The VU Centennial Class

VU Class of 1973 35th Reunion--Day 2

2008-10-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of John Russell, Vanderbilt University
Well, despite our highest hopes and expectations, the football thing didn't go very well Saturday afternoon. Dudley Field was again a dud for Homecoming.

But that didn't stop the VU Centennial Class from throughly enjoying a wonderful Day 2 of our Reunion weekend, which began with a morning brunch at the home of Wendy and Buzz Martin.

It gave everyone a chance to visit again, including seeing some folks who had not made it in Friday for the educational classes and the Class Party. For me that included Dan Brown, who when we were freshman worked together (he was the D.J, I was the newsman) on a Noon to 2 shift at WRVU Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

It was the first time I had seen Dan in some years and we laughed about the time, he left the studio and came running down the stairs at Neely to the second floor landing to get a soft drink. I was there too. But Dan in his haste, let the door leading back up to the studio slam behind him (and it locked!).

Needless to say when the record Dan had on the air, ended, we were basically off the air (dead air we called it),until Mary Bristow, the station's business manager, came in about an hour later (she had a key).

All kinds of long-ago stories were being told at the brunch as folks brought photo albums, yearbooks and even our freshman annual (I think most people called it the pig book). It was fun poking through all the stuff and recognizing each other.

After that, it was on to the Homecoming tailgate and then the game.

While we were all hoping to celebrate a bowl-qualifying victory after the game, there is nothing quite like a fried chicken dinner at Loveless (including all the other trimmings, such as those wonderful biscuits, homemade preserves,country ham, mashed potatoes and green beans)to put the real comfort in comfort food.

Kacky Fell along with David and Anne Walker, enjoy good food and an evening with good friends at Loveless.

Mark Esterle re-unites with fellow Class of '73 members Charlie Burnett and Susan Fritts Burnett at dinner at Loveless

Ellen Brooks, Tina Fast & Linda Henderson at Loveless.

Randy and Carol Lang Matz

John Holland and his wife Lori

The Loveless dinner was not an "official" Reunion event. Neither was the brunch at Kacky Fell's held Sunday morning before everyone went their separate ways until we meet again for our 40th Class Reunion in 2013 (although hopefully I will see most of these folks long before that).

This 35th Reunion was a lot of fun for me, especially doing this blog. But, it's not the parties, the brunches, the educational sessions, or the football game (of course), that make it all so memorable. It's seeing and being with all the folks above and all the other former classmates I visited with this past weekend, which makes this such a special event.

And so our Reunion is history. I may well be posting a few more things in the next few days. There ar stories and items I didn't get to in the months and weeks leading up to our event.

I hope you'll check back. But if not, it's really been a lot of fun. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog as much I did producing it!

Oh What A Night!

2008-10-24T22:05:00.000-07:00

With Vanderbilt's new Chancellor Nick Zeppos joining us, over 200 members of the Centennial Class of 1973, their spouses and significant others, celebrated a wonderful Reunion evening at the new Student Life Center on Friday evening, October 24.

The Class Party had plenty of good times for all. But more than the wonderful food and great '60s and '70s music provided by a DJ, what most folks really seemed to relish the most was just the chance to see old friends again, some for the first time in many years.

Jim Lober returns to campus to catch up with former classmates

Of course, a little liquid refreshment helped the evening along, as did the slide show of old pictures that flashed high on the wall near the front of the ballroom....

Barry Banker was seen often during the evening with a broad grin on his face and why not. He headed up a fund raising effort that saw the Class raise a record $2.8 million for the University. He and Class Reunion Chair, John Stein, did a fabulous job, as did all the others who helped plan the party.

The Centennial Class 35th Reunion--Day One

2008-10-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

What a great first day!

The rain stopped and the sun even came out for a while.

But the true highlight of the afternoon came when Vice Chancellor David Williams delivered his "History of Motown" presentation to the Class of '73 and other alumni classes making their reunion return to Vanderbilt this weekend.

Williams grew up in Detroit in the same neighborhood where Motown was located. He knew many of the people involved in developing this famous American musical institution. So many of the stories he told had such deep personal insights, it really made the history come to life. And of course, the Motown music he played was fabulous and had many in the crowd singing and moving with the beat.

David Williams is a true renaissance man. Not only is he Vice Chancellor, but he also acts as University Counsel and Vanderbilt's de-facto Athletic Director. It is no mistake that under his leadership Vanderbilt is enjoying a period of success almost unparalleled in its history on the playing fields, and in how its athletes perform in the classroom and in university life.

But the surprise to me about his presentation was his own life-long love of music. He performed and even majored in the subject for a while in college. While doing that, he was encouraged by a friend to come join a new singing group that soon was recording with Motown and acting as the lead act for The Jackson 5 on the road.

That group was The Commodores! Here, courtesy of You Tube, are The Commodores performing one of their biggest hits (I think it was a hit while we were in school and played for years at almost every frat party you attended):"Brick House."

You can tell Vice Chancellor Williams truly loves his subject matter when it comes to Motown. When you think he was almost a member of the Commodores and is now Vanderbilt's Athletic Director, I guess you can say, one way or the other, he was always destined to be a Commodore.

Go Vandy!

My Favorite Concert--The Fifth Dimension

2008-10-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

We've written a lot on this blog about the various concerts we enjoyed while we were students at Vanderbilt.

But my personal favorite is one I attended off-campus downtown at Municipal Auditorium. It was in the spring of 1972 and the group performing was the fabulous Fifth Dimension.

Why it is my favorite? That's easy. While I really like the Fifth Dimension,the concert is my favorite because it was the first date I had with my future wife, Betty Lee Love, also a member of the Class of '73. In fact, I still have one of the ticket stubs from that night in my keepsake drawer.

Actually, the Fifth Dimension concert was my second attempt to take out Betty Lee. She turned me down when I asked the first time (to see a Barbara Streisand movie) because she already had a date that night. I learned later she was very unhappy she had to turn me down, so she was hoping I would ask again.

So, courtesy of YouTube, here's the group that brought us together over 36 years ago, singing a medley of several of their hit songs from the late '60s and early '70s....

The Centennial Class Returns!

2008-10-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

It's Reunion Weekend!

Welcome back, Class of 1973!

Sure, we are off to a soggy start, but the forecast is for better weather this afternoon with rain slowly ending, then dry conditions for our Class Party tonight and sunny skies for the Brunch and Homecoming Game Saturday afternoon.

I'm sure you recognize the two fellows in the picture above: Deans K.C. Potter and James Sandlin.

If you spent too much time with these guys while you were at Vandy, it probably wasn't a good thing (although you could often hang out with K.C. at Rotier's and have a good time).

We're going to continue to blog throughout Reunion weekend. If there's a topic or something you want to talk about or reminisce, leave a comment or find me at one of the Reunion events. We may also be adding some current photos from the Reunion festivities themselves.

But mostly we are just going to have a great time!

See you later today (Friday).

One More Motown!

2008-10-23T19:32:00.000-07:00

I hope this can hold us until tomorrow afternoon.

As we wait for our "History of Motown" lesson from Vanderbilt Vice Chancellor David Williams at 4:00 PM Friday in the Board of Trust Room at the new Student Life Center, how about some music from another Motown super group:

Gladys Knight And The Pips, with their smash hit: "I Heard Through The Grapevine" from 1971:

Or how about this song from the year we graduated from Vanderbilt
(1973): "The Midnight Train to Georgia:"

Until tomorrow at 4:00 PM. It's going to be a great program and a great way to kick off our Reunion Weekend!

Our Concerts 19691973: Volume VI & VII

2008-10-23T17:22:00.000-07:00

Bread.

They were one of the top rock groups of the early 1970s and they came to Vanderbilt to perform at Memorial Gym while we were on campus. I went to the show, but I can't remember exactly what year or semester it was. Can you? I am pretty sure it was either sophomore or junior year, but my memory is fuzzy about that.

What I do recall is that I thought it was a great concert, and how neat it was to see, in person, a group whose songs we played all the time on WRVU.

Here, courtesy of You Tube, are a couple of their top hits, beginning with "If":

And here's "Make It With You" featuring lead singer David Gate...

Another concert I remember is when Joan Baez came to school, again to perform at Memorial Gym. I think it was during our senior year. It was another show I thoughly enjoyed.

With a look back, courtesy of YouTube, here's her big pop hit, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"....

And how about another one of her hit songs: "Diamonds and Rust:"

A Homecoming Prediction From 35 Years Ago

2008-10-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

Neil Skene was editor of THE VANDERBILT HUSTLER our senior year.

He's coming up back for Reunion and I am looking forward to seeing him on Friday. I'm pretty sure we haven't seen or talked to each other since we graduated in the spring of 1973, so that's pretty exciting.

On May 8, 1973, a little less than three weeks before we graduated, Neil wrote an article in the paper which amounted to kind of a prediction about our Class' future Reunions. It's turned out to pretty accurate. Here's what he wrote and my updates follow:

"....When Alumni and Development invites the Class of '73 back for its reunion, new dorms will probably be flung up.

(you gotta see the new freshman Commons over at Peabody).

New streets and sidewalks will lead us to new buildings.

(how about those two pontoon walking bridges over 21st Avenue and you won't believe all the other new buildings, especially around the Medical Center, as well as the Student Life and Student Rec Centers).

And maybe even liberals, if there are any left, will have short hair."

(I guess we'll need to wait for the November 4 election to figure out if any liberals are still surviving. Meanwhile for what it's worth, I'm getting a hair cut Friday morning).

In light of Neil's prediction, here's something kind of hard to believe.

This barber shop is still open and operating on the ground level of the Oxford House, which functioned as a dorm while we were students (my wife, Betty Lee, lived there junior year).

What are the odds that a place like this would still be there 35 years after we left, especially given all the other massive changes in that part of campus? But when you think about it, why not? If the folks operating this place could survive a time when nobody wanted to cut their hair, such as the years we were in school ...why not now?

I Hope You Are Coming Hungry!

2008-10-23T14:48:00.001-07:00

I am told it's going to be quite a spread at our Class Party on Friday night.

It all begins at 7:00 PM in the Student Life Center Ballroom. Just show up in what is described as "dressy, casual attire" and be ready to party.

There'll be a full bar and a buffet dinner (described in an e-mail I received from the Reunion Office as a "delicious man meal") including the following:

Rosemary Tenderloin Points with Herbed Cream Cheese

Curried Chicken Salad Tarts with Apple Chutney

Herbed Petite Shrimp Skewers

Roasted Harvest Vegetable Fritta Squares

European Baby Shrimp Cocktails in Tomato Cups

Carmelized Garlic Artichoke Dip with Tortillas

Fire Roasted Red Peppers and Pesto Terrine with Crostinis

Wild Blueberry Brie Bremers with Sage Honey Drizzle

Sliced Roasted Pork Loin on Rolls with Peach Chutney

Wow! Never had anything like this at Rand or the Elliston Place Soda Shop or Rotier's!

The theme is described as a "Grateful Dead-ish retro party" with special floral arrangements and LED lighting. There'll also be a DJ playing our favorite hits and a slideshow going all night showing many of the photos you've seen on this blog...as well as many others.

And if that's not enough to tucker you out for the evening, there will be an All-Class Band Party with desserts and drinks on Alumni Lawn from 10:00 PM to 1:00 PM.

Get ready!

The Commodore Awaits The Centennial Class

2008-10-23T14:22:00.000-07:00

Reunion Weekend begins in less than 24 hours!

Here are a couple of updates about our activities.

First, it appears, for the most part, the rain will be moving through Nashville overnight tonight (Thursday) and during the morning on Friday. So hopefully you won't need that umbrella. But bring it anyway because, as you'll recall from being in school here, you can never tell about Nashville weather.

Also remember, you can't use umbrellas in the football stadium. Hopefully, it will be sunny for the game as we beat the Duke Blue Devils Saturday afternoon to become bowl-eligible and record our first non-losing season since 1982.

As for the educational sessions Friday afternoon, a couple of location moves. Because of the popularity of the "Uncoventional Thinking about the 2008 Presidential Campaign" class with Political Science professor, Dr. John Greer, it has now been moved to the larger Board of Trust Room at the Student Life Center. It begins at 2:00 PM.

That's the same location as our "History of Motown" session at 4:00 PM. So just come early and get a seat. It's going to be crowded.

Or maybe you want move cross-campus to hear the Chancellor's speech which is now set for Alumni Lawn. It also begins at 3:00 PM.

So many choices, so little time. :)

See you in just a few hours!

The History of Motown Is Just Two Days Away

2008-10-22T12:41:00.000-07:00

Just two days from now (Friday, October 24),as a part of our 35th Reunion activities, Vanderbilt Vice-Chancellor David Williams will be giving his "History of Motown" presentation from 3:00 until 4:30 PM in the Board of Trust Room at the new Student Life Center on 25th Avenue South right across from Memorial Gym.

To get you in the mood, how about a double shot of Motown greats, beginning with Martha And The Vandellas, performing one of my favorite Motown hits.

It's about something all Vanderbilt fans will be doing this weekend after we defeat the Duke Blue Devils at our Homeconing game, making Vandy bowl eligible and giving the school, at the very least,its first non-losing season in football since 1982.

What other hit can it be, but "Dancing In The Streets". This particular video, courtesy of YouTube, seems to be from a performance on a TV dance show with some of the sub-titles appearing to be in Japanese?

Anyway, what ever language it's in, the song is still in English and it still sounds really great...

Want more Motown? How about Marvin Gaye, one of the greatest voices of all time, singing one his greatest hits, "What's Going On" from 1971. This YouTube video is set to video of some of the major news events of that year, so I think that makes it even interesting to listen to and watch....

See you Friday afternoon at 4:00. It's going to be a great show. Remember, one of last times the Nashville Vanderbilt Club put on the Vice Chancellor and his Motown history, people got so excited, they wouldn't go home!

If You're Flying In For Reunion...

2008-10-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

In just two days, we'll be back together again, filling these seats to celebrate our 35th Class Reunion.

I suspect a number of you may be flying into town for the event.If so, and you haven't been to Nashville in a while, you'll find our current airport a major upgrade from the dinky little Berry Field that was in use while we were at Vanderbilt from 1969 to 1973.

