Cannon alumnus promotes memoir about club

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For the first time since 1972, alumni of Cannon Club will return to the University for Reunions this year with the knowledge that their former eating club will be up and running in the spring. One Cannon alumnus of the Class of 1966, who wished to remain anonymous, is promoting a contest for undergraduates in recognition of the occasion, “just to have a little fun,” he said.

Nevertheless, Cannon’s graduate board has made it clear that this contest is by no means approved by or in any way associated with the club itself.

“He doesn’t represent the club at all,” graduate board president Warren Crane ’62 said.

Undergraduates who sign up for the ‘Spot the Geezer at Reunions’ competition on cannonclub.org — which is not the club's official website — will be given the nicknames and yearbook pictures of Cannon alumni who will be attending their 45th Reunion. Participants will go to the P-Rade and the 1966 tent in the Holder Hall courtyard to try to match the nicknames and faces to the real alumni. Whichever student correctly identifies the most alumni will be declared the winner and will receive a number of Cannon-related prizes.

“The contestant who correctly identifies the most people and gets the most signatures gets a smelly, beer-stained, precious bodily-fluid infused Cannon T-Shirt.” the alumnus said.

The winner will also receive a free copy of the alumnus’ memoir, titled “The Thinking Man’s Animal House,” which is not yet completed, though excerpts can be found online. The alumnus began writing the memoir before it was certain that Cannon would reopen, but he said part of the goal of promoting the book through the contest is to “open a dialogue so people who might be interested in Cannon Club can meet the old members and find out what it was really like.”

The alumnus referred to himself and the group of alumni participating in the contest as “dissident.”

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“Warren Crane has done a hell of a job in bringing the club back,” the alumnus said. “The only thing that we’re dissident on is talking about what the place was really like, and it wasn’t all that bad.”

But Crane — who said he had read excerpts of the memoir — said that many of the events described are of “no merit” and paint an image of the club’s history that is wholly inaccurate.

“He’s got this dream of this complete animal house and that just isn’t the case,” Crane said.

The alumnus accused Crane of “benign neglect” in terms of accurately portraying Cannon’s past.

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Crane asserted that he has been honest about the club’s past culture and that the alumnus’ accounts do not in any way reflect on Cannon.

“I’m not hiding anything,” Crane said, adding that the alumnus in question has “got some unique and inaccurate memories.”

Though the alumnus argued that the memoir and contest are both meant to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek, Cannon graduate board member Bob Casey ’67 said that they have the potential to harm the club’s reputation at a time when it is especially important for the University community to have an accurate perception of the club.

“It’s got an edge to it that is uncalled for and is insulting to me personally,” said Casey, who emphasized that the memoir is unauthorized by the club. “I’ve worked 26 years to get the place open.”

Casey noted that this is a sensitive time because the club is or has recently been raising funds, taking out loans from banks and finalizing construction contracts.

“It’s unfair and it’s a cheap shot,” Casey said of the memoir.

The alumnus also complained about the lack of opportunity he and many of his fellow alumni had for involvement in planning the club’s reopening. He said he disagrees with the decision to have sophomores bicker other sophomores, and thought the graduate board should have sought out the opinion of more alumni before making the decision.

“It has been a very small group of people who have not communicated with the other alums on any sort of a regular basis,” the alumnus said.

Casey pointed out that, because of the logistical intricacies involved, the most active participants in the planning process have largely been local alumni. He said that convenience — more than a deliberate attempt to exclude anybody — was the main determinant of who contributed to Cannon’s reopening process.

“It’s an unfair criticism,” Casey said. “It’s not for selfish reasons. I would like to share this with as many people as I can, but the nature of the beast just doesn’t lend itself to that, unfortunately.”