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Biographical Narrative

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Biographical Narrative

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1873-1882	University of California students at Berkeley played informal disorganized "football" games against each other and local high school teams.
1882	Rugby enthusiasts from the San Francisco Bay Area converted the University of California to the game of rugby.
1883-1885	The University of California continued to play Bay Area rugby clubs, improved greatly, and was soon defeating most teams.
1886	The University of California's first head football coach, O. S. Howard, brought the game of American gridiron football from the East Coast to the Berkeley campus. American football immediately became popular in California.
1889	July 9. Brother, J. Herbert Slater was born to Louise and John Slater.
1891	Feb. 7. Sister, Marguerite Slater was born to Louise and John Slater.
1894	Jan. 23. Brother, Norman B. Slater was born in San Francisco to Louise and John Slater.
1896	April 30. Colby E. "Babe" Slater was born in Berkeley to Louise and John Slater.
	The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece.
1900	Rugby was on the program for the second Olympic Games in Paris. Great Britain, France, and Germany sent rugby teams. The French won the gold medal.
1906	The University Farm, a branch of the University of California's College of Agriculture, was established in Davis, California.
	Due to the brutal nature of American football, its burgeoning professionalism, and fighting between University of California and Stanford University fans, as well as President Theodore Roosevelt's censure of the game, high schools, colleges, and universities in California dropped American football in favor of rugby.
Circa 1906-1914	Bay Area fans became more and more interested in rugby. As many as 26,000 flocked to big games between the University of California and Stanford University.
1908	Jan. 8. Father, John Slater died.
1909	January. Formal instruction began at the University Farm School in Davis. The University Farm offered a three-year course in the principles and practices of agriculture.
	Virginia Cave (later Mrs. Colby E. "Babe" Slater) was born in Clarksburg, California.
1910-1914	The earliest University Farm School teams played rugby but called it football.
1911, 1912	Babe Slater led the Berkeley High School rugby team to Bay County League championships, the Northern California title, and the State title. Brother, Norman B. Slater played half back on the team.
1914	January. Three female students (the first at the University Farm School) arrived from Berkeley to spend a few months on the Farm. One of them was Babe Slater's sister, Marguerite Slater.
	June 28. Sarajevo. In an act that led to the First World War, Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
	July-August. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia, and Belgium. Germany declared war on Russia, and after Germany demanded from Belgium free passage for German troops, Germany declared war on France. Great Britain declared war on Germany after Germany invaded neutral Belgium.
	August-September. British forces crossed to France in an attempt to halt the German advance. French and British troops pushed the Germans back at the first battle of the Marne. Then the French marched north to beat the Germans in a race to control vital ports in the British Channel. The enemies established stable battle positions, creating the "Western Front," a solid line of opposing trenches that stretched from the Channel to near Nancy, France.
1914-1917	Babe Slater left Berkeley High School to attend the University Farm School at Davis. He starred in rugby, football, basketball, and baseball. He served as Basketball Team Captain, Junior Class President, House Manager for the Calpha Fraternity, Thanksgiving Day Special Chairman, Picnic Day Parade Chairman, and Picnic Day General Chairman.
1915	February. Germany proclaimed a war zone around the British Isles.
	May 7. Lusitania, a British luxury passenger liner traveling from the United States was sunk off the coast of Ireland by a German submarine. Almost 1,200 civilians were killed, including 128 Americans.
	Autumn. California's high schools, colleges, and universities started playing American football again. Rugby's popularity began to die out in America.
	Autumn. The University Farm School stopped playing rugby in favor of American football. Slater was one of only eighteen men from a student body of 296 who reported for the University Farm's first American football team.
1916	February-December. The Germans launched an offensive against the French at Verdun. Losses on both sides were heavy--about a million men. No strategic advantages were gained by either side.
	April. The United States threatened to sever diplomatic ties unless Germany changed its method of submarine warfare.
	July-November. The British conducted an offensive along the Somme River at the Western Front, but suffered their heaviest losses without making substantial gains.
1917	January. Germany announced that their submarines would sink all ships belligerent or neutral. The United States broke off relations with Germany.
	March 18. German submarines sank three American ships.
	April 6. The United States declared war on Germany.
	May. The United States House and Senate passed a selective service bill in order to recruit a large army and spread the obligation to serve among all qualified men age twenty-one to thirty.
	May 18. After completing a prescribed three-year course in agriculture, Slater graduated from the University Farm School.
	Early June. Over nine million American men including Slater registered for the draft.
	July-November. Enduring extremely rainy and muddy conditions, British forces conducted an offensive against German lines near Ypres, Belgium. There were heavy casualties. Finally, Canadian troops captured the village of Passchendaele.
