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A humorous look at the West Point Academy Southern Sweepstakes of 1935 from the daughter of the third place winner.
The Southern Sweepstakes
(Originally published in the West Point Academy Assembly Alumni magazine in 2002)
There was but one objective…to reach the finish line. There was but one rule…no one could participate who’d been on ice skates prior to entering West Point. In the ensuing chaos and carnage, there was one winner…Cadet Harmon J. Lamley, Jr. plebe from Eufalaa, Alabama.
The event lasted only minutes, but the memories lasted a lifetime for my Dad, H.D. Wendorf, Harmon Lampley’s roommate (and third place winner.) The pair slid and skidded to dubious glory during The Southern Sweepstakes of 1935.
America, in 1935, was starting to climb out of the Great Depression, aided by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. Roosevelt was also attempting to keep the United States out of wars erupting in Europe and the Far East . But at West Point, New York, young men from the entire country, following a noble tradition dating back to 1802, were entering the West Point Military Academy preparing to become future defenders and leaders of our country.
These gentlemen were required to remain on site at the Point during their entire plebe (freshman) year. No breaks to head home. The Academy, in their wisdom and compassion and desire to keep the plebes from going AWOL, provided a variety of activities during the holidays. “Plebe Christmas” became a time for dances, concerts, and movies. But the piece de resistance was The Southern Sweepstakes. No records of its origins are to be found in the Point’s archives, but every cadet who entered the Academy before 1965 remembers well, and a note of wicked glee shades the voice of retired officers around the country when the Sweepstakes are mentioned. (Note: This article was originally published in 2002.)
Ice rinks were rare in the Southern States until the nineteen-sixties. Consequently, most non-skaters competing came from below the Mason Dixon Line. Goaded…uh…pardon me…cheered on by their skating savvy buddies from Michigan or Vermont, the Southern boys would enter the Sweepstakes and devoutly pray to cross the finish line relatively unimpaired.
Cadets Lampley and Wendorf,“T” Company members and roommates, being of bold mind and bolder spirit, signed up to compete. They’d made it through the notorious plebe “Beast Baracks” the preceding summer. In contrast to the rigors enduring training in the New York heat, the Sweepstakes sounded easy.
J. Lamp brought with him a background of great athleticism. Muscular, wiry, and flexible, he boxed, lettered in lacrosse, was a pistol sharpshooter, and a Pentatholon competitor.
J. Lamp could also walk ON HIS HANDS…up or down stairs. When interviewed, his wife Gayle, stated with appropriate pride. “Everybody would ask us to parties so they could see ‘Jack” walk on his hands. He really was quite impressive!”
He was a good-looking man, admired by and admiring of the ladies. Frank Iseman, his roommate for first classman (senior) year, described J. Lamp’s dating habits in the Academy’s “Howitzer” yearbook. “He has long been one of our social lions, and a hop without him and his 3.0 drag is a rarity indeed.” (Hop is a prom. And yesterday’s “3” is today’s “10).
One might reasonably infer that the audience in the bleachers above the hockey rink watching The Sweepstakes might have been more than usually dominated by female fans that particular year.
Cade Lampley also excelled in academics. While at West Point, he tutored other cadets, and still graduated in the top ten percent of the class of 1939.
Cadet Wendorf was no slouch in the areas of sports or smarts either. He played center for the Trojans of West High School in West, Texas (“every minute of every game!”) and was quite a debater as well. While at the Point, he became intramural saber champion. He turned his skill with words to the Dialectic Society and “The Pointer” bi-monthly cadet magazine, acting onstage for the former and critiquing movies for the latter. He was also a musician, playing in Texas with “Doc Mize and His Kadets” (“South’s Finest College Dance Band”) and the plebe orchestra at West Point. Wendorf’s senior year roommate, stated in The Howitzer, “Anyone has to admire a man who can play “The Missouri National” on valve trombone while he dresses fro parade.” (The Missouri National was the cadet’s rain chant to halt parades: “Sun shines bright while I get dressed - Rain like heck at P-rade rest!”)
In the looks department, “Wendy” was often compared with Fred Astaire. This might also have been because he was quite a good dancer. He and Mom attracted admiring crowds at dances when they were both in their 70s, especially when they put cardio teachers to shame dancing The Shag, a variation of the jitterbug.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQFBX0XqZaI (not my folks…just a great demo!)
I mention music, dance, and athletics to demonstrate that Wendorf was blessed with rhythm, style, grace, and flexibility. Not one of these skills helped in the least in competing in The Southern Sweepstakes. Neither did J. Lamp’s handwalking prowess, amazing and admirable though it was.
