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O’Malley was a talented communicator who even traveled with and wrote a column for The Vedette student paper about the teams at his alma mater Culver Military Academy. In 1922, he was named associate editor of The Vedette staff. His fairly short baseball playing career ended at Culver when he was hit on the nose by a ball. A hot grounder to him at first base caromed off his nose, breaking it, leading doctors to advise him not to play without wearing his glasses, something that wasn’t in vogue at the time.
“Yes, they banged my nose open and I was also handicapped by the fact that I wore glasses and, at that time, there weren’t many players who wore glasses,” said O’Malley.12 “I played a little baseball there, but I just wasn’t good at all.”13 He took to the sidelines and became a manager for the baseball team.
Besides his parents’ strong influence, O’Malley would learn proper etiquette for behavior, dining and interacting with others at Culver. In the Roll Call yearbook at Culver for 1921-22, a description of O’Malley said, “A pleasing personality is perhaps his greatest asset, and with it he has won himself many friends. His next greatest feature is his home town, and although there may be many people in it, he is sure to come to the front before long.”14 He also learned how to properly shoot firearms in a safe manner. O’Malley earned a commission as 2nd lieutenant reserve in the U.S. Army in 1922 upon graduating from Culver.
O’Malley enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania following Culver. The popular leader became Penn’s first two-time class president in 25 years by successfully running campaigns and being elected for his junior and senior years in 1924-25 and 1925-26. He chaired the Penniman Bowl contest for two years; was President of the Theta Delta Chi Fraternity; a member of the Scabbard and Blade Honorary Military Fraternity; the Vigilance Committee; the Friars Senior Society; secretary of Cadet Officer’s Club; and treasurer, Culver Club at Penn.
“An interesting thing, when I got to college, I was elected senior class president and chairman of the student council,” said O’Malley. “And with those two positions went the privilege of serving on one of the most important sports committees on the council on athletics. Up until this time, the senior president had always elected to go on the football committee. But for some reason, and I really don’t know why, I elected to go on the baseball committee. And I was the first senior president to ever do that. There must have been something lurking in my system somewhere at that time because I went the baseball route instead of football.”15
He continued, “I was there (at Penn) from 1922 until I graduated in 1926. I was in the college and my degree was Bachelor of Arts. But, in the last two years, you are permitted a great many elective subjects and I took most of my elective subjects in courses that would lay the groundwork for engineering, in the event I wanted to make that a career or a profession.”16
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At Culver Military Academy, Walter O’Malley was associate editor of the school’s newspaper, The Vedette. |
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Walter O’Malley was a member of the Scabbard and Blade Honorary Military Fraternity at the University of Pennsylvania. |
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Walter O’Malley (right) graduating with high honors at the University of Pennsylvania on June 16, 1926. |
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