On March 17, 1919, a chapter of the student engineering society’s Order of the Knights of St. Patrick or Guard of St. Patrick was inaugurated. Eligible seniors were inducted into the knighthood and presented green certificates. During the initiation ceremony, each initiate was allowed to kiss the sacred Blarney stone and receive the gift of speech.
The St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and dances given by the engineering students in 1919 and 1920 were among the signature events of the school year. St. Patrick’s Day was later (1921) renamed ACE Day—American Collegiate Engineer Day—a function of the Association of Collegiate Engineers. The tradition of association of engineering with St. Patrick had its beginnings in the 1903 assertion of a student at the Missouri School of Mines that certain hieroglyphics in the Blarney Stone might well be translated “liberally” to indicate that St. Patrick was an engineer. The University of Missouri started a movement for the nationalization of the Guard of St. Patrick, which was accomplished in 1919 when 11 colleges became charter members at the first national convention. At the second convention of the organization, the name was changed and the constitution modified because several universities indicated that anti-Irish sentiment in their areas prevented them from participating. The annual celebration of the engineering college, renamed ACE Day, was moved to April 1 in 1921.