Since the 9/11 tragedies in 2001, air travel has become more and more of a hassle, especially going through the neccessary, but often annoying, passenger screenings and security.

But it is interesting to note, that passenger screenings first began at American airports just as we began our last semester at VU in January of 1973.

Here, courtesy of the Vanderbilt News Archives, is how The CBS Evening News reported on the beginning of airport passenger screenings. The date is Janaury 5, 1973 (not long before we all returned to classes after Christmas break). The anchor is Dan Rather, the reporter is Bill Plante...

Well, I guess you can see from this story that in many ways, some of the questions and controversies about passenger inspections and security (who pays and how much is too much) are still being fought.

Have a great trip and don't forget to bring an umbrella or a rain coat. An 80% chance of rain is predicted for Friday, hopefully coming through overnight and in the morning, then leaving before our afternoon and evening Reunion activities. And certainly we hope for sunny skies and dry conditions for the Homecoming game against Duke Saturday afternoon.

Go Vandy!

A Final Look Back At The Dead Concert

2008-10-21T18:23:00.000-07:00

Taking a final look back on this 36th anniversary of the Grateful Dead concert on the Vanderbilt campus, I have found some interesting questions to ask and some tidbits of information to share from some of my research into this event.

First, the question: What is the meaning of the Mickey Mouse-looking character that suddenly appeared on the Kirkland Hall clock face the morning of the concert?

In my limited research, I haven't been able to find any connection to the Grateful Dead for The Mouse, so what is it? I am missing something? That's always a real possibility. I led a sheltered life as a town student at Vanderbilt. :)

One last question, and its the most interesting question of all after 36 years, who is ready to fess up with the story for how Mr. Mouse got up there? We want names. We want intrique. We want the truth (think we can handle the truth?)

Your thoughts, memories and confessions are welcome below by clicking on the comments link. Don't worry surely the statutue of limitations have run out by now about the Mouse. I am sure after all these years, even Disney won't care about this possible copyright infringement. Heck, it really doesn't look that much like Mickey really.

Just give us something new and different to laugh about this weekend at Reunion!

In the meantime how about one last song from the Dead. This time it's Jerry Garcia performing "Bird Song" which was one of the numbers done at the Vanderbilt concert. This particular performance, courtesy of YouTube, is from a 1980 show at Radio City Music Hall in New York City...

Here are a few other tidbits of information I have learned.The Grateful Dead came to Vanderbilt in between a show in St. Louis and one in Minneapolis. It was at the concert at The Performing Arts Center in Minneapolis, after leaving Nashville, where apparently some problems occurred with the crowd.

Says an e-mail I found on one of the Dead web sites: "This (The Performing Arts Center) was/is an elegant venue. Some ner'do-wells either intentionally smashed a huge widow to the vestibule or were simply victims of the laws of physics. Hardly matters because the incident set the tone. Milwaukee, in those days, was under tyrannical seige by Mayor Meier, Police Chief Breier, His Honor Christ T. Seaphim...not to be riled. The show went on, but it felt like house arrest."

The e-mail continues:"Despite Bobby's pleas to the audience not to ruin future visits to venues of this ilk, some just felt compelled to take things a bit too far (burning pristinely cushy seats tends to ruffle feathers)....Jerry didn't smile the whole night. I was seated stage left a few rows away. No dancing allowed. Enough said."

Wow! I guess we were lucky our concert was outside, where the only thing we could damage with our dancing and whatever was the grass on Alumni Lawn...

Well, that's not the kind of grass I was talking about, but I am sure there was plenty of that kind of weed present there that day. Along with who knows what else.

In doing more research on the internet, I found some other very interesting e-mails posted on some of the Grateful Dead sites. One said he remembered the Vandy concert being delayed that Saturday from its 10:00 AM start time until closer to noon when the LSAT Exam, which was being given that day on campus, was over.

Does anyone know if that is correct?

I took the LSAT exam, and all I remember is getting out the exam and being attracted to the music on Alumni Lawn as I made my way to the WRVU studios over in Neely Auditorium. I quickly got caught up in helping out some members of the WRVU news staff, as we sold snack food and drink items out one of the ground floor windows to the very large and hungry crowd that was assembled.

Our food and drink was part of "The News Council General Store" (so called because members of the crack WRVU News Department operated this special enterprise). Usually only staff brought the stuff, but this day, we did so well, we had to go back out for supplies a couple of times, and we made a pretty nice piece of change for our efforts as I remember.

Another e-mail I found doing research on this concert, reminded me of how many non-Vanderbilt students attended. Even some who were definitely underage.

Said one e-mail I found: "I was too young to drive and I took the Greyhound bus to Nashville...walked down Broadway to VU. It was a beautiful Fall afternoon...the show was outdoors on a hillside (editor note:not really, it's pretty flat on Alumni Lawn, maybe a gradual rise). What a magical afternoon that was...Great show."

To which, all I can add, even 36 years later, is....Amen.

More From The Dead---36 Years Later

2008-10-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

As promised in the last posting, here's a chance to actually re-live a portion of the Vanderbilt Grateful Dead concert performed 36 years ago today.

Just click on the link below and it will take you to a web site that has a recording of six songs performed in the second set of the show. The songs include:

He's Gone
Greatest//Story Ever Told
Bird Song
Truckin'
The Other//One
Morning Dew

Just look to your right when you get on the site and you will see the songs listed above. Click on the play button and the music should start (although it is a bit faint at first). Enjoy!

http://www.archive.org/details/gd1972-10-21.set2-partial.sbd.rbbert.fix-94410.94453.flac16

Now for those of you who want still more: How about both sight and sound from this period performance by the Grateful Dead, courtesy of YouTube, from a concert performance in Copenhagen in April of 1972, just a few month before the group came to Vanderbilt? The song is "Truckin' ".....

We'll have more later today as we continue to celebrate the 36th anniversary of the Dead at Vandy. Remember our Reunion is just 3 days away!

We, The Living, Still Salute "The Dead"

2008-10-21T07:04:00.000-07:00

It was 36 years ago today, Saturday, October 21, 1972, that the legendary rock bank, The Grateful Dead, came to the Vanderbilt campus to perform a free concert on Alumni Lawn.

Here's how THE VANDERBILT HUSTLER announced the news a couple of days before the concert was held.

And here's just part of the huge crowd that showed up that day..

It would seem a good time was had by all, some maybe more than others...

So what are your memories of this day and this concert? Please leave your thoughts by clicking on the comments link below.

More coming up later...including a link that will transport you back in time to actually hear a portion of the Grateful Dead Concert as it was performed at Vanderbilt 36 years ago today.

By the way, if you can't read the HUSTLER article above, just click on it, and it should expand to a larger, more readable type size. Too bad our eyes aren't quite as good as they were 36 years ago. :)

Nashville---It's Not The Little Cow Town It Used To Be

2008-10-20T17:02:00.000-07:00

If it's been a while since you've been back to campus and visited Nashville, you might be in for something of a surprise.

The Little Salt Lick on the Cumberland River has grown quite a bit over the last 35 years. Just look at the downtown skyline. When we were in school, the only building of any height was the Life & Casualty Tower. Now, its hard to even find the L&C on the skyline.

Another big way Nashville has changed is the arrival of professional sports. When we were at Vandy, there was no professional baseball (the AAA Nashville Sounds) and certainly no NFL football (the Tennessee Titans).

There was a professional hockey team, The Nashville Dixie Flyers of the old Eastern League. But that franchise was on its last legs in those days, and when it folded, no one would have believed the city would one day be home to an NHL franchise, the Nashville Predators.

But we are, and most of our sports franchises are doing reasonably well at the moment, except for The Sounds. The team is locked in a lease dispute with the city and may well be headed out of town soon unless ownership changes.

The Predators looked headed out of town a year ago. But new local ownership and a more generous lease from the city has given the franchise new life to try and succeed in a non-traditional hockey market. The team's off to a pretty good start so far. But questions do remain about whether the Predators can attract enough fans to remain viable.

The NFL Titans are the sports king of Nashville. Since they opened their new riverfront stadium in 1999 they have sold out every home game. This year the Titans are 6-0, the only undefeated team left in the league. With the rival Indianapolis Colts headed to town for a Monday Night Football game (October 27), excitement about the team has not been higher since the Super Bowl season back in 1999-2000.

Surprisingly, despite all this extra competition for the sports entertainment dollar, Vanderbilt is competing pretty well. The football team has the town excited about beating Duke this weekend and then being on the way to a possible winning season and a bowl berth for the first in over a quarter of a century.

Both the men's and women's basketball teams are coming off multi-year NCAA tournament appearances and more of the same is expected this coming season. Coach Tim Corbin is bringing in another very highly-regarded recruit class, and the baseball team is expected to back among the best in the SEC and the nation again this spring.

Heck, even the Vandy womens' bowling team is continuing its tradition of excellence. After winning Vanderbilt's first NCAA championship in any sport two years ago, they have now recruited the number one freshman bowler in the nation to come to school here.

I think it's fair to say that Vanderbilt athletics is having a renaissance such like all of Nashville. And when you are here this coming weekend for Reunion, you'll probably get a chance to experience it for yourself.

David Slays Goliath Again: Former Vandy Star Sparks Rays to World Series

2008-10-20T07:07:00.000-07:00

Former Vanderbilt Star David Price Celebrates His Priceless Performance To Spark The Tampa Bay Rays To Their First World Series

The Price Was Right Again!

Lefthanded Pitcher David Price, former Vanderbilt All-American and 2006 National Player of the Year, came out of the bullpen Sunday night (October 20)to lead the Tampa Bay Rays to their first American League pennant and World Series appearance.

It was Price's first major league save to add to his first major league victory which he recorded against the defending World Champion Boston Red Sox earlier in this same American League Championship Series. That's remarkable for someone who made the Rays playoff roster only because of an injury to another player, and the fact that Price has yet to record a regular-season win or save in the Majors. But don't worry, Price's future appears to hold many special moments ahead!

David Price spent this past season playing at every level in professional baseball. He began with spring training, then went to extended spring training in the Instructional League while recovering from a minor arm injury. Then, in May, he began a remarkable climb through the Rays minor league system from Class A all the way through AAA, garnering a 12-1 record and being named Minor League Player of the Year.

His performance earned him a late season promotion to the big league club, where he pitched well in several late season games, including his first major league appearance (in relief) at Yankee Stadium and his first major league start for the Rays which resulted in a no-decision.

All that set the stage for the AL Championship Series where twice Price came out of the bullpen in the late innings to snuff out bases-loaded rallies by the Red Sox. In the first game, the Rays then scored in their next at-bat to give Price his first major league win, while in the second game (and the seventh and deciding game of the best-of-seven series), Price recorded the final four outs of the game, touching off a wild celebration that saw him swarmed under by his delirious teammates.

All this quick succes for David Price may come as a suprise to the sports world, but not to Vanderbilt fans, who saw his promise as a gifted player throughout the years the Murfreesboro native played for the Black and Gold. Courtesy of YouTube, check out this highlight video of his senior season when David was named National Player of the Year and became the Number One pick in the Major League Draft....

Of course, even some Vanderbilt fans may have mixed emotions about Price's ALCS success. I am sure Vanderbilt Baseball Coach Tim Corbin is more than thrilled for David, but he probably wishes it hadn't come against his beloved Red Sox. Ditto for my wife, Betty Lee. But hey, we still have someone to root for big time in the World Series,right!

I was particularly happy about Price's performance. Both times, when he came into the game (especially in Game 7), I remembered his one and only relief appearance for Vanderbilt in the NCAA Playoffs in 2006. Price pitched brilliantly but gave up a solo home run to a little used player for Michigan. which resulted in a Vanderbilt loss and the end of its season.

It was the last time David Price ever pitched for the Black & Gold. But he is clearly the type of player who can put disappointments behind him.

All this sets up a World Series between two teams Vanderbilt fans can certainly relate to, with this being the Rays first trip ever to the Fall Classic (in fact they's gone from worst to first so far, this being their first post-season appearance ever) opposing the National League champion Philadephia Phillies, a team that has won just one World Championship Flag during its many years in the league.

But the Rays have David, and now the whole world knows he is Priceless! Go Rays!

Another Visit to TV Land: How Steven Greil Got a Corner Office, A Nashville Drug Deal Gets Strange And We Get The Vote

2008-10-19T18:21:00.000-07:00

Once again going back in time with the help of the Vanderbilt TV News Archives, here's a mixture of stories reported by NBC NIGHTLY NEWS.

All of them are from the summer of 1971. That's when the city of Nashville blew up The Andrew Jackson Hotel downtown. Implosions were still relatively new in those days, and so media coverage of the event was extensive. In fact, for several years afterwards, WSM-TV, Channel 4 used some of this film to open its newscasts each night.

Our own Steven Greil of the Class of '73, got a corner office out of it eventually, as the hotel site was later developed as the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, where Steven was the very successful Executive Director of that facility for many years.

The other clips we have today concern a Nashville drug deal gone strange (and very funny), while the last part of the video concerns 18 year olds officially getting the right to vote that summer.

Here's how it was reported on NBC with David Brinkley, Frank McGee and Edwin Newman....

OK, on the drug deal, it's been long enough that the statute of limitations has expired: Any one out there want to fess up about being involved in either buying or sell that oregeno?

As for the right to vote, I remember going down to register at the Metro Courthouse almost immediately after the constitutional amendment was approved. Nashville had a hotly contested city election going on that summer, and the candidates were everywhere, shaking hands and handing out their materials, as we stood in a long line that extended outside the Election Commission in the basement of the Courthouse, all the way down a long hallway and out the door to a parking lot across the street. It took a while, but I got through the line and registered.

All these young people signing up to vote was much to the displeasure of Davidson County Voter Registar, Mary Ferrell. She was convinced this was a very bad idea and that it would eventually be repealed.

So for everyone under 21 who registered, she developed a big red stamp marked "Under 21" which she placed on every one of our permanent voter registration records.