	Sept. 23. Slater joined the United States Army. He served with the Medical Corps in France during the First World War.
	October-November. The Eastern Front had collapsed along with the Russian Army. After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks took power in Russia and began to negotiate with Germany for peace. This allowed Germany to concentrate on the Western Front.
	Nov. 1. Slater was promoted to Corporal.
1918	Spring. German forces launched a major offensive on the Western Front. Allied lines manned by war-weary French and British troops crumbled.
	Circa May. A crowd assembled in Woodland, California at the Southern Pacific depot to see off the Yolo County "Liberty Boys." Slater led the group of forty-two boys, who entrained for Camp Lewis, American Lake, Washington to begin intensive training for war.
	May-June. Germans pushed the French back to the Marne River, close to Paris. American troops stopped the Germans at Chateau Thierry.
	June 27. American soldiers, including Slater, left Camp Lewis by train. Along the route to New York, townspeople cheered the troops and gave them candy and cigarettes.
	July 3-11. Slater was based at a camp in New York, and he visited New York City before being sent to war.
	July 12. Slater's company sailed from New York on the S.S. Olympic. The enlisted men endured poor conditions aboard the ship.
	July 19-20. Slater's company arrived at Southampton, England.
	July 21-25. Slater's company was at a rest camp in Cherbourg, France.
	July-August. Germans struck at a sector of the Marne between Rheims and Soissons. Americans helped to turn the attack and participated in the French counteroffensive that cleared out the sector.
	July 26-Aug. 24. Slater's company was based at St. Nazaire, France. General Pershing inspected the camp.
	Aug. 28-Sept. 6. Slater's company was based at Nogent, France.
	September-October. Meuse-Argonne offensive. The Allies pushed through German lines. Costly, but crucial American victories near St. Mihiel, Verdun, and Sedan as well as French and British successes routed the Germans and all but defeated their army. The Germans were driven out of France, and the Allies advanced into Belgium.
	Sept. 26-Oct. 4. Slater's company moved through Avocourt, Very, and Epionville, evacuating wounded soldiers to hospitals. They spent six terrible days under heavy shellfire and attack from enemy airplanes before they could leave Epionville.
	Oct. 13-17. Slater's company was at Revigny, France.
	Oct. 19-25. Slater's company was at Boesinghe and Ypres, Belgium. Slater noted that Ypres was "shot up pretty badly."
	Oct. 25. Slater's company spent the day hiking from Ypres to Roulers. Slater noted that they passed by, "nothing but devastated country--worse than the imagination could ever stretch it--for miles and miles all that could be seen was torn-up ground that resembled a choppy sea with great tanglements of barbed wire and railroad tracks."
	Oct. 25-30. Slater's company was at Roulers, Belgium.
	Oct. 30-Nov. 5. Slater's company hiked from Roulers to the Waregem area and to the front lines. They tended to the wounded and set up dressing stations. The Germans were shelling and bombing Belgium from the air.
	Nov. 3. Slater and Jim Gregory volunteered to go to Oudenaarde to find out the status of the dressing station, which was in the City Hall. The Germans were shelling, and their airplanes were firing on troops. The bridge across the Schelde River to the German line was only about 300 yards from the City Hall.
	Nov. 5-9. Slater's company was at Roosebeke, Belgium.
	Nov. 9. The Kaiser abdicated.
	Nov. 11. In the Forest of Compiegne, an armistice between the Allied forces and Germany was signed and fighting stopped.
	Nov. 10-26. Slater's company was in Oudenaarde, where they put up a dressing station, but no patients came because hostilities had ceased. There was considerable celebration in the city over the declaration of an armistice.
	Nov. 26-Dec. 7. Slater's company was at Izegem, Belgium.
	December. Slater's company was based at Proven, Belgium. They took day trips around the country and often were the first to pass through devastated areas. When a group of them went to no-man's-land to gather wood, they saw: bodies of men and horses, trenches, graves, barbed wire, shells, machinery, downed airplanes, and churned up ground. They took souvenirs off of a German airplane.
	Dec. 19. Slater received a Christmas box.
	Dec. 24-25. Slater and other soldiers took the early train to Brussels. They got a room, had a good meal, and celebrated Christmas. Crowds cheered the Americans.
1919	Jan. 4-March 23. Slater's company was based at Ceton, France. When they left, the whole population of Ceton came to see them off.
	Jan. 27. General Pershing reviewed American troops including Slater's company at Belleme, France.
	March 24-April 7. Slater's company was near St. Nazaire at Camp Guthrie, an embarkation camp. The men underwent physical exams before sailing for America.
