Oglethorpe University: Not Quite Hogwarts Quiz

Answer: Atlanta

Oglethorpe University is located in Brookhaven, GA, which is a splinter city of the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Answer: Stormy Petrel

Go Petrels! The Stormy Petrel is the Oglethorpe University mascot. It was chosen because James Edward Oglethorpe (founder of the colony of Georgia), noted the stormy petrel as an emblem of steadfastness and perseverance during his voyage to the colony.

A note on pronunciation: while the bird is pronounced peh-trul, similarly to the word petrol, when associated with Oglethorpe University, the word is pronounced pee-trul. Hence the mascot, Petey the Petrel.

Answer: Petrels of Fire Race

Petrels of Fire, based on the movie "Chariots of Fire," is the central focus of the Oglethorpe Day (February 12) celebrations. It consists of a selection of athletes racing around the quad at the stroke of 12. The goal is to make it around the quad before the bells have finished tolling the hour. Oglethorpe tradition disputes whether anyone has ever won the race - it is possible someone won it on a technicality!

All the incorrect choices are also beloved OU traditions - the bagpiper at Convocation in August, Boar's Head, probably Oglethorpe's most beloved tradition, and the ringing of the bells, when graduating students are taken to the top of the belltower to ring a bell.

Answer: Elephant

According to legend, a traveling circus once lost an elephant to disease shortly before it left Atlanta. One of the Oglethorpe biology professors asked for the carcass for his anatomy lab. After his students had dissected it, a hole was dug and the carcass was tipped into it. The location of this burial is not certainly known, but it is probably near to or even directly underneath the library, Philip Weltner/Lowry Hall.

(Note: the Wikipedia article on Oglethorpe University has a slightly different version of this legend. The one given here is that current on the Oglethorpe University campus.)

Answer: Lowry Hall; the Museum of Art.

According to several of the librarians and museum staff, the ghost of a dead professor haunts the third floor of the library, which used to be his residence and was where he died. His ghost is reported as appearing as a glowing orb.

I have no idea whether there is any truth to this tale or not - I just thought it was an interesting and unusual piece of trivia.

Answer: ODK Initiation, Holiday Concert and End-of-Year Party

Boar's Head, based on a nearly 700-year-old Oxford tradition, centers around the initiation of the year's Omicron Delta Kappa Honor Society inductees, on the first Friday in December. The induction is immediately followed by a holiday concert performed by the Oglethorpe University Singers and the Oglethorpe Winds.

After the concert, the attendees are invited to attend a massive party, which is attended by faculty, staff and students. At one point, Boar's Head was open to the public, but it has become so popular among alumni, as well as students and employees, that now there is sadly not even sufficient room for all the Oglethorpe people who wish to attend!

Answer: Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier, the quintessential Georgia poet, attended Oglethorpe University just before the Civil War. He, with the rest of the class, as well as many of his professors, enlisted in the Confederate Army immediately upon leaving school. He was taken prisoner and imprisoned at Point Lookout, where he contracted the tuberculosis which would lead to his untimely death.

Lanier's favorite professor, James Woodrow (uncle of Woodrow Wilson), also enlisted at the same time as Lanier. Woodrow was professor of a multitude of subjects, one of them being geology. His mineral collection is now displayed on the second floor of Goslin Hall, between the biology labs and professors' offices.

Answer: Oxford

Oxford was James Edward Oglethorpe's alma mater, so it was considered appropriate to model Oglethorpe University in the same Gothic style. Hence Oglethorpe's many nicknames - the Castle School (which is how I knew it growing up), Castle on Peachtree, and (used heavily for recruitment), Hogwarts.

Many Oglethorpe traditions are based on traditional Oxford ceremonies (Boar's Head is the most outstanding example). But yes, there is a "Hogwarts Week" every spring . . .

Answer: 1835

Oglethorpe University was founded in 1835, in Milledgeville, GA (then the capital). When the Civil War came along, the vast majority of the students and professors went into the Confederate Army, the school put all of its funding into Confederate bonds, and converted the buildings into hospitals. When the Confederate Cause failed, the University lost everything.

It was refounded in 1913 by the last graduating class, that of 1861, in the new capital, Atlanta.

Answer: Samuel K Talmage

Samuel Kennedy Talmage was the second, and last, president of Oglethorpe University during its first incarnation in Milledgeville. Talmage's history is somewhat tragic. A New Yorker by birth, he relocated to Georgia and served the university faithfully for two decades.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was unable to make a choice between his birth land and his adopted homeland. The strain was too much for him, and he lost his mind. He was admitted to the Milledgeville Central State Hospital (an asylum) and died there soon after the war commenced.