As far as I know it is still there today. I used to see it every election day when the poll workers checked my voter card and ID against their permanent records...and there it was.

Everytime I see it, it always makes me laugh.

building in

Lurkers & Here Come the Judges

2008-10-19T17:49:00.000-07:00

I never really know who's been reading this blog.

It's been produced to encourage members of the Vanderbilt Class of 1973, The Centennial Class, to come back to campus for our 35th Reunion this coming weekend (October 24-25).

But from time to time, it has come to my attention that we have some visitors reading the postings here who are not members of the Class.

That's great. You are very welcome to be here and I hope you have enjoyed what you've found on this blogspot as much as I have enjoyed producing it.

Apparently what some folks have found here however, has placed some doubts and concerns in their minds looking towards their own Reunions in the years to come.

I won't use any names but here's what at least one person e-mailed to his buddies about their next Vanderbilt Reunion:

"Okay, we need to come to an understanding here, as we approach our
30th Reunion.Anyone tries to put up a blog or otherwise collect or disseminate information, pictures, rumors, myths, even facts, just remember, I had a camera and I used it."

Well, all righty then. Can't wait for that Reunion year. Sounds like the Reunion staff has some folks with the "right materials" to choose from to be that class' blogger! :)

Speaking of photographs how about how this one:

Now these two guys may look like Vanderbilt's version of Cheech and Chong, but today, 35 years after we graduated, you better call them "Your Honor."

That's right..."Here Come The Judges". On the left above that's Cliff Knowles, the Federal Magistrate here in Nashville and on the right, Charles (Chuck) Kahn, Judge of the 1st District Court of Appeals in the State of Florida.

God help me, if I ever wind up before either of them in court. :)

And so to be fair, here's a less than wonderful photo of me from back when I was working at WRVU.....

Now, my ears are not as big as they look in that photo. The earphones I am wearing are broken, and that's why it looks so strange. I look strange because....well....because that's the way I looked in those days.

Where Did You Eat Off Campus? Volume 5

2008-10-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

This time next week (Saturday evening), the formal activities of our 35th Reunion will be history. But several of us plan to continue the festivities with a dinner after the football game at The Loveless Cafe.

Even though it is quite a hike, even by car, from the Vanderbilt campus, it remains a wonderful place to eat after all these years. There have been a couple of ownership changes since we graduated, but the latest group has managed to upgrade the facilities (there's a wonderful gift shop on site), while keeping the quaint atmosphere and the wonderful southern-style cooking of the original Loveless.

You can even get some argument about what's the best thing to order on the menu. Is it the fried chicken? How about the country ham? One thing everyone does agree on: the biscuits and preserves are to die for. (Full disclosure: the biscuits are made exclusively with Martha White Flour, which has been a client at my firm, DVL Public Relations, for many years).

So what's you favorite Loveless dish? Just click on the comments link below and leave your thoughts.

In this world, some things change and some things never do. When it comes to The Loveless Cafe, that's a good thing either way. Check it out if you have time while you are in town for Reunion. You won't be sorry to make that trip out Highway 100.

By the way, the restaurant is now right off the exit for the Natchez Trace Parkway, in case you are coming up from Mississippi or perhaps parts of West Tennessee.

Our Concerts 1969-1973 Volume V

2008-10-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

Our Steven Greil and Gordon Lightfoot backstage at his Vandy concert

One of my favorite concerts during the years I was at Vanderbilt was Gordon Lightfoot's performance at Memorial Gym. I can't remember exactly when it was (can you?), but I think he came to campus during the second semester of our junior year.

I have always loved his music and his songs. Remembering back, here's one of my favorites, and one of his biggest commercial hits: "If You Could Read My Mind", from what looks to be a recent TV appearance celebrating "Canada Day" in his native land......

Gordon Lightfoot is a true folk singer, and many of his songs tell stories based on actual events, such as another favorite of mine: "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald"....

If you have any memories or thoughts you'd like to share concerning the Gordon Lightfoot concert while we were at Vandy, or any of the concerts you saw, on or off-campus, while you were in school, please feel free to click on the comments link below and leave them with us.

Reunion is less than a week away!

It Won't Happen Next Weekend!

2008-10-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

Ever had a late night round of studying and cramming for exams wind up like this? Oh sure, the beer didn't help (although you thought it might at the time). But then despite all your efforts, and those cliff notes you bought at the Bookstore, the test wound up like this....

Well, despite all those recurring nightmares since you left school 35 years ago, don't worry about any of that Reunion weekend, just good food, old friends and great times. And no tests. To make it even easier, we'll make everyone wear their name tags :)

Motown Loses Another Legend

2008-10-17T19:17:00.000-07:00

One week from today (Friday) as a part of our 35th Reunion activities at Vanderbilt, Vice Chancellor David Williams will be presenting his "History of Motown" to what is expected to be an overflow crowd in the Board of Trust Room at the Student Life Center on 25th Avenue South, right across from Memorial Gym (from 4:00 to 5:30PM).

Unfortunately, just days before we all come together, Motown has lost another of its recording legends.Levi Stubbs, the lead singer of the Four Tops, has passed away at the age of 72, according to a report by CNN.

Stubbs, described as possessing "one of the most dynamic and emotive voices of all the Motown" stars had been ill in recent days and died in his sleep at the Detriot home which he shared with his wife. Audrey Smith, the chief operating officer of the Motown Historical Museum told CNN that Stubbs "fits right up there with all the icons of Motown. His voice was as unique as Marvin's on as Smokey's or as Stevie's."

In his memory, let's take a moment to watch and listen once again to Levi Stubbs and the Four Tops perform one of their greatest hits during a concert in Miami back in 2007. The song is "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" and the fans know all the words...

The Four Tops reportedly performed for more than four decades without a single change in personnel. However, time has taken its toll in recent years. According to CNN, Stubbs'death leaves just one surviving member of the orginal group: Abdul "Duke" Fakir. Here they are performing another one of the Four Tops great hits of the 1960s, "Baby, I Need Your Loving"....

And there's more, how a look back at Motown and the city of Detroit while listening to "Reach Out, I'll Be There"..

The Four Tops sold millions of records over the years and left their fans with an unforgettable string of recordings. If you have any memories to share about Levi Stubbs, The Four Tops or Motown, please feel free to leave by clicking on the comments link below.

Dr. Earl Sutherland

2008-10-16T17:46:00.000-07:00

Vanderbilt Nobel Laurette Dr. Earl Sutherland

Thirty-seven years ago this week (October 14, 1971), the Vanderbilt campus was abuzz about an unprecedented event.

For the first time in the nearly 100-year history of the University, a member of the faculty had been honored with a Nobel Prize.

Dr. Earl Sutherland had come to Vanderbilt in 1963 as a researcher and professor of Physiology at the School of Medicine.

He was honored with the 1971 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery and research of what became known as "cyclic AMP", a substance found in every human cell that is vital to the way hormones work.

Here's the way the story was covered on NBC Nightly News with John Chancellor....

Unfortunately for Vanderbilt, within two years after receiving this highest honor, Dr. Sutherland left the University to become a distinguished professor of biochemistry at the University of Miami (FL) Medical School.

It was there that Dr. Sutherland died on March 9, 1974.

Since that time, Vanderbilt has been honored with one other faculty member becoming a Nobel Laurette in Medicine. Dr. Stanley Cohen, a biochemist, came to the University in 1959 from Washington University in St. Louis, where he and a colleague had extensively researched cell-growth factors in animals. By the time Dr. Cohen and his colleague received their Nobel recognition in 1986, their work had led to better treatment for burn victims and cancer patients.

SOURCE: Bill Carey's book: CHANCELLORS, COMMODORES & COEDS

Our Concerts 1969-1973, Volume V

2008-10-15T20:29:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite concerts while I was at Vanderbilt was when Sha-Na-Na came to Nashville to perform at Memorial Gym. I can't remember exactly when it happened, but I know it was either the late winter or early spring of our junior or senior years. If your memory is more clear that mine, please post your thoughts and memories of the concert below.

What I do remember about that night is what fun it was to watch this group perform their vintage rock and roll live and in person. Here's how they put on a show when they later performed on "The Flip Wilson Show" on network TV....

Looking back,it seems to me we did pretty well in attracting concerts to campus, and in many ways we can thank our two classmates, Steve Greil and Aubrey Hornsby. Here they looked during their salad days at Vanderbilt...

Of course, their greatest feat was attracting The Grateful Dead to come to Nashville and perform on the Vanderbilt campus in the fall of 1972. The anniversary of that concert is October 21. So next week, just prior to our 35th Reunion Weekend, we will be looking back and celebrating that occasion with special blog postings several times that day.

Your thoughts and memories of any of our Vanderbilt concerts, or for that matter, any of the concerts you enjoyed on or off campus while you attended Vanderbilt, are always welcome. Just click on the comments link below.

And Now, Another Word From Our Sponsors

2008-10-14T18:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we've traveled back to TV Land.

So here,courtesy of the Vanderbilt News Archives, is another look at it was like to watch the commercials on the evening network newscasts back when we were on campus.

In this case, from the ABC Evening News on February 9, 1973, here are a couple of ads that should have warned us about the aches and pains of the future, and about what many of us would be driving in the future...a foreign car.

newscasts

Or how about these ads from NBC Nightly News from July 28, 1969? Notice the ad for a well known pain relief product and its use of black actresses, something still very uncommon in those days. And note the laundry product being advertised, something you never see anymore on the TV newscasts these days.

So while you were at Vanderbilt, what TV shows did you watch? Did you have your own TV in your room (lucky you) or did you watch the tube with others on your floor or suite? Please share your memories by clicking on the comments link below.

It's Just What We Always Wanted In College

2008-10-14T18:07:00.000-07:00

Most of us never had much money in our pockets while we were in school, so this is what we always wanted while we were at Vanderbilt!

Free food and drink, with lots of good friends to share it!

And that's exactly what's available to all of us during Reunion Weekend on Saturday morning, October 25.

Prior to the Vanderbilt-Duke football game that afternoon (2:00 PM), all members of the Class of 1973 are invited to drop by the home of our classmates (and Vanderbilt sweethearts), Wendy and Buzz Martin, who are hosting a Reunion brunch for us.

Buzz and Wendy Williamson Martin, in their earlier days together on the Vanderbilt campus

If you plan to attend (and we sure hope you do) please RSVP to Wendy Martin at (615) 298-1595 or to wendmail@comcast.net. Again, there is no charge to attend this brunch.

Our thanks to the Martins, and our other hosts for this event: our classmates Sarah Buchanan, Margie Dale, Kacky Fell, Mary Louise Linn, Paula Lovell and Beth O'Shea.

As for directions, get off I-440 and head out Hillsboro Road. When you come to the intersection of Hillsboro and Golf Club Lane, turn right and look for 2310.

Come hungry and ready to party, as we prepare to root for the Commodores to beat the Blue Devils, and lock up at least our bowl eligibility and our first non-losing season since 1982.

If that's not reason enough to party (along with being together again with so many members of our Vanderbilt class), I don't know what it is!

Now I just hope posting that old picture of Wendy and Buzz doesn't get me in trouble...:)

Our Concerts 1969-1973--Volume IV

2008-10-13T16:57:00.000-07:00

It is September, 1973, the begining of our senior year on campus and the featured concert at Dudley Stadium on Saturday night, September 2 (Labor Day weekend) is the J. Geils Band.

I didn't go to the this concert and after doing some research on this group, I've seen them referred to several times as "one of the best party bands every assembled."

Founded in 1967 as "Snoopy And The Sopwith Camels" (I kid you not), the band was organized by singer and guitarist John Geils while he was attending Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Originally, it was an acoustic blues trio, but then the group added additional instrumentation (an electric guitar, bass and drums) to become the J. Geils Blues Band.

The Blues part of the name was later dropped and the group had some success in the 1970s with such hits as "First I Look At The Purse", then "Ain't Nothing But A Houseparty" (1973) and "Musta Got Lost"
(1974).

During this period, the group became influential for its blues rock sound before moving more towards pop in the 1980s. In fact, the Band became a favorite of MTV in its early days, especially with its mega-hit "Centerfold"....

One last reference (not verified on Wikipedia) about this group. The Allman Brothers Band (a group that played a lot of dates at Vandy parties in their early days) reportedly said the J. Geils Band was one of its favorites, pretty high praise in its day, I'd say.

So who has some memories or thoughts to share about going to see the J. Geils Band at Vanderbilt? If you do, click on the comments link below and tell us about it.

The Price Is Right!

2008-10-12T08:54:00.001-07:00

While the news was not so good from the gridiron this weekend (MSU 17-Vandy 14), Black & Gold fans can be excited about the continued progress of one of its former baseball standouts.

In the American League Championship Series, Tampa Bay left handed pitcher David Price came on in relief in the top of 11th inning Saturday night (October 11) against the defending World Champion Boston Red Sox.

Price came in with a man on first and one out. He walked the first batter he faced, but then stuck out the next man, and got a ground ball force out to get escape from of the jam.

His Tampa Bay Ray teammates responded with a run in the bottom of the inning to win the game 9-8 and square the best-of-seven series with the Red Sox at one game apiece as the two teams head to Boston for Game 3.

What a way for Price to win his first game in the Majors!

The ALCS win for Price is another major highlight of a season that has seen the rookie pitch on just about every level of baseball beginning with spring training and the instructional league, (where he recovered from a minor arm injury). Then it was on to Class A ball and then to the Double AAA and AAA leagues, where his pitching was so outstanding he was named Minor League Player of the Year.

Price's work also earned him a mid-September call-up to the big league club where he made his pro debut pitching 5+ innings of solid relief in Yankee Stadium. Price also later got his first start in the big leagues, registering a no decision in a game the Rays later won, and in which Price went nearly 5 innings before giving up a hit.

His performance earned him a spot on the post-season roster, which is fairly unusual since normally a player has to be with the major league team at the end of August to qualify.

His appearance in the ACLS Saturday night was his second of the series, having pitched a third of an inning in Game I in the ninth inning of a 2-0 Rays loss.

Price was the Number # 1 overall pick in the MLB draft in 2006 and everything he's done this season is showing that the Rays made the right decision because the Price is right!