	April 8-20. American soldiers including Slater were at sea on the U.S.S. Virginian. The immaculate ship was newly refitted to transport troops.
	April 20-May 2. American soldiers including Slater returned to the United States. They docked at New York, got off a ferry at Long Island Terminal, and boarded trains for Camp Upton. Crowds cheered them wherever they went.
	April 22-23. Slater was on leave in New York City.
	May 2-9. Slater and other soldiers departed Camp Upton by train. After crossing the United States, they arrived in Oakland, California early in the morning, took a boat to San Francisco, were in a parade down Market Street to City Hall, and then took streetcars to the Presidio.
	May 23. Slater's military service ended.
	June 28. The Allied Powers and Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles and officially ended the "war to end all wars."
	Returning veterans organized Yolo Post No. 77, American Legion, in Woodland, California.
Circa 1919-1926	Slater settled in Woodland. Slater and Robert (Bob) Lockhart managed a 9,000 acre section of the Conaway Ranch, where they raised sheep, hogs, and feed.
1920s	Slater played and coached for the football and basketball teams of the Woodland, Yolo Post No. 77, American Legion.
1920	Due to the popularity of American football, rugby had almost disappeared from the United States except for California. The Olympic Games Committee granted Californians permission to form the United States Olympic Rugby Team for the upcoming Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium.
	Slater was one of the first players chosen for the U.S. Olympic Rugby Team. The team was mainly made up of students from California universities as well as recently graduated club players. Dan Carroll, an Australian gold medalist of the 1908 games and naturalized U.S. citizen, was both player and coach for the team.
	April-September. The Seventh Olympic Games were held in Antwerp, Belgium. The U.S. and France entered the rugby competition. As European champions, the French believed themselves to be far superior to the inexperienced U.S. team and only reluctantly consented to play the Americans.
	June 30. The U.S. Olympic Rugby Team sailed from New York on an overcrowded Army transport ship, the Sherman, arriving in Antwerp, Belgium thirteen days later.
	July-September. In Antwerp, the U.S. Olympic Rugby Team was housed in a converted school. Meals were served at their quarters, and buses transported the athletes to and from practice and competition.
	Sept. 5. The rugby match between France and the U.S. was played at Antwerp Stadium. Unexpectedly, the United States beat France 8-0. The U.S. Olympic Rugby Team won the gold medal. Slater became the first University of California, Davis alumnus to win an Olympic gold medal.
	Sept. 19-Oct. 10. The loss to the U.S. Olympic Rugby Team stunned the French government. They asked the American team to tour France and play French all-star teams. The Americans won three out of the four matches they played.
1923	September. The U. S. Olympic Committee agreed to send a rugby team to the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris despite the fact that rugby had not been played competitively in the United States for almost a decade. The Committee did not provide travel funds, so players had to use their own money to get to Paris.
1924	Babe Slater was chosen as Captain of the United States Olympic Rugby Team.
	Brother, Norman Slater was chosen as a member of the U.S. Olympic Rugby Team. He was thirty, married, had two children, and worked in San Francisco.
	Linn Farish of Woodland, California had played on the Stanford Rugby Team and was also chosen as a member of the U.S. Olympic Rugby Team.
	March. The Woodland Democratorganized "The Babe Slater Friendship Fund" as a testimonial of friendship and token of the community's appreciation of the modest all-around sportsman. The Friendship Fund allowed a maximum donation of fifty cents. Slater was so popular that 510 people (including 130 grammar school boys) contributed to the fund, which was used to buy Slater a gold watch and chain, an elk's tooth charm, and a gold card and receipt case.
	Circa March. Woodland's Yolo Post No. 77, American Legion presented Slater with a suitcase engraved with his initials and a receipt, which acknowledged that his dues were paid in full for one year.
	Circa April 2. The U.S. Olympic Rugby Team climbed aboard the Overland Limited.They were accompanied by Charles Austin as coach and Sam Goodman, President of the Pacific Athletic Association, as manager. The twenty-three member team included seven members who were veterans of the 1920 Olympic Games.
	April 7. The U.S. Olympic Rugby Team sailed from New York on the America.
	Circa April 20. The U.S. Olympic Rugby Team landed at Plymouth, England. The team played three exhibition games in London against British rugby clubs in order to "get in shape" before the Paris Olympic Games.
	April. In England, the U.S. Olympic Rugby Team was joined by Allen C. Valentine. Valentine, a Rhodes Scholar and All-American, was the only member of the team who was not from California.