Talent and athletic ability were useless when going for the Sweepstakes win. Guile, ruthlessness, and complete disregard for the well-being of one’s neighbor were the desirable traits. Cadets Lampley and Wendorf later served with distinction in World War Two; their leadership, honor, and integrity never questioned. J. Lamp received the Distinguished Flying Cross. Wendy earned the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star for Valor. He taught Sunday School. But during Plebe Christmas 1935, both men overcame their natural inclinations toward virtue, values, and ideals and instead turned to trickery, tactics and survival. (The one occasion where the Code of Honor was tossed to the wind. Cheating was not only sanctioned, it was encouraged.)
The strategy for The Southern Sweepstakes was simple, direct - and lethal. Hang back. Advance by pulling down other contestants. Crawl over the prone bodies of the fallen.
Game plan established, the pair joined their fellow never-before-skated plebes that day at the starting line of the hockey rink and prepared to race. The bleachers were filed with “ineligbile” plebes (including Ohio native Carl McFerrin, suitemate of J. Lamp and Wendy), lady friends of the cadets, and sport enthusiastic from the Academy’s faculty and staff. The spectators drank hot chocolate, ate popcorn and burgers, and settled in to watch entertainment rivaling the Marx Brothers.
Act I began with The Warm-Up. There was none. Entrants clumsily tried to strap on their skates and crawl to the starting line.
Act II provided dramatic action. Pushing, shoving, clawing, grabbing, and holding were the means to possible victory. “No Holds Barred!” was the cry. Contestants were deaf to the cheers and jeers of their northern comrades sitting smugly in the bleachers. CAde Wendorf had no idea where Cadet Lampley was throughout the race. It didn’t matter. Neither could…or would…have helped the other.
Each man stood alone. Let me rephrase that. Each man attempted to stand…alone, in pairs, clumps of three, or twisted masses of six. Each man eventually found himself slithering on his belly or backside, hoping an opponents’ blade would not slice him and trigger an impromptu trip to the nearest I.C.U.
Act III ended like a Victorian melodrama (or Hamlet) with bodies strewn in various postions and angles around the rink.
Only one man finished triumphant. Cadet Harmon J. Lampley. He crosse the line and received a wristwatch for a prize and the praise and admiration of his battered competitors. He later told his wife that he had loved participating as much as winning, calling the event “one spectacular sight to see!”
Harmon J. Lampley and H.D. Wendorf graduated from West Point in 1939. Given choice of service, J. Lamp went on to the Air Force flight school. He married Gayle in 1941. During World War Two, he flew operations in Alaska, then in Europe. He stayed in the service until 1961 before retiring, with the rank of Full Colonel, to live in Mexico City. He and Gayle moved to San Antonio, Texas in 1971 with their four children.
J. Lamp passed away in 1989. As of 2002, Gayle still lived in San Antonio, and numbered among her friends there several retired members of the same Sweepstakes of 1935.
H. D Wendorf married my Mom, nee' Mary Pfeffer, during June Week of 1939, then headed down to El Paso, Texas where my the First Cavalry, 82nd Unit was stationed. He commanded the newly formed 271st Field Artillery Battalion in World War Two, serving in the Philippines, New Guinea, and the Admiralty Islands. After the war, he attended Yale Law School, was on the Law Review, and received his Juris Doctorate in 1951. Using his talents for arguing and debate, he joined the Judge Advocate General’s corps. After twenty years in the military , he retired as a Full Colonel. In 1961, he began teaching law at Baylor University…a career that lasted for nearly forty years. He and Mary lived in Waco, Texas in the house where my brothers and I grew up…hearing stories about his days at West Point..with a lot focus on The Southern Sweepstakes. H.D passed away in 2006 in Birmingham, Alabama where he and Mom moved to be nearer my brothers’ and their families. Mom passed away in 2012.
The last Southern Sweepstakes was held in 1965, which was the year of the final Plebe Christmas. Plebes since then have been allowed to go home for the holidays. According to later West Point graduates the Sweepstakes underwent a few changes prior to the years leading up to the mid-Sixties. In 1951, for example, it resembled more of a free-for-all hockey game played with brooms.
But the basic rule stayed inviolate until the last plebe put up his skates for the final Sweepstakes.
No one could participate who’s been on ice skates prior to entering the Point.
Chaos and carnage? Definitely
Dubious glory. Perhaps.
But the memories were worth every bruise.
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Web Site:
Flo Fitzpatrick
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