Breaking bread together—at both elaborate and simple affairs—strengthens a sense of community. In its 150 years, Boston College, itself, has been the venue for innumerable celebratory meals, but Eagles also sometimes find themselves far from home. Represented here are souvenirs of informal occasions such as a hotel breakfast in New Orleans, afternoon tea in Chestnut Hill, and supper in a U.S. Navy mess in Manila, along with elaborate and formal banquets at the best hotels in Boston, New York, and elsewhere.

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Football

The 1899 Boston College Eagles were scored on only once in ten games, and completed their football season by beating Holy Cross. Boston College Alumni honored the team at Boston’s Parker House Hotel.

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The 1928 Eagles were the season’s only undefeated football team on the eastern seaboard. A banquet for the team was hosted by the Boston College Athletic Association at Elk’s Hotel on Washington Street in Boston.

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The undefeated 1940 Eagles met the Tennessee Volunteers in the Sugar Bowl at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, 1941. Boston College defeated Tennessee 19-13. The 1928 Eagles were the season’s only undefeated football team on the eastern seaboard. As a part of the event’s festivities, both teams were honored at a supper dance that evening at the Roosevelt Hotel.

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Boston College Presidents

Joseph R.N. Maxwell, SJ (1899–1971) was dean of studies at Boston College from 1935 until his appointment as President of the College of the Holy Cross in 1939, at which time the newly-named head of Boston College’s Worcester rival was honored in Boston at the Copley Plaza Hotel. In 1955 Fr. Maxwell was again honored—this time by the Boston College Alumni Association—as he was elevated to the presidency of the Association of American Colleges. He served as the organization’s 41st President—the first Catholic priest to do so. Fr. Maxwell was Boston College’s President from 1951–1958.

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The menu, below, of the “Formal Installation Dinner” of Louis J. Gallagher, SJ, as Boston College’s 17th President is adorned with literary and scriptural jokes and references to Bolshevik Russia. It illustrates his colleagues’ sense of humor as well as his former role as Assistant Director of the Vatican Relief Mission and his part in the international relief efforts following the Russian famine of 1921.

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Boston College Faculty

Army Chaplain William J. Leonard, SJ, and a Navy colleague improved this delightful Friday evening supper menu from an officers’ mess in Manila with smart-alecky notes before sending it home to the United States. Fr. Leonard (1909–2000) was a member of the Boston College faculty and later served as Chair of the Philosophy Department. He also was the curator of the Burns Library’s Liturgy and Life collection.

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Daniel Linehan, SJ, (1904–1987), a member of Boston College’s class of 1927 was the first chair of the Boston College Department of Geophysics and was Director of the Weston Observatory from 1949–1972. Fr. Linehan is well known for his expeditions to Antarctica in the 1950s. Linehan Glacier is named in his honor. In 1957 he was elected a member of the Explorers’ Club, an organization founded in the year of his birth, whose purpose is to promote good fellowship and exploration. These days, as a part of the club’s annual dinner—always held at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel—they are known for their “exotics” reception menu, which includes dishes not for the faint of heart.

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Philomatheia

The Philomatheia Club, a women’s auxiliary group, was first organized in 1915. It was founded to “promote and foster the scholastic, athletic and social interests of Boston College.” The club’s members were mostly mothers of Boston College men, and the subsequently formed “Jr. Philomatheia” was composed of younger boosters of the college. Active until the early 1960s, the clubs regularly raised substantial amounts of money for various projects and scholarships, and supported Boston College men who fought in wars. At the home they purchased for their use – a wonderful chalet-style structure on the current site of Gabelli Hall – they held frequent social gatherings.

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