	Circa April 27. The British Olympic Association gave a dinner for the U.S. Olympic Rugby Team at the Piccadilly Hotel in London.
	Circa April 28. The U.S. Olympic Rugby Team arrived in Paris. The team was made up of superb athletes including California football and basketball All-Americans. Many had never played rugby, but Coach Austin relied on his team's size, speed, stamina, and raw athletic ability to compensate for its technical deficiencies.
	Circa April-May. The U.S. Olympic Rugby Team was the target of French hostility. After immigration officials mistakenly refused the team entry into France and the American players forced their way off ship and onto dry land, the French press labeled the team, "street fighters and saloon brawlers." When American rugby team members ventured outside their Paris hotel, they were insulted and even spat upon by the French.
	Circa May. Cash and other possessions were stolen from the U.S. Olympic Team's dressing room while they were at practice.
	May. Three teams entered the Olympic rugby competition in Paris: France, the United States, and Romania.
	May 4. France won their rugby match against Romania, 61-3.
	May 11. The U.S. Olympic Rugby Team defeated Romania 37-0. The French crowd booed every American score, but both the American and French press noted the lack of violence and skilled nature of American play, along with the Americans' size and fitness.
	May 18. The U.S. Olympic Rugby Team won the gold medal by defeating France 17-3 at Colombes Stadium, which was filled with 50,000 spectators. The French rugby team was expected to easily beat the inexperienced American team. During the game, the French were devastated by American football-style tackling. The hits were within the rules of the game. The humiliating defeat of the French team angered their fans, who rioted in the stands and assaulted American supporters. The French fans threw bottles and rocks at the U.S. Olympic Rugby Team and tried to break through the tall wire fence that surrounded the playing field. Tens of thousand of hostile onlookers jeered the U.S. Olympic Rugby Team during the medal ceremony, the raising of the American flag, and the playing of the "Star Spangled Banner". After the ceremony, the U.S. Olympic Rugby Team was rescued from the rioting crowd by dozens of gendarmes. Due in part to the bad behavior of the French crowd and the lack of international participation in Olympic rugby matches, rugby was not included in future Olympic games. The French government later apologized for the behavior of the French fans, and soon after, the French press began to portray the U.S. Olympic Rugby Team as heroes.
	May 18. A banquet was given by the French Rugby Federation at Palais D'Orsay in honor of the Olympic Rugby Games. The U.S. Olympic Rugby Team attended this official banquet. The Prince of Wales was also a guest.
	May 19. American Friends of the U.S. Olympic Rugby Team, including Senator James D. Phelan, gave a banquet in honor of the team's Olympic victory. The banquet was held at the Inter-Allied Club of Paris. Many prominent Californians attended. Senator Phelan presented the team with medals and a statue that symbolized victory.
	May 21. Coach Austin and eight players left Paris for Cherbourg on the first leg of their journey home. They sailed for New York on the steamship, George Washington.The rest of the U.S. Olympic Rugby Team went their separate ways.
	Circa June 4. After traveling to Belgium and Switzerland, the Slater brothers, departed from Cherbourg and sailed for New York on the S.S. Leviathan.
	Circa June 15. The Slater brothers returned to the San Francisco Bay Area.
	Circa June. Mr. and Mrs. Robert (Bob) Lockhart held an open house in honor of Babe Slater upon his return to Woodland, California from the Paris Olympic Games.
	Circa June. Slater resumed farming in Woodland.
1924-1925	Dec. 25-Jan. 1. Rugby matches were held at Brockton Point, Vancouver, British Columbia. The California All-Stars (mainly made up of U.S. Olympic Rugby Team members, and including Babe Slater) beat the University of British Columbia 9-0, the "Reps" beat California 3-0, and California beat the Mainland All-Stars 15-0 in the final and deciding contest of the three game series.
1927	Dec. 4. Woodland's American Legion football team won the California State Championship. Woodland beat Merced 6-0 to win the Championship game, which was held at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. Slater both played for and coached the Woodland team.
Circa 1927	Slater moved to Clarksburg, California. At Gus Olson's urging, he bought 100 acres of rich farming land located in the Holland Land Company subdivision at Clarksburg.
Circa 1927-1955	On his Clarksburg farm, Slater raised crops including: alfalfa, asparagus, barley, beet and carrot seed, dry beans, peas, safflower, sugar beets, tomatoes, and wheat.
1928	October. Norman Slater moved to Clarksburg in order to farm with his brother. Norman had been a mechanic for the Associated Oil Company in San Francisco.
Circa 1930s-1960s	Slater was active in University of California, Davis groups including the Cal Aggie Alumni Association, Friends of the Davis Campus, the UC Davis Alumni Agricultural Advisory Committee, the UC Davis Alumni Scholarship Foundation, and Sword in Sandals.
