By Dr. Frank McCoy
Palmer Hall is a huge building. It has a 1100 foot auditorium. As far as the students are concerned, their contact with the ghost occured on College Night. College Night was recognized by the Smithsonian Institute this year as having the longest-running continous student-produced and directed student show in the country. It is a really intense rivalry. You declare that you are gold or purple (the schools colors). Then you go through various atheletic competitions followed by debates. Then it culminates in a series of nights beginning on Wensday and ending on Saturday. Each group writes, produces, choreographs, and acts in a production it has written. Then on Saturday, a winner is declared. Probably no more then ten days a year do students have an interest in Palmer, but during that time, the rivalry and intense emotion are raucous on College Night.
The ghost of college night is Traumbauer. They affectionately call him Trummy. He liked theater and he liked the University of Montevallo. There is a Trumbauer award given by the theater department every year. Supposedly, Trummy was miffed because his name was left off the outside of the building. He had something to do with designing it. So upon his death, he decided to get even with the people who used the hall, not in a malicious way, but more in the spirit of College Night, which is intense but fun. So Trummy will wander backstage and appear and dissappear as students are getting ready. Most of these students have never appeared on stage before and certainly not in front of 1100 people with bands playing and cheerleaders and that sort of thing. So the fact that they would see an apparition in the labyrinth below the stage is understandable. Every once in a while, he gets really mischievous and determines the outcomes of the competition by spinning one of the statues, and where it points towards the gold side or the purple side wins the award for the year.