But, facing the Red Sox in this season, is driving my wife, Betty Lee Love Nolan (another member of the Class of 1973) a bit crazy. As much as she wants David Price to succeed, she is a die-hard Red Soz fan of many years. Tough choices so sure, but how great it is to see a Vanderbilt player doing so well one of the greatest showcases in Major League Baseball.

Getting Ready for Our Vandy Reunion and Motown

2008-10-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

We are just two weeks from Reunion!

That includes Friday afternoon, October 24, a session on "The History of Motown" by Vanderbilt Vice Chancellor David Wiliiams, who grew up in Detroit in the same neighborhood where Motown Records was located.

The Motown History session will be held from 4:00 to 5:30 PM in the Board of Trust Room at the Student Life Center just across from Memorial Gym on 25th Avenue South. There is no cost to attend and the event is open to everyone.

So what better way to get ready for the big event? How about a medley of hits from the Supremes courtesy of YouTube?

Enjoy....

Looking back at that medley of hit songs could those ladies sing....and dress? And while we're at, how about another Motown super group, The Four Tops and "Baby, I Need Your Loving"....

See you October 24-25 in Nashville!

The Vietnam War---Volume III

2008-10-10T18:41:00.000-07:00

In the years following the Cambodia incursion and the turmoil following the incidents at Kent State and Jackson University in the spring of 1970, campus protests against the War in Vietnam begin to wane a bit in both frequency and intensity.

A draft lottery system was fully implemented, and as more and more of the fighting was turned over to the South Vietnamese (Vietnamization), American troop levels were decreased in the country.

President Nixon's effort to reach detente with the Soviet Union and his visit to open up China also reduced global tensions.It all helped long-stalled negotiations in Paris, led by Henry Kissinger, to finally begin to make progress.

A renewed, fierce bombing campaign against the major cities of North Vietnam in late 1972 also helped move the process along, and slowly brought about a ceasefire which was agreed to by all parties (the U.S., South Vietnam, North Vietnam, the Viet Cong) and implemented on Saturday, January 27, 1973.

Courtesy of the Vanderbilt TV News Archives, here's how the news of the effective end of the War in Vietnam was reported on NBC NIGHTLY NEWS a few days before on January 24, 1970. The anchorman is Garrett Utley...

On the Vanderbilt campus, the implementation of the ceasefire was celebrated with a 15-minute medley of songs played by the chimes at Kirkland Hall. The music began exactly at 6:00 PM that Saturday evening, January 27, the exact moment the ceasefire went into effect.

According to a front page article in THE HUSTLER(Tuesday,January 30,1973) reported by Rosalyn Harty, "Saturday's serenade--Bells for a Peace Treaty, they called it--(actually) originated from the keyboard of a carillon in Neely Auditorium. The music, (played) by assistant editor of publications Nancy Fielder, was transmitted from the instrument to the four speakers atop the (Kirkland) tower."

THE HUSTLER article went on to report that the program of music included a medley of peace songs and was the idea of the Secretary of the University, Dr. Robert McGaw. The article says "the program was centered around a theme from an English mass--Joseph Purcell's "O Let the Merry Bells Ring Round",(which) Fielder threaded ...through a variety of melodies, patriotic, religious, pop and classical, including such diverse pieces as the Beatles' "Give Peace a Chance" and the folk song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home."

Speaking of coming home, one of the first elements of the ceasefire that was implemented was the release of American Prisoners of War (although even today some dispute that all were released).

Again, thanks to the Vanderbilt TV News Archives, here is how the dramatic story of the release of first group of POWs was reported by ABC News on February 12, 1973 with anchorman Harry Reasoner and reporter Lem Tucker....

What are your memories of this time in January and February of 1973, this was just when we were starting our last semester on campus? Does anyone remember the bell concert from the Kirkland chimes on the day the ceasefire went into effect? What about the release of the POWS? Did you have one of those wristbands so many folks wore in those days to show your support for those who were captured or listed as missing in action? As always, please leave your thoughts and memories by clicking on the link below.

Unfortunately, most of the rest of the ceasefire accord never amounted to much, as the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese continued to push their aggression (and with the Americans gone) the South Vietnamese capitol of Saigon fell in the spring of 1975, bringing the final end to the War in Vietnam.

The Impact Symposium & The March Against Repression

2008-10-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

Chicago 7 Attorney William Kunstler

When controversial anti-war attorney William Kunstler was invited speak on campus as a part of the annual Impact Symposium in the spring of our freshman year (1970), all hell broke loose.

At that time, Kunstler was clearly one of the most controversial figures in a deeply divided America. He had just finished defending the Chicago 7, a group of radical leaders involved in the protests and demonstrations surrounding the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

As a result of that trial, all but one of the defendants was convicted on charges of crossing state lines to incite a riot (convictions later thrown out on appeal).

The Chicago 7 trial had been a sensational one, with the defendants creating a new commotion or scene in the courtroom almost every day. The fact that Vanderbilt would invite the Chicago 7 attorney to speak on campus was just too much for Tennessee Governor Buford Ellington. He denounced the University and Chancellor Alexander Heard day after day in the weeks leading up to the event.

The city's afternoon newspaper, THE NASHVILLE BANNER, also picked up the criticism, with a lot of it coming from BANNER Publisher, Jimmy Stahlman, who was a Vanderbilt graduate and a longtime member of the VU Board of Trust.

In those days, the Impact Symposium was one of the big events on campus every year. Beginning as a student-led effort in 1964, the program had brought such speakers as Robert F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and others to campus. Vanderbilt had also previously gotten into controversy when Black Power leader Stokley Carmichael spoken to VU students in the late '60s.

But each time, Chancellor Heard was resolute, and he spoke out strongly to defend the right and the role of the University to be a place for an open discussion and debate of the issues and of ideas, even controversial ones.

And so it was a rather tension-charged atmosphere when Kunstler arrived to speak in Memorial Gym. The other speaker sharing the podium that evening was noted conservative columnist James J. Kilpatrick (later famous for his weekly Point-Counterpoint debates with Nicholas Van Hoffman and then Shanna Alexander on the 60 MINUTES television show, which was also so well satirized by SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE with Dan Ackroyd and Jane Curtin).

As a radio reporter from WRVU, I remember getting the opportunity to cover the Kunstler speech at IMPACT. It was quite exciting as I remember it, with both men giving excellent and thought-provoking speeches. Other than that, the evening passed without much incident, thankfully.

I also remember when Kunstler came back to Vanderbilt to speak in Underwood Auditorium a few years later in the mid-1970s. As a new reporter at Channel 5, I was assigned to cover his appearance.

I can't remember the topic of his speech. But what did make news that evening, was that while he speaking, someone came from the wings off stage and hit Kunstler with a pie on top of his head (pieing someone was a popular, if brief-lived, prank on many college campuses during that period).

Because we were covering the speech with our new electronic cameras, Channel 5 was able to capture video of the pieing as it happened (the other stations, shooting on film, did not). That kind of video today would be all over YouTube and everywhere. For me, after it was shown on the 10 PM News that night, it went off into obscurity, although it was featured in a promotional video the station produced to tout the advantages of its electronic news gathering capabilities.

In retrospect, I can't help wondering if Governor Ellington and Publisher Stahlman (both already dead and gone by that time) weren't somewhere chuckling about it all.

Jerry Rubin of the Chicago 7

One of Kunstler's Chicago 7 clients, Jerry Rubin was also in Nashville that same weekend of the IMPACT symposium. Rubin was truly a student radical, as you can see from this YouTube video featuring an interview he did with a very youthful looking, Phil Donahue back in April, 1970. The video is entitled "Yippies for Nixon" and to say the least Rubin was quite a tough interview, even for someone as skilled as Donahue....

True to form, when he arrived in Nashville, Rubin, the founder of the Yippies, led a protest demonstration and march from Centennial Park to the State Capitol downtown. It was called "The March Against Repression."

Steve Womack and I covered the march for WRVU (I think Jack Walton was with us, as well). And yes, we sold some comments from Rubin's typically fiery speech to ABC Radio News in New York. Hey, we never missed a chance to make a buck, although I think we donated most of the money to the station to help buy equipment and supplies.

What I do clearly remember is how, like Phil Donahue, I dressed rather inappropriately for that march. I had to come to Centennial Park straight from Mass that morning, so I arrived in a suit and tie! I can only imagine how all the marchers there must have thought I was some kind of cop or a narc.

And I can only imagine what the narcs and police surveillance people must have thought. I am also sure somewhere in all the secret photos they took of all of us who were there that day, my picture will show I was the only one who wore a coat and tie that day.

Rising Up

2008-10-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

Tight End Brandon Barden catches the winning touchdown pass against Auburn
Photo Courtesy of John Russell, Vanderbilt University

ESPN and GameDay are gone.

Senators Barack Obama and John McCain have departed after bringing national and world-wide attention to Nashville by staging their second presidential debate at Belmont University.

But the excitement continues to build in Nashville as the undefeated Vanderbilt football team (5-0, 3-0 in the SEC)departs later this week for Starkville, Mississippi for a conference game which, if Vanderbilt wins, will make the school bowl-eligible and ensure a non-losing season for the Commodores for the first time since 1982.

Community excitement is so high, Vanderbilt has arranged for the game to televised on pay-for-view cable throughout the state of Tennessee on both the Comcast and Charter systems. And while the NCAA requires the game be blacked out in the state of Mississippi, elsewhere across the country, the game can be seen as a part of ESPN's GameDay viewing package, and you can find other cable providers picking up the game by going to the CSS web site.

The pay-for-view cost is $29.95 with kickoff set for 1:30 PM CDT.

So if you want to get fired up about Vandy football and get ready for our 35th Class Reunion and Homecoming game against Duke on Saturday, October 25, here's a great way to do it.

Players celebrate the 14-13 victory over Auburn
Photo courtesy of John Russell, Vanderbilt University

When you're ranked 13th in the nation, and you're off to the best start (5-0) since the middle of World War II (1943), there's a lot to feel good about. But it should be pointed out Vandy has not defeated the Bulldogs at State since our 1971 team pulled off a 49-19 shocker.

Vanderbilt does however continues to receive outstanding performances from its players. For the second time this season, junior linebacker Patrick Benoist has been named SEC Defensive Player of the Week. Against Auburn, Benoist recorded a team-high 13 tackles, two for losses, plus a quarterback sack and a pass deflection. Meantime, junior punter Brett Upson was honored as SEC Special Teams Player of the Week. Upson averaged 39.1 yards on eight punts, including four of them downed inside the Auburn 20.

SEC teams do still seem to be having problems believing Vanderbilt is good enough to beat them straight up. Auburn has now fired its first-year, offensive coordinator after the Vandy game, which seemed to be the last straw for him, after struggling all season to install a new offense for the Tigers.

But maybe we will have a secret weapon against the Maroons of Mississippi State, if someone can resurrect an air horn, similar to the one Steve Womack and Gary Cutler took down to Starkville back when we were in school to help Vandy win a big NCAA regional baseball game down at State. You can read all about it in Steve's comments to my football blog posting from last Sunday (October 5).
Anything we can do to counter-act those horrible cow bells the State fans always bring to their home games. :)

Go Vandy!

Vietnam--Volume II

2008-10-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

Rand Terrace Speak-Out

Throughout the years we were at Vanderbilt, from time to time there were Speak-Outs held on Rand Terrace. Many times the topic of intense discussion was the War in Vietnam, with strong opinions being expressed by both those who opposed the war and those who supported President Nixon and his policies.

These forums were a matter of ongoing interest both on and off campus, as you can see from the signs and the crowd of students present in the photo above, as well as the local media coverage represented by the TV news film camera and the WMAK Radio tape recorder you can see in the picture.

The War took a major turn in early May of 1970 when President Nixon announced an invasion of Cambodia as a way to eliminate sanctuary areas where Viet Cong and North Vietnam fighters had bases located, and where they could flee to safety after attacking American forces inside South Vietnam.

The Cambodian "incursion" as it was called by the Nixon administration outraged those who opposed the war and no doubt concerned many on campus about the possibility of the conflict permanently widening and the military draft (which had just been changed to a lottery system) being extended and enlarged again.

Protests sprung up all over the country. Unfortunately,some led to violence and tragedy with students shot and killed by National Guard troops at both Kent State University in Ohio and Jackson State University in Mississippi.

The unrest also led President Nixon to ask Vanderbilt Chancellor Alexander Heard to get involved and become his special assistant for campus affairs for a two month period. Below is a photo from the assembly held in Neely Auditorium on May 8, 1970, announcing his appointment, with the Chancellor addressing both members of the faculty and students that day...

Chancellor Heard speaks in Neely Auditorium

Working at WRVU, which was located upstairs in Neely Auditorium, Steve Womack and I (along with our fellow WRVU News Council members, Jack Walton and Don Powell, Class of 1972), took advantage of the opportunity to tape the Chancellor's remarks, then sell them to ABC Radio News in New York. It was a real big deal for us at the time, although as I recall, I don't think we got paid more than $25 or $50 for what we did.

Meantime, courtesy of the Vanderbilt TV News Archives, here's how the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite and White House correspondent Dan Rather reported the news about Heard's appointment and the ongoing student protests, which after Kent State and Jackson State had spread to Washington....

The national student strike that Dan Rather mentions in his report, did not got very far at Vanderbilt, although the faculty at Peabody voted to close that school for several days in protest of the Cambodian invasion and the students being shot.

Back at Vanderbilt, there was an anti- war protest organized to coincide with the annual Naval ROTC spring review on Alumni (then called Neely) Lawn. But with some brawny football players standing by and recruited to keep the two sides apart, not much happened.

Not surprisingly, on a national level, the anger over what happened especially at Kent State, made its way onto the airwaves with songs like OHIO by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young....

If you have any thoughts or memories of this turbulent time, please feel free to share them by clicking on the comments link below.

Coming Next: William Kunstler, Jerry Rubin and the Nashville March Against Repression.

Vietnam

2008-10-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

The War In Vietnam.

It was the overriding national political issue all four years we attended Vanderbilt.