1930-1931	May 5. The Clarksburg Community Church Council approved the building of scout cabins in Clarksburg. A committee was formed with Slater as Chairman of Construction, and the community worked together to build the cabins.
1932	Slater married Virginia Cave at the Clarksburg Community Church.
1932-1933	Slater was one of a group of Clarksburg farmers who leased a cannery in order to can and sell their asparagus crops.
1933	Daughter, Marilyn was born. She was the Slaters' only child.
Circa 1946	A committee of Clarksburg residents (including Babe and Norman Slater) with the help of the Yolo County Extension Service initiated the establishment of a fire district for Clarksburg.
1947	April 19. Babe Slater, Robert G. Sproul, Claude P. Hutchison, Judge Peter J. Shields, Robert (Bob) Lockhart, J. E. Coke, G. H. Hecke, and Stanley Freeborn were among the honored guests at Picnic Day on the UC Davis campus.
	Norman Slater was elected fire chief and served until retirement in 1962. Babe Slater served as a commissioner of the Clarksburg Fire Department.
Circa 1948	Mother, Louise, died.
1951	April 14. Slater and California Governor Earl Warren were among the honored guests at Picnic Day on the University of California, Davis campus.
	Circa January. Slater was elected President of the Yolo County Farm Bureau. Over the years, he and Mrs. Slater went on many Farm Bureau trips including travel to Australia, Belgium, Germany, Japan, and Mexico.
1952	January. Slater was reelected as Yolo County Farm Bureau President, and the Bureau held its 37th annual meeting in Woodland. More than 600 persons attended the business meeting and accompanying bean feed, awards presentations, and entertainment.
	December. Thirty-five Yolo County Farm Bureau members including Mr. and Mrs. Babe Slater boarded a special train at Davis, California, joining 175 northern Californians and 255 southern Californians on their way to a ten-day American Farm Bureau Federation convention in Seattle, Washington. The group also toured Victoria, British Columbia.
1955	Circa May. Daughter, Marilyn graduated from the University of California, Davis. She had been a yell leader (1955), a member of the Alpha Omega sorority (1955), a member of the Cal Club (1954, 1955), Director of Reception for Picnic Day (1954), Junior Class Secretary (1954), a member of the Rally Committee (1953, 1955), Picnic Day Secretary (1953), and a homecoming princess (1952, 1953, 1955).
	August. Daughter, Marilyn married Richard McCapes in Sacramento.
	Slater retired from farming.
Circa 1955	After retirement, Mr. and Mrs. Babe Slater bought a vacation home at Dillon Beach near Bodega Bay, California.
1956	April 21. Slater judged the Picnic Day Parade at the University of California, Davis.
1956, 1957	Active in the Cal Aggie Alumni Association, Slater arranged reunions for the classes of 1916 and 1917 to be held on the University of California, Davis campus during Picnic Day. The classes of 1914 and 1915 were also invited.
1957, 1958	April. Mr. and Mrs. Slater were among the honored guests at Picnic day on the University of California, Davis campus.
1961	April. Slater, Robert (Bob) Lockhart, and other "old-timers" rode in the University of California, Davis Picnic Day Parade. They would attend a reunion of the Class of 1916.
1965	Jan. 30. Colby E. Babe Slater died.
	The Calpha agricultural fraternity established the Colby E. "Babe" Slater Memorial Athletic Award at the University of California, Davis. This annual award went each spring to the Davis student selected as Athlete of the Year. Associated with the award was the "Babe" Slater Perpetual Athletic Trophy.
Circa 1970	Brother, Norman Slater, a longtime Clarksburg resident, moved to Sacramento.
1973	June 14. Babe Slater was posthumously inducted into the Woodland Athletic Hall of Fame. His wife, Virginia, accepted the award at the first annual awards dinner in Woodland.
1980	Oct. 10. Babe Slater was posthumously inducted into the newly formed Cal Aggies Athletic Hall of Fame at the University of California, Davis. His wife, Virginia, accepted the award at the first annual induction banquet. Chancellor James H. Meyer presented each hall-of-famer with a plaque commemorating his induction.
1991	Nov. 15. Mrs. Slater (Virginia Cave Slater) died.
2003	December. Marilyn Slater McCapes and Richard H. McCapes donated the Colby E. "Babe" Slater Collection to Special Collections at the General Library of the University of California, Davis.
2004	February. Marilyn Slater McCapes and Richard H. McCapes presented Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of California, Davis with Babe Slater's two Olympic gold medals.

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