Ralph B. Pond, 1910

Truthfully, there is no fraternal brotherhood quite like Omega Mu at the University of Maine. We are proud of our history, and we are proud of the impressive number of fraternal brothers who played on many University of Maine athletic teams. With conviction and commitment, our Omega Mu athlete brothers brought a great deal of joy and satisfaction to the university community, creating many wonderful memories since the first baseball team was established at Maine State College in the 1870's. The worked together for the success of each Maine team, and the overall civic good of the University of Maine. The sheer number of Omega Mu athlete brothers is an unqualified triumph for the University of Maine. They each gave their best efforts on each team, and what they achieved perfectly compliments what we fraternally believe: drive and determination. It is a heady athletic legacy. Accordingly, their accomplishments claim our fraternal attention and respect. For the eminence of their athletic success; and, above all, for being our Omega Mu brothers, we are proud. Therefore, in the linked soul and spirit of our long fraternal history, we gratefully remember and celebrate our QTV and Omega Mu brothers who participated on many varsity athletic teams at the University of Maine. Their sacrifice of time was worth the effort for them and the student body at the University of Maine who watched them play. They created many warm memories since the early 1870’s. For the eminence of their athletic success; and, above all, for being our Omega Mu brothers, we are all very proud.

Thoreau said it best: “What a difference, whether in all your walks, you meet only strangers, or in one house is one who knows you, and whom you know. To have a brother…How rare these things are.” How true that is, and we remain that way to this day. That is a heady fraternal legacy.

Omega Mu Athlete
Ralph B. Pond,
1910

Hebron Academy

Omega Mu Years

House pictures, 1910

Maine Masque

Sophomore Declamation

Ivy Day, 1910

University of Maine Athlete

Football

Baseball

Track

Boston Red Sox

Huntington Avenue Grounds, now the site of Northeastern University, where the Boston Americans (Red Sox) played until Fenway Park opened in 1912. 

​"Ralph Pond was an outfielder, and the very day he joined the Red Sox he saw service. The Sox had likely been impressed when, on May 28, Pond won the state intercollegiate championship for his team in Orono with a big three-run homer in the first inning of the deciding game, beating Colby 3-0. June 8, 1910, was a big day for youngsters joining the Boston team – not only did Ralph Pond come up that day, but so did fellow UMainer Marty McHale and Hap Myers, a first baseman. Pond’s debut (and swan song, as it turned out) was a rough outing, not just for the 5-foot-9 Pond but for the team in general. It may have been an imposing task to be asked to fill in for Tris Speaker for the day.

Tris Speaker

Fellow U-Maine players with Ralph Pond:
​ Mary McHale and Hap Meyers

"Our man Pond started in center and failed to get a hit off veteran White Sox hurler Frank “Piano Mover” Smith. He struck out his first time up, leading off in the second, though the Red Sox scored later that inning when Duffy Lewis drove in Larry Gardner. Chicago came back with two runs in the bottom of the third, taking the lead. With one away, Red Sox shortstop Harry Lord booted pitcher Smith’s grounder. White Sox leadoff hitter Charlie French flied to center but Pond misjudged it and the ball got by him, enabling Smith to scamper all the way around from first. Pond threw the ball in to Lord, covering second, but Lord mishandled the ball and French took third, scoring when the next batter, Doc White, flied to Harry Hooper in right. (White, one of the White Sox’ regular starting pitchers, was playing center field that day.)

In the fourth, Pond slapped a hot shot back to the mound, but Smith snared it and fired to first for the out. In the fifth, the Red Sox took the lead back with two runs of their own. Lord made his third error of the game in the sixth and French was safe. He made it all the way from first to third on a 5-3 sacrifice by White, because Red Sox pitcher Charley Smith, who had run over to cover third, dropped the ball, then fired back across the diamond. French scored by taking a huge lead off third, and when catcher Carrigan fired down to third base to pick him off, French dug for home and the third baseman threw the ball back in the dirt as French ran for the plate. Dougherty hit a double into center, and Pond chased after it, inadvertently kicking it all the way out to the center-field wall in the process. Pond singled in the sixth and stole a base -- qualifying him for momentary membership in that year’s “Boston Speed Boys” -- (Bill Lee’s The Baseball Necrology)"

“What if the space be long and wide,
That parts us from our brother’s side
A soul-joined chain unites our band,
And memory links us hand in hand.”
(Phi Gamma Delta fraternity song)

Fraternally,
Chip Chapman, ’82
Perge