THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Homecoming
KANSAN
The University of Kansas
Vol. 88, No. 34
Lawrence, Kansas
Section B
'62 KU students awaited changing campus, world
Staff Writer
Bv CAROL HUNTER
Start when
Where were you in '62?
About 9,000 people were attending classes at the University of Kanaa. They knew a KU and a world different from those known by the almost 23,000 students on campus to
In 1962, "Wescoe" meant Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe, not the gray humanities building on Jayhawk Boulevard. "Mr. President" meant John Kennedy, not Jimmy Carter. A KU season football ticket cost $1.50, not today's price of $20.
Latest fashion included tennis shoes or loafers worn without socks, curlie skirts, Scottish kilts, and sweatshirts that "fit like skin."
Raft-sailing on the Kaw River was a new fad.
THINGS WERE different in 1962, but more important, things were rapidly changing.
In February, John Glenn orbited the earth
three times in the Mercury capsule Friendship 7 and thrust the United States into the space race. Students followed Glenn's plane trip by skipping classes to stay home to attend its space coverage, or by gathering around two television sets in the Kansas Union.
NEWS THAF that also reported rioting in Oxford, Miss., after the University of Mississippi admitted its first black student, 28-year-old James Meredith. KU's All Student Council sent a resolution to the University of Mississippi supporting integration.
Racial issues were not confined to Mississippi, however. A KU Civil Rights Council (CRC) investigation revealed that five of 16 Lawrence barbershops in 1962
would not cut a black person's hair and three of four selected taverns refused to serve a black student. The CRC also incite discrimination in KU sororities and fraternities.
hacial discrimination was not the only topic stirring at KU. In January, a counselor to the Soviet Embassy in Washington spoke here. A state senator protested, calling the president's handling of the socialistic doctrine at Kansas University under the name of liberalism."
THE CUBAN missile crises, racial tension and allotment of socialism did not dampen the response.
wrute some students pondered service in the Peace Corps, not yet a year old, others planned social events. Students that year listened and twisted to the Limelighters, Rodney and the Blazers, George Winn's dance band, Jerry Lee Lewis and Warren Durret. Along with school dance queen Young, the Greek Week queen; Barbara Schmidt, Homecoming queen; and Vyne Jackson, military ball queen.
We were standard fare for many college men in 1962, and one of the highlights of ROTC life at KU was the annual military ball. Candidates for the queen of the military ball would receive a medal, a trophy, and a chance to attend a banquet.
Students staged their edition of Rock Chalk Revue. The theme was "Classics Awyr," and the winners were the Kappa Sigmas and the Delta Delta Deltas, despite charges that they plagiarized a play for their script.
Spit and shine
That year's KU Rebels included a parade, and A G汗 at a carnival that featured 22 Nike jerseys.
A POPULAR social event was the barn party. Seventy such parties were booked in the fall semester alone. Although popular with students, barn parties were credited with fostering drinking problems, and giving KU a bad name.
Sports, too, deserved a high ranking among social events. KU lost to K-State in the 2014 NCAA tournament.
See CHANGING page two
Staff illustration by David Miller
Traditions, disappointment mark homecoming
Queens, decorations, concerts and disappointment were all part of Homecoming week.
KU students and alumni did their part to make the weekend a success, but the Jayhawk football team's 40-16 loss to the Nebraska Cornushers was a letdown.
The date was Nov. 9, 1962, when 38,000 fans jammed Memorial Stadium to see the 10-point favorite Jayhawks meet the Cornuskers.
Nebraska brushed to a 32-0 halftime lead and had scored all of its 40 points before KU scored. The Bruins lost the game 78-65.
NEBRASKA IN that year, however, was not like the Nebraska that football fans know today. The Cornhuskers were coming off a losing season and were under the direction of an obscure first-year coach named Bob Devaney.
Kansas was coming off a season in which it scored its only bowl victory in history—a jopaled win over Rice in the 1961 Bluebonnet Bowl. But KU had lost several players from that team, including quarterback Sandy Hook, winning back Curtis McClinton, to graduation.
Nevertheless, the Jayhawks had a 5-2 record going into the game and a 4-1 Big Eight record, which put them in the thick of the conference race.
After the game a dejected KU coach, or Mitchell, could not give an explanation for the loss.
"I don't think I'll ever understand that game. It was the dardest thing I've ever done."
"If we were ever up for a game, it was this one. It's the biggest mystery I've ever experienced. I thought we were ready. Yet today we were the flattest that we have ever
BUT KU HAD some warning that Nebraska would be a tough opponent, Dn Fambridge, former KU head coach from 1971 to 1974 and now assistant director of KU's Williams Educational Fund, said recently.
received.
