Race Winner<\/span>: Tau Gamma Phi (which became DTD)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Design Comp Winner<\/span>: Sigma Nu<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Weather<\/span>: Sun was shining; temperature unknown<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1920 used to be our White Whale.  We knew that Buggy began in 1920, but the\nresults, and information about the races, were lost to history.  That is, until our own BAA Vice President\nJeremy Tuttle went digging a little more, and discovered the June 1920 CIT\nAlumnus.  The CIT Alumnus was a (mostly) bimonthly\nalumni newsletter published until roughly 1982, and although it did not\nregularly cover Buggy, there were some important historical references in those\nearly years.  So, what do we know about\n1920 \u2013 the first year of Buggy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n