While student opposition to the conflict (and especially the military draft) was much stronger at other universities as compared to Vanderbilt, by the time we arrived at school, there were organized efforts to mobilize public opposition to the war.

That included on October 15, 1969, participation in a national "moratorium" day against the conflict. What do you remember about that day? Bill Carey in his book on the history of Vanderbilt, CHANCELLORS, COMMODORES & COEDS" says: "As part of the event many students skip class, go special talks on the war, and hand out anti-war leaflets in Nashville neighborhoods."

Does that ring a bell or bring back any memories? If so, please leave your thoughts below by clicking on the comments link.

Now I can sure believe the part about students skipping class (sure we were just freshmen, but did we ever really need an excuse not to go to class if we could find one)? But what going to special talks about the war or handing out anti-war literature off campus?

What I do remember is WRVU had just gotten its United Press International wire machine back in service.

With that news teletype and the audio line we had from ABC Radio News, we could track what was going on all over the country that day. That was really neat, and a bit unusual in those times before instant and constant communications through cable news, the Internet, blogging, text messaging and cell phones.

Courtesy of the Vanderbilt TV News Archives, here's how Walter Cronkite and the CBS EVENING NEWS reported on the Moratorium that evening of October 15, 1969.....

There was another Moratorium attempted the very next month on November 15. But I don't remember it generating nearly the interest or news coverage of the first one.

However there is a hit song from that era (we played it all the time at WRVU my freshman year), that whenever I hear it reminds me of those turbulent days: "FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH" by the Buffalo Springfield:

Coming up next: May, 1970: President Nixon Invades Cambodia, then asks Chancellor Heard for help.

Mrs. Mize

2008-10-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

If the students at Vanderbilt had a mother protector during our years on campus, it was probably Mrs. Claude Mize, who operated The Southerner Liquor Store at 1610 Church Street near campus. The only other person who would come close would be Mrs. John Rotier, who operated Rotier's Restaurant on Elliston Place.

Both women had special profiles in the CENTENNIAL COMMODORE our senior year.

Here are a few excerpts from the story on Mrs. Mize and the interview it contained:

"Vanderbilt has been very good to me. I depend on the Vanderbilt student. Even when my son went to Alabama to college, he always tried to get me to root for Alabama, but I always root for Vanderbilt...I helped one student pay his tuition and he sent it back to me eight months later."

"I get invited to lots of parties and affairs at Vanderbilt. I did go to one big party and they made me feel better than President Nixon at his re-election. They all yelled: "Hip, hip hooray, hip, hip, hooray, Mrs. Mize."

"Homecoming is usually my best time. I get to see all the old fellows I haven't seen for years. And some of them are the top Nashville people now. You know, celebrities."

"I appreciate the fact that girls are coming in now. They know they're free to come in and that they'll be taken care of just like everyone else. I enjoy this very much."

So 35 years later, what are your memories and stories about Mrs. Mize and The Southerner? Don't worry I am sure the statute of limitations has expired by now. Just click on the comments link below and tell us all about it. :)

Conquer & Prevail!

2008-10-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

Vanderbilt 14-Auburn 13
Photo by Mark Humphrey of the Associated Press

For the first time since World War II(1943), the Vanderbilt football team has started its season 5-0 thanks to a thrilling 14-13victory over Number #13 Auburn at Vanderbilt Stadium!

Vanderbilt itself came into the game ranked #19,and in the wake of the Auburn victory, the Commodores have now moved up in the national standings to Number #13 in the Associated Press survey and #14 in the USA TODAY poll.

It's the first time in many years Vanderbilt has won a game as a nationally ranked team, and Vandy also finds itself on top of the SEC East standings with a 3-0 record in league play!

The victory over Auburn came before a sell-out crowd on Parents Weekend (just like our big win freshman year over Alabama and Bear Bryant in 1969).

It was televised nationwide by ESPN, which also brought its very popular College GameDay pre-game show to Nashville and the Vanderbilt campus for the first time ever.

Thousands of rowdy Vanderbilt fans brought their cheers and some very unique signs to the show (such as: "The Geeks Shall Inherit The Turf", "I Got My GED At Auburn", "Phil Fulmer Ate My Other Sign" and "You People Are Blocking the Library."

As I suspected, ESPN analyst Lee Corso did not pick Vandy, in fact, he threw a Mr. Commodore mascot head on the ground as he donned a Tiger helmet to pick his winner. If you'll check, I believe you'll find that Corso's record is now below .500 this year. And in fact, one of the heroes of the Vandy victory, back-up quarterback Mackenzi Adams, said, after the game, that it fired up the team when Corso threw away the Vandy mascot head.

So what other reason do you need now to come back to Nashville the weekend of October 24-25 for Homecoming and our 35th Class Reunion?

The game against Duke (now scheduled for 2:00 PM Saturday afternoon, October 25) could either make us:

1. Bowl-eligible for the first time in 26 years (as predicted, I might add, by our Reunion leader, John Stein, when we held our Leadership Conference last winter).

Or it could:

2. Ensure a winning record for Vanderbilt for the first time in over a quarter of a century, and enhance our bowl opportunities.

For long suffering Vanderbilt fans, it hasn't gotten much better than that in a long, long time.

By the way, I did my part to ensure the Auburn victory. Betty Lee and I went to our daughter Katie Rosenhagen's house (she's also a VU grad)to babysit our grandson, Shaun. Now, over the years, Vanderbilt has done well when we have done that.

We were there last football season when Vanderbilt upset South Carolina on the road. And at that same location, I saw the Vandy basketball team beat #1 Florida at Memorial Gym two years ago and stage a near-miracle rally to beat DePaul in Chicago last season.

Of course, despite my efforts, things didn't start out to well in the Auburn game, with Vandy falling behind early (as it has in every game its played this year).

But again, I had a plan that works (at least some times). I turned the TV over to the baseball playoffs and started reading a new book by Bob Schieffer of CBS. I am interviewing him this week while he is in town for the Presidential Debate, so it was something I needed to do anyway.

I didn't know it at the time, but my tuning out began to impact the game immediately as Auburn missed the extra point on its second first-quarter touchdown. It was a mistake that cost them the game.

When I heard that the score at the half was Auburn 13 Vanderbilt 7, I took as an omen, my plan was working and we still had a chance to win. So I continued reading and watching the baseball playoffs, sneaking an occasional peek at the football game.

Each time I did it, trouble ensued. I peeked in the third quarter and we missed a field goal. I looked over again and a promising drive fizzled out. When Betty Lee returned from picking up some food for us, she found me watching and told me to turn it back to something else.

That's what I did, while we ate dinner, and we did not turn the game back on just AFTER the final interception that sealed the victory! And, no, I did not cheat and listen to the Vandy radio broadcast with Joe Fisher. :)

Next up is Mississippi State in Starksville. We don't play the Bulldogs very often, and checking the record books, we haven't won there very often either.

In fact, I believe the last time we got a victory there was the 1971season,during our junior year at Vanderbilt, when we upset the Maroons (MSU's other nickname) 49-19, with the big plays coming from Doug Nettles with a 28 yard interception return and a 57 yard punt return by Walter Overton.

A tough defense, featuring a ball-hawking secondary, along with great special teams play, is how this year's Vandy team is excelling.

Maybe we can do it again in Starkville next weekend.

Go Dores!

Our Concerts 1969-1973, Volume III

2008-10-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of our 35th Reunion Weekend, which is coming up in just three short weeks, is the "History of Motown" presentation by Vanderbilt Vice Chancellor Dr. David Williams.

Well, this post is about one Motown superstar we had a chance to see and enjoy in person while we were students at Vandy.

Born May 13, 1950, Stevie Wonder wasn't much older than most of us in the audience when he came to Vanderbilt to perform in concert our senior year.

Despite his youth, Wonder was already an international superstar for Motown Records.

When began his career in the early '60s, he was billed as "Little Stevie Wonder". But I think he had lost the first part of that moniker by the time he came to Vandy.

He had also already recorded a string of hits, releasing such classics, while we were in school, as "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday"(1969), My Cherie Amour" (1969) and, courtesy of YouTube, this chart climber in 1970, "Signed, Sealed, Delvered, I'm Yours."

I'm sorry to say I don't think I went to this concert when I was a student. My loss, especially given the artistic heights Wonder has achieved during his stellar career. Exactly when did he come to Vanderbilt our senior year? Was it in the fall or the spring semester? And where was the concert performed: at Memorial Gym or somewhere else?

If you went to this concert, or have thoughts and memories share about this or other concerts at Vanderbilt while we were there, please let me know by clicking on the comments link below.

So you can see why I am really looking foward to Vice Chancellor Williams's "History of Motown" presentation. It will be held on Friday afternoon October 24 from 4:00-5:30 PM in the Board of Trust Room of the New Student Life Center which is right across from Memorial Gym on 25th Avenue North.

Add it all up, it's one of the big reasons to come back to campus for our 35th Class Reunion in three weeks. After all, the Motown session is open to all and its free of charge. :)

If We Had Only Known....

2008-10-03T19:24:00.000-07:00

If any of us had seen the story below on the CBS Evening News back in September, 1970, we probably would have played very little attention to it.

What did we know about that new PBS television show called Sesame Street, which was beginning its second season with a stage show touring the nation?

It was in, of all places, Jackson, Mississippi, where that wonderful CBS correspondent Hughes Rudd found the cast, and filed this report (brought to us courtesy of the Vanderbilt TV News Archive).

From the story, it appears Sesame Street was already doing great things, teaching both adults and children how to live together in harmony. Here's the anchorman on the broadcast,Roger Mudd.....

The positive impact the Sesame Street program had on our children, and now for some of us, our grandchildren, has been tremendous. At least, I feel that way about what it did to help my two daughters when they were growing up in the 1980s.

Starting with Mr. Wimple and Big Bird and going on through Kermit the Frog,Grover, Bert and Ernie, Cookie Monster,The Count, even Oscar the Grouch and all the rest of the cast: they entertained and educated our children for many hours, over many years as they grew up.

But for most of us back in 1970 the idea of children's education probably didn't go much further than this hit which was on the charts back then. It's Crosby, Stills and Nash, "Teach Your Children".

Enjoy, and leave your memories and thoughts about Sesame Street or Crosby, Stills, Nash (and Young) by clicking on the comments link below.

Just three weeks to Reunion Weekend!

FUN

2008-10-02T13:38:00.000-07:00

Students sign up for some FUN on Rand Terrace

According to Bill Carey's book on the history of Vanderbilt, "Chancellors, Commodores And Coeds," The Free University of Nashville (FUN) began in 1969, imitating a program at an unnamed California college.

The book says FUN was "a student run program where students and the general public could sign up for free classes taught by students and faculty in everything from racial sensitivity to journalism and self-defense."

Looking through a photo spread about FUN in our 1973 CENTENNIAL COMMODORE, the courses offered that year included a wide variety of topics such as: Nursery Rhymes, The Art of Forgery In Instrumental Music Techniques, Kazoo Band, Women's Self-Defense, C.S. Lewis, Cruising, Folk Jamming Zappa, Banjo, How To Be Crazy In Society and Pottery.

The yearbook reported that the most popular FUN classes our senior year including music courses and popular mechanics with over 400 students (including some from Peabody and Fisk) participating.

According to Carey's book, FUN stayed in existence until at least 1976, "when it courses included amateur radio, bicycle repair, vegetarian cooking and painting."

So who out there in the Class of '73 (or anybody else reading this post) ever signed up for the Free University of Nashville and took some of these courses? What was it like? Do you still remember anything you learned from these classes? Was it more rewarding in some ways that what you learned in the regular classes you took at Vandy? Please leave your thoughts and memories by clicking on the comments link below.

Don't forget the FUN coming up Reunion Weekend(October 24-25), especially the special educational sessions on Friday afternoon.

In particular, that includes the program from 4:00 to 5:30 PM being sponsored by the Class of 1973. It features Vanderbilt Vice Chancellor David Williams and his outstanding HISTORY OF MOTOWN presentation. The class will be held in the Board of Trust Room in the new Student Life Center right across from Memorial Gym on
25th Avenue.

To help get you in the mood for that, and courtesy of YouTube, here's a little Motown fun from the early 1970s: Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, "The Tears of a Clown:"

And there's lots more like that still to come, both here on this blog and Reunion Weekend. So don't miss it!

The Football Frenzy Mounts In Nashville

2008-10-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

ESPN's very popular College GameDay program is headed for Vanderbilt this weekend!

Look for hundreds, if not thousands of Vanderbilt students and fans to fill the area around the new freshman Commons on the Peabody campus, acting half-crazy as they cheer for their Commodores. All this while holding up what will hopefully be some of the most creative signs ever viewed on this weekly program. It all begins with live broadcasts Friday afternoon (3:30-3:50 PM CDT) and then the big show Saturday morning from 9:00-11:00 AM.

The Game Day program is known for its "unique" fan signage and for analyst Lee Corso's game-of-the-day pick at the end of the Saturday morning program, where he dons the mascot headgear for the team he says will win.

With Vandy's game against nationally-ranked Auburn being the spotlight game this weekend (and also telecast on ESPN later that day at 5:00 PM), who will Corso pick? Warning: He is a former coach at Louisville and was involved in an infamous 0-0 tie with Vandy at Dudley Field in 1971, a game that set records for most punts. He also coached at Indiana where he whomped the Dores 44-13 in Bloomington in 1979.

So can Corso bring himself to pick Vandy? I know he likely has an Auburn Tigers head available to him from previous games. But not so fast, my friend (as he likes to say on the air), I wonder if Corso is looking for one of those Mr. Commodore hats they used to wear when we were in school? :)

Frankly, in terms of sports, there's never been anything quite like what's happening this week for Vandy Nation.

With the football team 4-0, and having achieved a national ranking for the first time in over a quarter of century, the visit of Game Day crew for the Auburn game is just one more sign of just how quickly Vanderbilt's star is rising on the collegiate gridiron scene this year (recent articles in publications like Sports Illustrated also help in this regard).

