Let’s turn our sights backwards 100 years to celebrate the (belated) centennial anniversary of Catholic University of America’s class of 1925– a campus known affectionally then as “The Big U”.

Campus looks quite different now– several buildings erected in the earliest days of the University have since become obsolete memories, new buildings have risen, and time marches on. Yet, change is not limited to the visible landscape of our campus. University traditions, the student body, and campus life from 1925 encapsulate a time seemingly so distant from our own. The early 20th c. collegiate atmosphere may appear quite foreign to us in 2026.

Yet, when we read enough history, we see through the veneer of what makes us all that different from the past. Cheeky stories and memories recorded in the 1925 yearbook colorize and animate the otherwise serious-looking black-and-grey images of the student body. Right before winter break, “Tex Kyle gets rabid as vacation time draws nigh” (Dec. 15, 1925) then, before they know it, “everyone gets back to the books” (Jan. 7, 1926). We’ve all been there!

Now and all throughout the year, first-year or prospective student tours are seen shuffling around in their guided groups from the Pryz to Hannan Hall and onward. In 2026, first-year students jitter with nerves and excitement about what unknown memories will unfold during their time at CUA. The newcomer’s biggest worries of their first year may include: meeting new roommates, navigating being away from home perhaps for the first time, not getting lost on our small but mighty (at first) sized campus, and getting the notoriously difficult class over with. In the yearbook’s 1924-1925 Diary, the beginning of the semester on Oct. 1st saw “everyone running wild around the senate room frantically filling out course cards so as not to miss any classes” (1925 Yearbook, p. 239). Some things never change even with the innovation of online maps and course schedules! On October 3rd, all university students learn about the disciplinary rules: “No cheers are heard” (1925 Yearbook, p. 239).

1925’s freshman entered their first year with a wince and an imminent feeling of… food fights? A century ago, freshman and sophomores were in a sort of perpetual initiation. Freshman, Sophomores, and Juniors ran errands for their superior (in age) classmates and endured pranks galore. That is, until each successive class earned their way to the top of the class totem pole senior year.

A memory shared among the class of 1925 opens the chapter of the Senior Class History. The Seniors reminisce on an early ‘win’ in their freshman year. Speaking in the strategic language of warfare: “The day that we were organized is one that remains vivid in the minds of many even now as Seniors. Then did we dare the Sophs to come and get us … [where] we were strategically distributed throughout the flats.” And, when the “Sophs” came “across campus to seize a few of our rebellious [Seniors], a “very warm reception awaited them as they entered the building”. Ripe eggs and fruit rained down upon their entrance “eager to reach their marks”. The “Sophs” made hasty retreat and failed to make effective counterattack. Pranks extended down from one class to the next with “usual determination” as a way to “bring [each class] into conformity with C.U. life” (1925 Yearbook, p. 47-48).

When the tomfoolery subsided, each class made grand efforts to make memories together. The Sophomores prided themselves on their successful Sophomore Prom where “the gym [had never] seemed so beautiful and no better music has been played there than from the trumpets of Garber-Davis’ band that evening”. The Juniors enjoyed their momentary respite, the eye of the tornado, where they were both “beyond the early troubles” of freshman and sophomore prank wars and not yet “in the strife of that last strenuous year”. Juniors developed their serious academic interests in impressive, not yet oppressive, ways. The Juniors, a class made up of “so many dashing students,” whose professors “[praised] them for their “exceptional scholastic ability” were also notoriously humble (1925 Yearbook, p. 47-50).

Entering their final year of University, Seniors “naturally” adorned themselves with “the cloak of dignity begetting [their] position on campus”. The “public manifestations of their spirit … countless sincere deeds … and expressions of right-minded opinion” crystallized into something “beyond the capacity of written record”. These philosophers’ take away of Senior life was: “the realization that knowledge begins with the dawn of ignorance”. A fiercely loyal and high academic achievement filled the spirits of the senior class as they gazed over their eclipsing four years at Catholic U. Notable 1925 CUA Alum include none other than Edward Pryzbyla. Known for his steadfast academic success and smile, he received an unusually warm and loving description underneath his senior year photo. Pryzbyla’s fellow classmates sent the young “Eddie” off to pursue his continued education in Law at Yale University with a proud au revoir.

If you’re interested in a good laugh, the writer of this blog suggests you read through some of the descriptions of other 1925 seniors. While each senior’s description is written with friendship and comradery, the yearbook writers are surely unafraid to live up to the “boys will be boys” proverb. Some of the students/faculty made it into the 1925 Yearbook Diary: “Nov. 25: Mahony gets a haircut. McGinniss tries to tell a story.” (1925 Yearbook, p. 233) or “Stapleton passes Math” (1925 Yearbook, p. 231). The Catholic University of America in 1925 was peopled with only male students which evidently anticipates the joking and brazen recordings of CUA’s boys becoming men.

Below are some of my personal favorite entries from the yearbook’s diary:

The 1925 Yearbook Diary (pp.231-238)

Oct. 23. Kozak calls New York.
Oct. 26. New York calls Kozak. Father Cassidy calls on Kozak to call off all calls.
Oct. 28. Someone in the (now vanished) Albert Hall, previously a building for lay student residency, is recorded “playing the scale to death on his loud speaking cornet”. Yikes!
Oct. 29. Bishop Shahan gives a reception to the Freshmen. “They run wild throughout the village”.
Oct. 31. The (now vanished) Observatory burns to the ground. The entry laments: “Big pep meeting for the Maryland game, with a bonfire, snake dance, and many joyful huzzas. Some nut from outside spoiled it all, however, by dropping an oil station and a gross of matches into the observatory.” To this day, no one knows (or at least has come forward) about what truly happened that Halloween night.

Nov. 15. We slop around in the first and soggiest snow of the winter.
Nov. 21. Stapleton passes Math.
Nov. 22. Stapleton takes up crossword puzzles, Einstein and Tolstoi.
Nov. 30. The Sophomores defeat the Freshman eleven, 12-6, but have a tough time doing it. Too much near beer and pretzels.
Dec. 4. The Glee Club rehearses “The Bullfrog” for the 999th time.
Dec. 5. Couture is mistaken for a bear in his new fur coat.
Dec. 9. The Glee Club makes it an even 1,000 on the Bullfrog song despite the protests of those upstairs in the Tower.
Dec. 19. Christmas Vacation begins at noon. The big U begins to look lonesome.
Jan. 20. Sophomore banquet and nobody hurt.
Jan. 22. Wojtanowicz receives his title, Count Alphabet.
Feb. 21. Abbey Cotillion. Wardman Park is overrun with dance-mad C.U. men.
Feb. 24. Freshman banquet. Tired of waiting so long they leave the campus at 3:00 AM. More will come of this (heh heh! the villain laughed)*
Mar 3. The Glee Club gets a new song. Regan bums a ride down on a coal-truck.

*Unsatisfactorily, there is no follow-up on whatever this parenthetical implied.

To the class of 1925: we honor you and the “memories [you made] that even time can never erode” (1925 Yearbook, p. 51).

Special thanks to graduate student Lara Loutfi for scanning these images.