St. Mary's Auction

On the steps of the Alameda County Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., at 10 a. m. sharp last Friday a group of 40 people, including several newshawks, photographers and sidewalk loungers, assembled for an auction. Bespectacled Trust Officer Sylow Berven of Oakland's Central Bank began to read in a low drone from a thick typewritten sheaf of papers. In 15 minutes his audience had dwindled to ten people. An urchin went around begging nickels, got only one. At 10:49 Mr. Berven finished his reading and called out: "Do I hear any bid for Parcel No. i. ... ?" He heard nothing. "Do I hear," asked Mr. Berven, dabbing his brow, "any bid for the properties of St. Mary's College in their entirety?" Two mustached men in panama hats edged up and one of them said: "Leland Groezinger and Gerald S. Levin, as joint tenants, bid $411,150." Cameras clicked as Mr. Levin handed Mr. Berven, as a down payment, a crumpled cashier's check for $43,000. Thus transferred lock, stock & barrel to the bidders' law firm of Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, acting for a committee of bondholders, was the most famed little football college on the West Coast (TIME, Nov. 9).

Boycotting last week's auction were the Roman Catholic Brothers of the Christian Schools who have owned and run St. Mary's since 1868. Boycotting it also was St. Mary's chief ornament, wiry Football Coach Edward Patrick ("Slip") Madigan whose Galloping Gaels built their college's fortunes. When Slip Madigan went to St. Mary's from Notre Dame in 1921, the college was as puny as its football team, which had just been overwhelmed by the University of California 127-to-0. From 1924 to last year St. Mary's won 86 and tied seven of its 114 profitable games against some of the best teams in the U. S. By 1928 the

Brothers, with enrollment booming along with football receipts, sold their Oakland site for $750,000 and borrowed $1,500,000 on a bond issue to build a handsome new plant in the Moraga Valley. In 1934, with $1,370,500 of the bonds still outstanding, the Brothers stopped paying interest and have paid none since. When the bondholders' committee, formed under the chairmanship of Frederic F. Janney of Dean, Witter & Co. which floated the issue, installed their own Comptroller James Everett Butler to supervise the college accounts, he found that St. Mary's was running $72,000 a year behind its budget. The bondholders were more surprised to learn that football expenses were almost equal to football income.

Chief football expense is Slip Madigan, who is reputed to receive a $7,000 salary and 10% of the gate receipts, which would have amounted to $17,467 on last season's $174,671.71. In February, when foreclosure proceedings were already well under way, it was revealed that Slip Madigan had received directly the check for $38,324.15 which New York's Fordham University gave St. Mary's after their Rams beat the Gaels 7-to-6 in Manhattan last autumn. Since Slip Madigan had been owed $21,690 from the 1934 and 1935 seasons, the Fordham check looked almost like a settlement. At the time the president of the college, Brother Albert, explained: "I paid Mr. Madigan because I recognized a just debt and because I recognize that he has brought certain assets to St. Mary's."

After the auction the bondholders' committee, asked about their plans for the college and the 380 students they have on their hands, declined to divulge any. Equally silent were the Christian Brothers and Slip Madigan, who has sworn that he will "never work for a banker." Best guess last week was that the Brothers would lease the college and open it in the fall, that Slip Madigan would be on hand to see that his Gaels meet the University of California in their first big game scheduled for Sept. 25.

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