{"id":4276,"date":"2010-07-29T14:04:51","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T19:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=4276"},"modified":"2015-09-25T13:33:24","modified_gmt":"2015-09-25T17:33:24","slug":"brock-lore-student-falls-off-escarpment-at-alphies-trough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2010\/07\/brock-lore-student-falls-off-escarpment-at-alphies-trough\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock lore: Student falls off escarpment at Alphie\u2019s Trough"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alphie's

Alphie's Trough<\/p><\/div>\n

For students who attended Brock between the 1970s and the 1990s, Alphie\u2019s Trough was the place to be. Named after Alfred, Maj.-Gen. Sir Isaac Brock\u2019s horse, Alphie\u2019s Trough was Brock\u2019s original campus pub \u2014 a three-story chalet overlooking the scenic, tree-covered Niagara escarpment.<\/p>\n

Rumour has it that Alphie\u2019s Trough was closed in the 1990s because too many students had injured themselves (or died) by falling off the escarpment.<\/p>\n

Fact or fiction?<\/p>\n

In an interview with Paul Dwyer, Brock\u2019s Manager of Hospitality Services from 1981 to 1992, we learn that there is some truth to this story.<\/p>\n

Dwyer shares the story of a well-liked man named Patrick (pseudonym). A student in his second or third year at Brock, Patrick was the type of young man one could bring home to meet mom and dad. He was polite, kind and was respectful of others. He rarely drank and loved to dance, especially at Alphie\u2019s.<\/p>\n

One afternoon, Patrick and his don from DeCew Residence headed to Hartzel Road to play some pool. The two of them were pretty skilled at billiards, and as a result, acquired numerous free drinks from their competitors.<\/p>\n

After several hours of competition, Patrick and his friend left the pool hall and Patrick made his way to Alphie\u2019s to dance. According to Dywer, Patrick was doing the \u201cbob and weave \u2014 one step forward, two steps back.\u201d Dywer invited Patrick to walk back with him to DeCew Residence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the first time I had ever seen Patrick intoxicated,\u201d commented Dwyer. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen him drink more than three or four beers.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he arrived at DeCew Residence, Dywer found Patrick\u2019s don passed out on the hallway floor. He wrapped his arms around Patrick\u2019s shoulder, led him to his room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave him the big uncle talk\u201d, explains Dywer. \u201cI told him that he shouldn\u2019t be seen intoxicated in public. Campus security might find him and reprimand him for his actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dywer left Patrick in him room and then headed back to Alphie\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Forty-five minutes later Patrick returned to the pub.<\/p>\n

This time Dwyer called security. \u201cI thought that maybe seeing a guy in a uniform would make Patrick realize that he should probably head back to his room,\u201d said Dwyer.<\/p>\n

After security led Patrick back to his room, Dwyer decided it was going to be a slow night at the pub and headed home.<\/p>\n

Forty-five minutes to an hour after he had arrived home, Dwyer received a phone call from his staff. Someone had jumped into the ravine.<\/p>\n

Dwyer rushed back to campus. By the time he arrived, firefighters had already started to retrieve the jumper \u2014 Patrick. Miraculously, he only had minor cuts and bruises on him.<\/p>\n

So what happened?<\/p>\n

\u201cA doorman had exited the pub for some fresh air,\u201d explains Dwyer. \u201cSeeing the doorman, Patrick must have thought he\u2019d been discovered. He took off running to the other side of the pub but instead of simply climbing the steps that led up the escarpment to Brock\u2019s main building, he jumped over the snow fence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrick fell more than 50 feet and landed on a pile of leaves and garbage, just missing jagged rocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was really lucky to have survived that fall,\u201d Dwyer said. \u201cThe emergency personnel told me that it was probably a good thing he was intoxicated, because otherwise he would have used his arms and legs to break his fall. He survived because of the way he fell and where he landed.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if this was the reason Alphie\u2019s Trough was closed, Dwyer explained that it most definitely was not.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people say that Alphie\u2019s was closed because too many people died from falling off the edge, intoxicated,\u201d said Dwyer. \u201cTo the best of my knowledge, and in the 10 years I\u2019ve worked at Alphie\u2019s, Patrick was the only person to have fallen into the escarpment. They shut down Alphie\u2019s because it was becoming too small. It could not accommodate the growing student population.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Alphie\u2019s Trough opened in 1970, only 3,625 attended Brock. The pub could accommodate 245 people, or seven per cent of the student population. When Alphie\u2019s Trough closed, Brock had over 11,000 students.<\/p>\n

In 1992 Alphie\u2019s Trough closed on a Wednesday night and Isaac\u2019s Bar and Grill opened on a Thursday night.
\n\u201cIsaac\u2019s can hold over 800 people inside and out\u201d, said Dwyer. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t have the same charm as Alphie\u2019s\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rumour has it that Alphie’s Trough was closed in the 1990s because too many students had injured themselves (or died) by falling off the escarpment. Fact or fiction?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119],"tags":[3333,201],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4276"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4276"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33781,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4276\/revisions\/33781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}