But Vanderbilt fans always remain cautious. They've had their hopes crushed so many times over the years (even to just achieve the program's first winning season since 1982), there is bound to be some apprehension about how this weekend will turn out. After all Auburn remains a 4-point favorite.

That's understandable, but it's probably best to just savor the moment and revel in the tremendous buzz going around campus and throughout Nashville. An excitement exceeded only by the upcoming presidential debate to be held this coming Tuesday, October 7 at Belmont University, just a few blocks away from the Game Day site.

Wow! Talk about the eyes of the nation, and even the world, being on Nashville the next few days!

October, 1972: The Vanderbilt campus: The Living View The Dead

About the only thing that comes close to any of this while we were on campus at Vanderbilt is the Grateful Dead concert held on Alumni Lawn the fall of our senior year. In those days, the GD (Grateful Dead) generated the kind of excitment and enthusiam among music fans that GD (Game Day) does today with college football fans. And like Game Day, a rock group with the unique popularity of the Grateful Dead had never even come close to being on the Vanderbilt campus. That only made the appearance back then about as exciting in many ways as the Game Day appearance is now.

The concert by the Rolling Stones at Vanderbilt Stadium a few years ago might have come close, but I am not sure that group had the same strong following among the students, as the Dead did back in 1972.

By the way, the anniversary of the Vanderbilt Grateful Dead concert is October 21, so we will be blogging throughout the day that Tuesday (which is just a few days before our Reunion weekend) with a look back at that famous day on campus, complete with photos, news stories, and even a web site link where you can actually hear a live recording of some of the songs played that day by the Dead.

In the meantime, please feel free to leave your thoughts and share your excitement about Vanderbilt's current success on the gridiron and/or your memories of the Dead concert. Thanks....

Where Did You Eat Off-Campus? Volume 4

2008-09-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

The Arby's on West End was a pretty good walk or a short drive from campus as you headed in West End towards town.

Believe or not, it's still there over 35 years later if you care to drop by for a Giant Roast Beef, some curly fries and a shake while you are in town for Reunion October 24-25.

When my friends from WRVU used to go there to eat, we called it "pigeon park." In part, that had to do with an obscure comedy album that was sent to the station that we all liked a lot.

The album had a routine on it that featured pigeons (with one of the characters, sounding a little strung out on something, saying over and over: "Here, piggeey, piggeey piggeey." (Hey, stuff like could be very funny when you are 18, 19 or 20 years old). :)

We made the connection to Arby's because....well....lots of time you got to share your food with the pigeons when you went to Arby's in those days. Seating inside was very limited back then and that only left a couple of outside picnic tables and the pigeons (who as I remember, like the Vandetbilt squirrels, were almost trained when it came to dealing with humans).

The same was true with the Hardee's over on 21st Avenue across from the Law School, one of the original fast food places around Vanderbilt (and now for many years a Wendy's location).

Fast food was just beginning to explode as a restaurant concept in the late 1960s and early '70s. The most popular such outlet near Vanderbilt while we were there was the Burger King (or The Whop, as we called it) right across from campus and the Towers. Now it's a small strip mall.

Also near the Towers was the Krystal, a fast food place before that name was invented. It had also had a drive-in out back, so you could cruise in and eat in your car (a concept that now only Sonic keeps famous).

Going further out West End towards Belle Meade, Krispy Kreme was another great place for fast (or junk)food, disguised as a sweet snack. Located just on the other side of Murphy Road, today there's a small gas station and a sushi restaurant there (I-440 pretty much wiped out the rest of the area). There is still a Krispy Kreme near campus. It's over on Elliston Place not far from the Elliston Place Soda Shop, which is still serving great food (the traditional meat and three) after all these years.

Other fast food outlets I can remember near Vandy in those days were the Minnie Pearl Chicken outlet (where the Vanderbilt Plaza Hotel is today) and the Minnie Pearl Roast Beef restaurant across from the Cathedral (and where there is now a new retail development with several restaurants to visit).

In previous postings we've already talked about Rotier's, Tex Ritter's and The Flaming Steer (and there are such profiles yet to come), but what are your memories and stories to tell about eating off campus when you were at Vanderbilt?

Just leave your comments below.

Now just you don't just wish you could pay those prices again...and get a free glass mug to boot!

One of the Greatest Is Gone

2008-09-29T07:28:00.000-07:00

Paul Newman, who died last Friday at the age of 83, was one of the greatest actors of this or any generation.

I don't know how highly he would rank on a popularity list of movie stars with our Class of 1973. But given his rugged good looks, the he-man roles he often played, and his gorgeous blue eyes, I would think he would be close to the top of the list (especially with the women in our group).

Paul Newman was a movie star long before we came to Vanderbilt with his hit films in 1950s and '60s including THE LONG HOT SUMMER, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, EXODUS, THE HUSTLER, HUD and COOL HAND LUKE.

During our years at Vanderbilt (1969-1973), he continued his wonderful work on screen with a string of box office successes including BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID (1969), SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION (1971), THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE ROY BEAN (1972), and THE STING (1973), which won the Best Picture Oscar that year.

As for his own Oscars, he was nominated ten times, but won only once for Best Actor in THE COLOR OF MONEY in 1986. But he was recognized by the Academy on two other occasions, again in 1986 for his "many and memorable screen performances", and in 1994 with the Jean Hershott Humanitarian Award for his charity work.

Indeed Newman's line of food products, Newman's Own, raised millions of dollars for charity over the years and his second career as a race car driver and owner, also brought him great success and acclaim, including finishing second in 1979 in the 24 Hours At LeMans race.

Newman was also active in politics, so much so, that on the original and infamous enemies list of Presiden Richard Nixon, he was rated number 19.

Courtesy of YouTube, here's a brief appreciation of Paul Newman from the Biography Channel....

So who were your favorite movie stars while you were at Vanderbilt? What were your favorite movies during? And where did you go to see them? Downtown (The Tennessee, the Paramount, the Loews Crescent)? How about the Belle Meade Theatre or the Green Hills Theatre or the Belcourt Cinema nearby? What about the movies shown on campus at the Good Woman or The Different Drummer or in Neely Auditorium, sometimes complete with a little organ music for the silent films?

As always, please leave your thoughts below.

The Amazings

2008-09-28T18:08:00.000-07:00

They played the last game ever at Shea Stadium today (September 28).

The New York Mets lost it and won't be going to the baseball playoffs when they begin this coming week. But 39 years ago in 1969,the first year a playoff system was introduced into National and American Leagues, the Mets did go.

In fact, they went all the way, winning the most improbable of world championships. The Mets had never finished higher than ninth in the league their previous seven seasons. But in the playoffs, sparked by the pitching of Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and a very young Nolan Ryan, plus the hitting and fielding of Tommy Agee, Cleon Jones and MVP Don Clendenon, "The Amazin' Mets" beat, first the Atlanta Braves for the National League crown, then upset the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles 4 games to 1 to win the World Series.

All this occurred just as we were starting our freshman year at Vanderbilt and just a few months after man first landed on the moon. Given what the Mets had accomplished, it was truly a time when anything seemed possible.

Here's how David Brinkley and NBC Nightly News captured the moment the day it happened on October 16,1969....

There was a bit of the flair for the dramatic all four years of the World Series while we were at Vanderbilt. After losing to the Mets, the Baltimore Orioles bounced back the following season in 1970 to win a world championship 4 games to 1 over the first edition of the Big Red Machine from Cincinnati. Brooks Robinson was the MVP, putting on a fielding exhibition at 3rd base during the Series that had never been seen before (or since).

However, despite having four 20-game winners on the staff the next season, a third straight trip to the Series in 1971 did not result in another win for Orioles. Instead, they lost in seven games to the Pittsburgh Pirates and MVP Roberto Clemente, with Clemente playing in his final games before tragically losing his life in a plane crash during the off-season trying to bring relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. 1971 also was the first time any World Series game was played at night under the lights.

1973 saw the beginning of a new dynasty as the Oakland A's defeated another edition of the Big Red Machine of Cincinnati. It would be two more years before the Reds would win any world crowns. This time it was the unexpected slugging of MVP catcher/first baseman Gene Tenace, which sparked Oakland to the first of three championship flags.

OK, how many of us skipped those afternoon classes to catch the World Series on the radio? Or, if you didn't have a TV in your room, found some place to watch it with Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek doing the play by play and color analysis? Or how many of us did it like we did in high school, found a way to flick on the radio and catch a quick score to share around the room with our friends while the professor droned on during that 1:00 or 2:00 PM class?

Both the Mets and Yankees (who also did not make the playoffs in the final year of historic Yankee Stadium) will open brand new ball parks in New York City next year, and that is likely to spark a new renaissance for the game (if you can afford the tickets).

Still, for me that period of baseball while we were growing up during the 1950s, 60s and 70s, remains one of the greatest periods ever in the history of the game. Please leave your thoughts and comments below.

There's only one October!

The Other Shoe Drops

2008-09-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

In our last posting, we took a look back at the 1972 Presidential election. We also talked about the relatively minor role the June, 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington played in that contest.

But after the election, the Watergate break-in and its resulting cover-up became an issue that just would not go away. And as more and more revelations were made, there came the first real breaking point for the Nixon White House.

It was the announcement in late April, 1973 of a major shakeup at the top of the administration. It shook the country, and put the President forever on the defensive about Watergate until he resigned his office in disgrace in August, 1974.

When this White House shakeup occurred, involving several top presidential aides and the Attorney General either resigning or being fired, it was about the time we were all wrapping up our classes and looking forward to graduation from Vanderbilt after taking our last final exams as seniors. So I am not sure how much attention any of us paid to this news at the time.

But, again courtesy of the Vanderbilt TV News Archives, here is the way the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite related the story as it was breaking on the evening of April 30, 1973....

It is amazing to note in watching this coverage, how all the CBS journalists we've just seen, Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Bob Schieffer and Daniel Schorr are still active in their profession some 35 years after they filed these reports.

It is also interesting to note how Watergate still impacts and shapes our politics even today. As for happened in April, 1973, it was far from the end of the story, as Daniel Schorr noted in his report. What would follow would include the special Senate Watergate hearings; the discovery of the White House taping system, another round of high-level firings and a cabinet shakeup when the President got into a dispute with the Special Watergate prosecutor; the 18-minute gap on one of the White House tapes; the vote of the House Judiciary Committee to impeach the President; and on and on, until the discovery of the final "smoking gun" tape that led to his resignation from office.

Only then could we say, as new President Gerald Ford did, that our "long national nightmare is over."

As always, please leave your thoughts or memories below by clicking on the comments link.

Nixon Was The One---Again

2008-09-26T17:25:00.000-07:00

The current presidential election has captured the public's attention in historic and unprecedented ways this year.

Now the two major candidates, Senator John McCain (the Republican nominee) and Senator Barack Obama (the Democratic nominee), begin a series of three nationally-televised debates between tonight and October 15. The VP candidates (Alaska Governor Sarah Palin-GOP and Senator Joe Biden-Democratic) also have a debate coming up on October 2.

They didn't have debates like this during presidential campaigns when we were at Vanderbilt, and since we won't be blogging come the November electon, I thought this would be a good time to take a look back at the 1972 presidential election, which was held while we were on campus.

Republican President Richard Nixon was the incumbent, and he was easily renominated for another term. Lots of Democrats tried to run against him, with Senator Edmund Muskie (the VP choice of Democrats in 1968) being the front runner early.

But Muskie was accused of crying while making a speech during the New Hampshire primary, and his candidacy quickly faded. Former VP Hubert Humphrey (the Democrats presidential candidate in 1968) made another attempt at winning the nomination, and actually got the most votes overall in the primaries, but he could not translate that into a win at the Democratic convention.

Foreshadowing some of the history that was made in the 2008 election, Representative Shirley Chisolm of New York became the first black woman to run for the nation's highest office, but she never became a serious challenger.

Another candidate who could have been a major contender was former Alabama Governor, George Wallce (who ran as a major third party candidate in 1968). This time Wallace ran as a Democrat and won major primaries in Michigan and Maryland. But, unfortunately for him, that occurred the day after he was critically wounded by assassin Arthur Bremer, while campaigning in a Maryland shopping mall. Wallace did eventually recover, but he was left an invalid and had to drop out of the 1972 race.

That left South Dakota Senator George McGovern as the man to beat for the Democratic nomination. Democrats remained split after their disastrous Chicago convention in 1968. McGovern helped re-write the rules for how the party would choose its nominee, relying more on primaries and less on caucuses or party bosses making the choice.

Because he understood the new process better than his rivals, McGovern had an edge that helped him win the nomination. But it also earned him the enmity of many Democratic leaders, who eventually left the party and supported Nixon. That included Nashville's Mayor at that time, Beverly Briley, who was very active in a group called "Democrats for Nixon."

McGovern also had a disastrous convention. Because of an extended floor fight in choosing the Vice Presidential nominee, McGovern and his VP selection, Missouri Senator Tom Eagleton, did not get to make ther acceptance speeches until after 3:00 AM in the morning local time, well after almost everyone else in the country had turned off their TVs and gone to bed.

Then came the disclosure that Eagleton had undergone shock therapy in the past. After first saying he stood behind Eagleton "100%", McGovern then asked him to step down from the ticket a few weeks later, to be replaced by Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps and a prominent in-law in the Kennedy family.

But Shriver took the slot only after several prominent Democrats turned it down, and the McGovern campaign never recovered from the debacle, especially as the Republican ticket of Nixon and VP Spiro Agnew was successful in portraying the Democrats as "half crazy liberals" according to the write up on Wikipedia about the 1972 election.

President Nixon was also much more popular by the of his first term. American involvement in the War in Vietnam was on its way to an end, with a cease fire being achieved a few months later in January of 1973. The economy had improved and the President had achieved detente with the Soviets and opened up better relations with Communist China through his history-making visit there.

Add it all together and it led to record landslide victory for President Nixon on November 7, 1972.Courtesy of the Vanderbilt TV News Archives, here's how NBC's John Chancellor and David Brinkley reported the results the next day.....