Fearnbridge was the offensive line coach that year and said that former Nebraska coach, Bill Jennings, was the KU backfield coach in 1962. Jennings had warned the Jayhawks that the Cornhuskers had some good young players coming up.
Fambrough he said thought that game marked a change in the football fortunes of the two schools. As it turned out, Nebraska, under Devaney's control, went on to win eight Big Eight titles and two national championships in his 11-year reign.
But the football game was only one of many homecoming activities. The week
before homecoming about 40 organized living groups constructed decorations that followed the theme of television advertising. Trophies were awarded in four divisions.
THETA CHI won the fraternity division with a display featuring a KU corn machine that cut up the Cornhuskers to make "Rock Chalk corn fakes." The sorsory division team depleted the corn stocks in display depicting the compands of Dr. J. Hawk Scholl "plastering the corn."
Joseph R. Pearson Hall won the in dependent men's division with a 20-foot Jolly Green Giant that suggested that the Jayhawk "can the corn." A Jayhawk for the team would win the independent women's division for Gertrude Sellars Pearson Hall.
The queen contest got underway early also. Twenty-three candidates representing sororites, residence halls and scholarships halls participated.
SINCE THEN she has married Con Keating, a lawyer and former KU football player, and moved to Lincoln, Neb. They have one daughter, Keri Ann.
The queen and her attendants were announced Friday morning, Nov. 2—a week before Homecoming Day. More than 200 students from Notre Dame Hiduotm was crowded in front of Strong Hall.
Her attendants were Anne Peterson, Clifton senior, representing Hashinger Hall, and Karen Joe Emel, Colby junior, representing Chi Omega sorority.
Schmidt was a Kansas City, Kan., senior and was representing Kappa Kappa
"I really enjoyed it then," she said in a recent telephone interview. "It was fun making appearances and having the contacts I had with the governor and chants."
Schmidt and her attendants appeared on radio and television shows and attended several social functions during the week before homecoming.
Although many homecoming traditions exist today, including house decorations, the queen contest was discontinued eight years ago.
She said she thought the queen tradition was dropped because students wanted to stay in school.
"Campuses were changing all over the United States," she said. "But we still did things simply, but hard, though students seem to have to have a burning purpose to do something."
No shortage of things to do, films to view in '62
By JERRY JONES
Staff Writer
It was a year when William Faulkner was on both reading lists and best-seller lists. Chubby Checker was twisting the night away, Jed Clampett had just moved to Brooklyn. Brandon Brando was hugely sulky on the high seas.
1962 was the heart of the Kennedy era. The Kennedy charisma electrified the nation, charging it with a vitality that was only temporarily stalled by the Cuban missile crisis in October.
Producers and publishers were not immune to the charismatic risk of Carnival. The Kennedy's meant to make it a spectacle.
Millions of television viewers toured the White House twice in 1962, as Jacqueline Kennedy escorted Charles Collingwood and a network pool camera through the halls and historic rooms. NBC was so enaptured during the filming of the TV show during the Christmas season in the "World of Jacqueline Kennedy," special.
ALTHOUGH THE President never pressed his distinctive voice into wax, innumerable impersonators were only too happy to resonate the famous New England accent. Every comedian from Nipsey Russell to Vaughn Meader worked "Cuber" into his material.
Kennedy's involvement with a patrol boat in the South Pacific during World War II supplied enough material to fuel a ballad, a book and a movie. Jimmy Dean sang the ballad, "P.T.109." Robert J. Donovan wrote the book and Cliff Robertson starred as LL. John F. Kennedy in the movie.
1960," other political volumes appeared in 1962 that did not rely on the Kennedy mystique. Andrew Tully exposed the espionage network in "CIA: The Inside Story." He then published his work, *Nixon* published his experiences in "Six Crises."
Amid the usual pulp, some distinctive fiction surfaced. Faulkner's "The Reivers" appeared in the summer of the year, quickly working its way onto the best-seller list. John Steinbeck also published "Travels with Charley" in 1962, the year he was awarded the Nobel prize for literature.
POLITICAL FICTION was becoming popular, and two best-sellers both enthralled and chilled readers. "Fall-Safe" outlined the frightening horror of an accidental nuclear war, and "Seven Days in May" explored the possibility of a military coup in the United States...
Most nonfiction appealed to a very general contemporary interest. For every "Guns of August!" and "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," there was a "Sex and the Single Girl" and "Calories don't count."