In looking back on the 1972 elections, you may also remember there was a little incident involving a break-in at the Democratic Party National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington in June, 1972. Not much came of the incident during the election, although later what became known as the Watergate scandal and its coverup led to President Nixon resigning his post in August, 1974 (Vice President Agnew had already let office in disgrace a few months earlier after pleading no contest in a bribery scandal).

A personal note: I remember on Election Day, 1972 sitting in senior seminar class in political science taught by Dr. Richard Pride. It was our consensus in the class that whatever Watergate was, it would probably not ever amount to anything important or have any long lasting impact on our politics in the future.

We could not have been so completely wrong!

So much for one of my first forays into being a political pundit. :)

So do you have any memories or reflections you'd like to share about the elections of 1972? If so, please leave them by clicking on the comments link below.

Our Concerts 1969-1973, Volume II

2008-09-25T12:01:00.000-07:00

It was the beginning of our last semester at Vanderbilt(February 9, 1973) when the group "Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks" came to campus to perform two shows in Neely Auditorium.

I did not attend this concert and really didn't know all that much about the band until I started doing some research for this blog posting. But I am sure there are lots of folks out there reading this story who do know quite a bit about this musical group and their appearance on campus, so please leave your thoughts and memories below by clicking on the comments link.

What I learned from an little internet research (including going to the DanHicks.net website) is that Dan Hicks is a singer-songwriter who is "truly an American original." Since the early 1960s Hicks "deftly blended Swing, Jazz, Folk and County music to create the appealing sound he sometime calls "Folk Jazz."

"Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks" came together sometime in the late 1960s. Their first album "Original Recordings", released in 1969, was not a critical success. But, again, according to the information on Dan Hick's web site: "After reorganizing the band and signing with a new record label, the group produced three critically acclaimed albums" Where's the Money", "Striking It Rich", and "Last Train to Hicksville".

At that point, the group really took off in terms of popularity, even appearing on the cover of ROLLING STONE magazine. It was apparently at the height of this acclaim that the band came to Vanderbilt. And look at the prices on the concert ticket from the photo above: $3 or free with a VU ID!

Our classmates, Steve Greil and Aubrey Hornsby, always did have the right touch to bring some of the best entertainers to Vandy during our years there, and the price was right too (especially if you had your ID)!

As for "Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks", later that year in 1973, the group disbanded due to "pressures both internal and external" to the band. Wikipedia says Dan Hicks told an interviewer in 1974: "I didn't want to be a bandleader any more. It was a load and a load I didn't want."

The group did later re-unite in 1991 and recorded an hour-long performance for "The Austin City Limits" program on PBS. It aired during the 1992 TV season, and here, thanks to YouTube, is one of the featured songs from that TV concert, ""I Scare Myself":

There are other groups and entertainers who came to campus from 1969to 1973 which we will be featuring here on our class blog in the weeks ahead leading up to our 35th Class Reunion (October 24-25).

As always, I am sure the list I am working from is not complete, so your suggestions and memories of these concerts and campus appearances are also welcome. Heck, you can even leave me information about concerts you saw off-campus while you were in school here. Just leave your information below in the comments section.

YOU'VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY!

2008-09-24T13:26:00.001-07:00

One thing that changed quite radically during the four years we were at Vanderbilt was the status of women on campus.

According to a recent book on the history of Vanderbilt, CHANCELLORS, COMMODORES & COEDs, written by Bill Carey, it was in the spring of 1969 (right before we arrived that fall) that some of the first significant changes began to be made:

"Under pressure from students, female and male, the Heard administration does away with mandatory midnight curfews for sophomore, junior and senior women...At the same time, the administration does away with the rules that prohibit women from wearing pants and shorts on campus."

Yes, you read that correctly. Prior to 1969, Vanderbilt coeds were not allowed to wear pants or shorts on campus, believe it or not.

But even more major changes were on the way with parietal visitations being allowed in all dorms the following year (including, after we fought for it) opposite-sex visitation, even in the freshman dorms (except for Stapleton Hall).

Then came a number of co-ed dorms being opened. So I believe after all this, any remaining curfews in the frosh living quarters also had gone the way of the dodo bird.

In 1972, change continued in a even more substantial and far-reaching ways. Again, quoting from Bill Carey's book:

"Under pressure from students and faculty, the Board of Trust discards a policy that limits female enrollment to one-third of the student body, allowing the number of women in the school to rise to about half by 1980."

It was also during this time that the federal Title IX law was passed and Vanderbilt very slowly began to allow women equal access to the school athletic facilities and programs. Ultimately, it led to a women's athletics program at Vanderbilt (particularly in basketball) that is one of the best in the country.

But just getting equal access to facilities was a big struggle at first. Bill Carey tells one rather humorous story about it. I think this may have occurred while we were still on campus, but it might have been a few years later.

"Female students gain access to indoor sports facilities in McGugin Center after employing some unusual protest methods. At one point, students Widget Judd and Mae Go shock the campus by climbing into the sauna at McGugin nude, to the pleasant surprise of a student named Tom Davis, who was already sitting in it. "After some initial embarrassment and surprise, we all talked very normally about things in general," Davis says. A few days later, the athletic department announces a policy under which women can use the sauna for two hours a day, two night a week."

Then there were "the collective senior women" of the Class of 1973: Not only did they finish second in student balloting for homecoming queen in 1972, in the spring of 1973 they won the prestigious "Lady of Bracelet" Award given each year (in those days)to the most outstanding Vanderbilt senior co-ed. In his book, Carey described the effort as "a form of mass protest against all things sexist and elitist."

Finally, there is the photo above of a class taught by Susan Wiltshire. For the 1972-73 school term (our senior year), the Vanderbilt College of Arts & Science adopted a regular course in women's studies for the first time. It was called Women's Studies 150. This is a picture of that historic class and Professor Wiltshire, who went on to continue a very distinguished career at Vanderbilt.

According our senior yearbook, THE 1973 CENTENNIAL COMMODORE: "The class was an interdisciplinary course supervised by a committee of faculty members from several departments." It's goal was "exploring the role and images of women from ancient to modern times."

Did anyone out there take this course? What was it like? Did you know you were part of history in terms of academic classes at Vanderbilt? Please leave your memories and comments below.

The Excitement Continues!

2008-09-23T18:21:00.000-07:00

In the wake of the Vanderbilt football team's 4-0 start and its first national ranking in nearly a quarter century, the excitement continues to build on campus, in Nashville, and indeed throughout the Commodore Nation!

The next game against nationally-ranked and SEC West rival Auburn has been picked for national telecast by ESPN beginning at 5:00 PM (Central Time) on Saturday, October 4. This will mark the third time this season that the Commodores have appeared on one of the ESPN channels, having been on ESPNU for its opening season victory on the road at Miami of Ohio, and then one week later (another Thursday night game) on ESPN 2, a home-season opening victory (two in a row now actually) over Steve Spurrier and the South Carolina Gamecocks at Vanderbilt Stadium.

While Vanderbilt fans have learned over the years not to look too far ahead, it should noted the next home game after Auburn is Saturday afternoon, 2:00 PM, October 25 versus Duke. That's Homecoming and our Class of '73 35th Reunion Weekend.

And if things go well in our next few games (Auburn, Mississippi State, Georgia) or even if we lose a game or two, this contest against the Blue Devils could be a game...dare I say it...with bowl implications (you need at least six victories to to be bowl-eligible).

So what more reason do you need to come back to campus for Reunion? Maybe it can also help you forget some of those frustrating football memories from when we were students at Vanderbilt.

In my last posting, we talked about the ups and downs of the team our freshman year in 1969. Now let's look back at the teams from 1970 to 1972:

1970

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS AND GREAT PERFORMANCES:

The 1970 season began with two impressive home victories over UTC
(39-6) and The Citadel (52-0). But looks can be deceiving as the Dores went on the road and lost rather easily to Mississippi State 20-6 at a neutral field site at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. Actually what I remember best about that game was all the rain we had to endure (and it got cold and windy after that cold front went through) along with all those cowbells the State fans brought to game and rang all night.

A close loss at home to North Carolina followed (10-7) and as the Black & Gold dropped 6 consecutive games, winning only over UK (18-17) and Tampa (36-28) to close out another season with 4 victories. We had one more loss for the year than 1969 (7), because for the first time college team got to play 11 games, not 10. Steve Burger was the team's leading rusher that year.

Some other highlights of the year included the final season for a brillant Vanderbilt wide receiver, Curt Chesley. Almost four decades later, he is still in the Vanderbilt Top Ten in terms of career catches with 125. That includes two games the season before in 1969 when he rolled up 128 yards receiving against Army and 108 yards versus Georgia. All of this during a time in college football when offensive firepower was like a small pop gun compared to today's high powered attacks.

Some other interesting highlights in that 1970 season, a 71-yard kickoff return by Jeff Peeples against Alabama and 81-yard punt return for a TD by Ken Stone. Stone was defensive back, who after he left Vanderbilt became a very valuable player in the NFL for several years with Buffalo, Washington, Tampa Bay and St. Louis.

Then there was a halfback by the name of Mack Brown. He gained 158 yards in our win over Tampa. But unfortunately, Watson's brother soon transferred to Florida State to finish his college football playing career. He then began a very successful head coaching career that saw him win the national championship with Texas a couple of years ago.

One other home game of note that year versus Ole Miss and Archie Manning. The Rebels won 16-26, in one of the hardest rain storms I have ever seen at Dudley Field, producing near-flood conditions, as water poured off "our beautiful Tartan Turf." Finally, if you read the comments from the last post, you'll find a story by Steve Womack from that game involving the rain and Mr. Commodore that we still laugh about today 38 years later.

Post-season honors in 1970 included punter Steve Smith who was named first-team All-SEC, while tight end Karl Weiss played in the East-West Shrine Game and the Coaches All-American game. Tight End Jim Cunningham, fullback Bill Young, and defensive halfback John Burns were named Academic All-SEC.

1971

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS AND GREAT PERFORMANCES

When the season began with a narrow 20-19 victory over Chattanooga and was followed by a 0-0 home field tie with Louisville, prospects for a winning season looked pretty bleak right away.

But then the Dores rebounded with an astounding 49-19 rout of Mississippi State in Starkville with Doug Nettles returning an interception 28 yards for a TD and Walter Overton taking back a punt for 57 yards and a touchdown. But then came a close loss (23-27) at Virginia, as the team dropped four straight games, including a 42-0 romp by Alabama and All-American running back Johnny Musso here in Nashville. It all added up to another 4 win season with the other Vandy victories coming against Tulane and Tampa.

It was year of ups and down. The 0-0 tie with Louisville was such an offensive bust for both teams that that game still holds the school record for most combined punts (16). Another low point came in losing the UK game 14-7 on an intercepted pass return as the clock ran out (and with Vandy receivers running open down field behind the UK defense).

But there were some highlights: Doug Nettles returned a kickoff 95 yards for a TD versus UVA and running back Jamie O'Rourke began a stellar Vanderbilt career, rushing for more than 100 yards three times that season (UK, Tulane, Tampe). That included gaining 187 yards on 35 carries versus the Green Wave in New Orleans. That number of carries in a game is still a school record.

And let me correct my last post, it was in 1970 that Jeff Peeples set the single season school record for most kickoff returns in a game with 7 against Ole Miss and most for season with 33. It had to be in 1970. Peeples, a Class of '73 member was a freshman in 1969 and was not eligible to play in those days. My bad.

Post-season honors in 1971 included defensive end and Class of '73 member George Abernathy and defensive back Ken Stone being named to the All-SEC team.

One last near-highlight I will always remember about the 1971 team is when it held powerful and nationally-ranked Tennessee in check for three quarters in Knoxville, even leading the contest 7-0 going into the final period before losing 19-7. That Vanderbilt team left it all on the field that day.

McGill Hall celebrates Homecoming 1972

1972

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS AND GREAT PERFORMANCES

The season got off to a tough start before the first game was even played, as star running back Jamie O'Rourke blew out both his knees and was out for the season.

But the team rallied to win its first game fairly handily against Chattanooga 24-7 with both Walter Overton and Paul Brogdon rushing for more than 100 yards in the contest. With O'Rourke on the sideline, young Lonnie Sadler emerged at the team's leading rusher. But Vandy would win just two other games that season (back to back home victories over Virginia and VMI)and closed with six straight losses and just 3 victories total. Coach Bill Pace was dismissed at the end of the season to be replaced by young Steve Sloan. Sloan using a lot of the talent recruited by Pace, posted a 5-6 record the next year, nearly beating UT in Knoxville and then a 7-3-2 record in 1974 to take the team to the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.

Just like it was for the Sarratt Student Center, we graduated a couple of years too soon to enjoy the Promised Land as students.

1972 post-season honors included guard L.T. Southall being named to the All-SEC team, and Southall joining split end Doug Martin on the All-SEC Academic team. Ken Stone, a Class of '73 member played in both the East-West All Star Shrine Game and the Canadian American Bowl in the post-season.

Nationally-Ranked!

2008-09-22T06:54:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of John Russell, Vanderbilt University

For the first time in 24 seasons (1984), the Vanderbilt University football team is nationally ranked, coming in at Number 21 in the Associated Press poll and Number 25 in the USA TODAY balloting.

While the team's 4-0 start continues to draw national interest, Commodore fans likely remain a bit leery, given the Dores' past history, and with the meat of the SEC schedule just now coming up, beginning with the game against Auburn here in Nashville on October 4.

The off-week coming up for Saturday, September 27 gives the team a much-needed opportunity to heal up from several injuries and for fans to get pumped up for the rest of the season.

It also gives us a chance here at the Centennial Class blog to remember some of the highs and lows of our football experience while we were on campus. Let's start with our freshman year:

GREAT GAMES & INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES--1969

1. Vanderbilt 14-Alabama 10: We beat Bear Bryant for what I think is the only time during his career at Bama. Quaterbacks Watson Brown and "West End" Denny Painter are named National Offensive Players of the Week. Still the sweetest game of all.

2. Vanderbilt 42-UK 6: Watson Brown takes back a punt return 62 yards for a TD. Before injuries took their toll, Watson Brown was destined to be one of the greatest players ever in VU football history (and maybe in VU baseball history too before injuries intervened).