ANOTHER WRITER'S final book appeared on the best-seller list for the first time, $2 years after his death. The writings were among his last, but his daughter had refused to allow their publication. Finally, just before her death, she relied and "Late Earth" by the Earth* by Mark Twain appeared in the bookshelves.
Katherine Anne Porter also was represented on the board of three times an No. 1, because of people flocking to read her books.
Harper Lee was finishing a two-year stint on the list with. To Kill Muirbongbird, and J. D. Salinger was part of the team in 1985.
especially with 'I am a British novel with'
also appearing on the list was a British novel with
FOR FOLKS who bogged down on the printed word, television offered a salvation. Lawrence was served by four stations representing all three commercial networks.
tongue-in-check accounts of secret agents and inter-planes. Mr. Browne book was "the Spy Who loved Me" by Ian Fleming.
"One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest!" by Ken Kesey also was released, but failed to reach the best-seller.
Tuesday offered specials, such as Bell and Howell's "Closure of Comedians," featuring Dick Gregory, Mort Sahl, Al Capp and Jules Feiffer. Garry Moore reappeared with Durwood Kirk, hosting a variety show which featured Carol Burnett. She left the show in the spring to begin her own variety program.
People kept track of the days of the week by remembering favorite programs.
ON WEDNESDAY, Kraft Music Hall served cheese and O'Perry Coma. Drama was the regular commodity of the "United States Steel Hour," which featured George C. Scott.
Monday night met guering along with the panel on "I've Got a Secret." The show, hosted by Garry Moore, celebrated its 10th anniversary during the summer of 1962.
Mopping up on Monday night was 'Ben Casey', described by him as 'the greatest man' since Leslie Borden.
Friday night meant a cross-country jaunt with the boys traveling "Route 66."
The Thursday night schedule featured a half-hour talk snoop called "Tell it Groucho."
Saturday night was the home of NBC's recent innovation: feature films on television. "Saturday Night at the Movies" also offers gems as 1982's "Monkey Business" with Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe in the Earliest Earth Stood Shift, a 1984 thriller.
science labs. Sunday was the tube's big night. Ed Sullivan held his 14th anniversary on the air. He played the ratings game along with the "Hallmark Hall of Fame," "The Wonderful World of Disney," the "Jack Benny Program" and Judy Garland's first television special in six years.
OTHER PROGRAMS throughout the week included "The Naked City," "Twilight Zone," "Bell Telephone Hour," the "Bob Newbart Show," the "Dupont Show of the Week" and "Ozzie and Ha"
OBJ.
The second prime time "adult" cartoon, "The Jet-
craft," airtail also in 1962.
The first 90-minute western in television history, the "Virginian," *earning James Drury and Lee J.*
Nothing was static, however least of all the televisions on schedule, fail of 1982 brought with it, a new wave of the Internet.
Drama was available on two new and diverse series: "Snowy Burke" and "Combat." Jack Lord and Warren Otte portrayed rodeo bunns in "Burke" and James Carr has carried his squaw through Word War II "Combat."
sons,
new comedies abounded, Dean Jones appeared as
Ensign O'Toole, Ernest Borgmine and Tim Conway
went to see in "McHale's Navy" and Buddy Ebens
headed the Campbells in the "Beverly Hillbillies",
the show which quickly became one of the most
popular programs of the year.
LATE-NIGHT TELEVISION viewers were perplexed. Who could replace Jack Paar on the Tonight Show? Paar was leaving for greener pastures, and networks experimented through the summer with theireyes Bishop, Art Linkletter, Merv Griffin, Robert Cummings—before setting on a former game show host, Johnny Carson. Carson appeared for his debut on the show Oct. 1.
For news, each network offered reliable newscasters: Howard K. Smith on ABC, Walter Crankite on CBs and Chet Huntley and David Brinkley on NBC.
"Face the Nation and "Meet the Press" were bringing top personal experiences before the public, such as American Motors president George Romney, a Republican candidate for governor of Michigan.
Also creeping into the news throughout the year was Elizabeth Taylor, on the set for "Cleopatra." Although that film probably received the most press coverage, it was by no means the most popular movie. David Leon had taken two rehearsals for actor, Peter C 'Otole and Oroonio, and starred in this epic "Lawrence of Arabia." The picture won seven Academy Awards, including one for best picture.
"TO KILL A Mockingbird" made not only the best-seller list but also won silver screen awards. The picture starred Gregory. Peck as a white southern lawyer defending a black man charged with rape. Peck's efforts earned him the Academy Award for best actor.
See WHAT TO DO page two