3. Vanderbilt 63-Davidson 8: The competition wasn't much, but this contest still holds the Vanderbilt single game record for most first downs in a game (40) and most first downs rushing (27). Watson Brown rolled for 115 yards, while halfback Doug Mathews gained 158 yards and returned a punt 89 yards for a touchdown. The defense stepped up too, allowing Davidson just 16 rushes in the game, which is still a school record almost 40 years later.

4.Vanderbilt 26-Tulane 23: Christie Hauck, later of Christie's Cookies fame, returns a fumble(it had to be caught in the air in those days) 70 yards for a touchdown. Senior Doug Mathews, converted to running back after spending all of his earlier VU career at defensive back, rushes for 214 yards against the Green Wave. Mathews, a former Vandy and UT assistant coach, is now a prominent radio sports talk host in Nashville and a big UT supporter.

5.A few other miscellaneous records were set that year:

A. Doug Mathews led the SEC in rushing in 1969 with 849 yards, still the third highest total ever by a senior running back at VU.

B. Watson Brown set a school record that still stands for highest pass completion percentage for a season at 62.2% (69 of 111 passes for 896 yards).

6. Two well-remembered Vanderbilt players completed their careers in 1969. Bob Asher, an consensus first-team, All-American and All-SEC offensive tackle, played in the 1970 Senior Bowl and was taken in the second round of the NFL draft by the Dallas Cowboys where he played during the 1970 season. Asher also played for the Chicago Bears in 1972.

No other Vanderbilt player on that 1969 team earned any post-season honors, believe it or not. Nevertheless, two players, defensive end Pat Toomay and defensive back Neil Smith were invited to play in the Blue-Gray Classic. Toomay was also drafted by the Dallas Cowboys where he began a decade-long career in the NFL, also playing for the Buffalo Bills, the Tampa Bay Bucs and the Oakland Raiders. He wrote a best-selling book on life with the Cowboys and playing in the NFL called THE CRUNCH.

7. This VU squad had two members on All-SEC academic team, Dave Strong, wingback and Noel Stahl, a defensive end.

THE CHALLENGES

1. Given all the positives above, it may be a little hard to believe this 1969 VU team finished only 4-6. But it may be easier to understand if you look at some other still standing school records set that season: Most kickoff returns in season by an individual, Jeff Peeples, 33 returns for 545 yards and a 19.9 yard average. And most kickoff returns in a game 8 by Doug Mathews against Florida(a record that has been matched unfortunately a few times since).

2. It was likely the trio of early season losses to Michigan, Army and North Carolina put this team in a hole it couldn't quite dig out of the rest of the season, despite the historic upset of Alabama and some of the other impressive achievements of this group. Big losses (by double digits or more) to Georgia, Florida and Tennessee didn't help either.

More in our next posting when we look back at the achievements and challenges of Vanderbilt football during the other years (1970-1972)we were students on campus. If you have any thoughts or memories to share about Vanderbilt football, please leave them below.

Go Vandy! Beat Auburn! And don't forget the Duke game for Homecoming and our Reunion Weekend October 24-25!

Breaking Through?

2008-09-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of John Russell, Vanderbilt University

For the only the fourth time in our lifetime (roughly the last 58 years), a Vanderbilt football team has started its season 4-0(1950, 1984, 2005, 2008). But for a program that has not enjoyed a winning record since 1982, we all know nobody should be counting bowl bids just yet.

However, this group of Commodores with the way they bounce back from gridiron misfortune and how they seem to get stronger and play better in the second half of their games, there does seems to be a justifiable reason for optimism (and enough potentially winnable games left on the schedule to achieve that goal). :)

For example, there was the play of safety Ryan Hamilton in Vanderbilt's latest victory (23-17) over Ole Miss. The junior may have turned in one of the greatest individual defensive performances in Vanderbilt history, picking off a school record-tying three interceptions(one of which he returned for 79 yards for a touchdown, another he returned 24 yards to set up an important field down, and the final one he garnered to end the game).

And that's not all, Hamilton also made several key defensive stops, including one tackle to cap a goal line stand inside the one-yard line in the second half.

So maybe for the first time since Reunion has been moved to coincide with Homecoming, it's possible the football game (versus Duke on Saturday, October 25) could be one of the major draws and attractions of the weekend. Duke is also one of those winnable games toward becoming bowl-eligible (6 wins) and towards at least having a non-losing, if not a winning season, for the first time since my youngster daughter was three months old.

Looking back on Vanderbilt football during our time on campus (the 1969-1972 seasons), I am struck not by the losing records we had all four years, but the inconsistency and frequent frustration of that period. I think you can see it in the photo above of Chancellor Heard gamely holding on, while the paying customers depart early from another losing game at Dudley Field.

There was great optimism about football when we came to school. New coach Bill Pace had posted a winning season (5-4-1) in 1968. But 1969 began with three straight losses before we shocked the football world and Coach Bear Bryant, by beating his nationally-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide 14-10, before a stunned-but-very-happy Parents Weekend crowd here in Nashville.

However, the momentum from that historic moment in our football history could not be sustained, as the Dores won just three more games the rest of the year to finish 4-6.

1970 again brought great expectations and things got off to a great start as Vanderbilt routed UTC and The Citadel in its first two games. But then came a trip to Memphis to play Mississippi State in the Liberty Bowl, which resulted in disappointing 20-6 setback. That began a six-game losing streak, dooming the team to another 4 win season.

The 1971 season began ominously with a narrow 20-19 win over UTC and a 0-0 tie with Lousville, a game that still holds single-game school records for offensive futility by both teams. But then came a 49-19 rout of Mississippi State in Starkville, and hopes soared again, only to be crushed by Bear Bryant and his Tide with a 42-0 romp over Vandy here in Nashville. The rest of the season had only the highlights of a win in New Orleans over Tulane and a 10-7 victory over Tampa. It all added up to another 4-6-1 finish.

Senior year, 1972, there was a feeling, even before the season began, that Coach Pace was on thin ice to keep his job. Sure enough, things got bad early with all-star running back Jamie O'Rourke blowing out both his knees and missing the season. When the team struggled home with just a 3-8 record (wins over UTC, Virginia and William & Mary) and concluded the year with a six-game losing streak, it was clear Coach Pace was gone. He was replaced by a young Steve Sloan (who hired Bill Parcells as one of this assistants).

After we left school, Sloan went on to lead Vanderbilt to an all-too-brief, two-year period of football success (including a 7-3-2 record in 1974 and a Peach Bowl berth). Ironcally, Sloan achieved much of his success relying heavily on the talent recruited and left behind by Coach Pace.

Frustrating. In my next posting, I will take another look back at the achievements and disappointments of our football years at Vanderbilt. As always, please feel free to leave your own thoughts and memories below.

Go Vanderbilt!

Our Concerts 1969-1973

2008-09-20T08:01:00.001-07:00

Along with promoting the "History of Motown" presentation by Vice Chancellor David Williams as a part of our upcoming (October 24-25) 35th Centennial Class Reunion weekend, I thought another way to get everyone in the mood for our big get-together was to look back at the many special groups we had come to campus to entertain us over our four years at Vanderbilt.

And since Reunion weekend is now also Homecoming, what better place to start our look back than with our first Vanderbilt Homecoming as students in the fall of 1969.

Our Homecoming concert was given by one of the most popular bands around at that time, The Association.

Here they are in a live concert presentation I found on YouTube performing one of their biggest hits, "Cherish".....

I found the shots of the crowd to be particularly fun to watch.
Don't you just love the fashions back in those days and how young everyone looks? And what about the the folks using that reel-to-reel tape recorder or the tiny flash camera at the end?

Hearing "Cherish" also brought back memories of one of Nashville's top disc jockeys at the time, Scott Shannon of WMAK (1300 AM),who closed out his broadcast every night with that song.

Good times, man, good times. What are your memories of The Association concert? Did you have a date or just go with a group of friends? Please leave your thoughts and memories below?

I have a list of other concerts we enjoyed while at Vanderbilt, so I plan to continue our musical tour down memory lane with still more postings like this between now and Reunion.

If you want to be sure to see and hear a certain group(my concert list is probably not complete), drop me a note at the end of this posting to let me know. That includes mentioning any particular song you'd like to see featured in the posting. I will look it up and if I can find it on YouTube or someplace else, I will add it to this blog.

Man, this makes me feel a little like the old days working as a DJ at WRVU, taking telephone requests and dedications from listeners. :)

Getting Ready For Reunion & For Motown

2008-09-18T19:38:00.001-07:00

Don't forget one of the can't miss parts of our 35th Reunion Weekend is our class-sponsored educational event "The History of Motown" by Vice Chancellor David Willams Friday afternoon, October 24,at 4:00 PM in the Board of Trust Room in the new Student Life Center right across from Memorial Gym.

Over the next few weeks, we will be reminding you again and posting some great Motown videos to refresh your memories of that music and get you in the mood for Reunion weekend.Like this great oldie, My Girl.....

My Girl (Motown video)
Uploaded by eXsistenZ1968

Putting It in Perspective

2008-09-18T19:38:00.000-07:00

It's been bad week for everyone in terms of the economy. We are seeing things happen in the financial markets and with long-standing financial institutions which resemble more the events of October 1929, not September, 2008.

It's been particularly brutal on Wall Street with the Dow Jones daily average losing close to 900 points total on two different days this week, before rallying more than 410 points today (Thursday) to close at 11,019.

Right now, no one knows for sure what the future, or even tommorrow or next week holds for the economy and the markets. But it is interesting to look at these things from the perspective of our years at Vanderbilt from 1969 to 1973 (even though I am fairly sure very few, if any of us, paid much attention to the stock market during these years...OK, maybe Bill Spitz). :)

If you were paying attention to stocks, here's what you would have seen:

The Dow Jones Averages:

1969 High 952 Low 769

1970 High842 Low 699

1971 High 950 Low 790

1972 High 1036 Low 921

1973 High 1051 Low 788

Notice first, how very much lower the range of stock averages were then than they are today (trading in a range of 769 for a low to 1051 for a high in those days, compared stocks averages above 11,000to 12,000 in recent years).

Clearly what we've told for years has been true (at least over the last 39 years): investing for the long term does pay off as the economy grows and expands.

Also notice that in our first two years at Vanderbilt, stocks dipped in average, closing in 1970 below what the market had done in 1969 for both highs and lows. And while the decline in raw numbers looks almost insignificant today, remember what a smaller range of overall stock averages were in play back then, and you can see that perhaps the 110 point differances in high water marks for stocks between 1969 and 1970 was quite significant to the overall value of stocks (and if you'll recall those years were a somewhat difficult time economically).

Also notice how stocks rebounded so well in 1972 and 1973, with highs above 1,0000 (for the first time in history I believe) and even the stock lows in those years were better than all but one other year during that period.

Now none of this is meant to be an endorsement or a condemnation of any one's ideas about how (or how not) to reform or change Wall Street in the wake of its current difficulties. But maybe it will help me feel a little better (and have a little hope for the future) the next time I get my 401K statement. :)

Don't forget to take a chance and enter the Vandy trivia quiz a few blog postings below. We still have two nice prizes from the Vanderbilt Reunion Office left to give away.

And to make it easier than an open book exam, the correct answers are listed in Steve Womack's winning entry which you can find in the reply area of the quiz posting. And that's where you can leave your correct answers as well.

Oh, if some of my Vanderbilt exams had just been this easy!

Selling the Essentials---TV News Commercials in the Summer 1969

2008-09-17T15:07:00.001-07:00

About the time our Centennial Class was getting ready to come to Vanderbilt for the first time in the late summer of 1969, the ads on the nightly TV news were selling the essentials.

Unlike today, when these shows are populated with ads flacking all manner of prescription drugs, in the late '60s it was all about soap, detergent and toothpaste, the kind of things we all needed to bring with us to campus, especially that toothpaste that would give us all "sex appeal", which was a rather risque thing to talk about on TV in those days.

So courtesy of the Vanderbilt TV News Archives, take a trip back to TV Land, commercial style, from August, 1969. Also see if you recognize the young blonde in the last ad. She went on to be quite a TV and movie star and she has roots here in Tennessee.....

Did you recognize Cybill Sheperd? She was born in Memphis (February 18, 1950) and came to her first brush with fame by being named "Miss Teenage Memphis" in 1966 and then "Model of the Year" in 1968. According to her biography on Wikipedia: "She quickly made a name for herself as a curvy, "real woman", which was a departure from the trend at the time of Twiggy-type waifs."

It was not her 1969 TV "Ultra Brite" ad that led to her next break. It was her fashion modeling and appearance on the cover of GLAMOUR magazine in 1970 that got film director Peter Bogdanovich to cast her in his next movie: THE LAST PICTURE SHOW.

From there it was on to other notable films in the next few years such as THE HEARTBREAK KID, DAISY MILLER and TAXI DRIVER. Later she branched into television, winning acclaim for her work in the MOONLIGHTING comedy series with Bruce Willis and for another series she starred in called CYBIL.

And to think on the national scene it all began with that "sex appeal" toothpaste ad.

Don't forget you have a chance to stand out among your former VU classmates. All you have to do is scroll down and correctly answer the trivia questions in the posting below. My good friend and former WRVU Station Manager Steve Womack has won the first prize, which is a nice Vanderbilt mug. And there are two other prizes up for grabs courtesy of the Vanderbilt Reunion Office, so put in your answers/guesses today.

Where Did You Eat Off Campus, Volume 3?

2008-09-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

OK, even though it was just a few blocks off campus headed downtown, I can't say I ever remember eating at the Flaming Steer Restaurant on West End.

I do remember it had a big, tall lighted sign out front that looked a lot like...well, what else...a flaming steer. But I don't remember ever going inside to eat.

Did you ever go there? Have any fond memories or food nightmares to share from the experience? Please leave your comments and thoughts below.

The owners must have attracted some Vandy students to dine with them. After all, as you can see above, they advertised in THE COMMODORE Yearbook. Or maybe they just felt sorry for whatever student came around trying to sell them an ad. :)

I think the Flaming Steer may have been a little ahead of its time (before chain restaurants like Bonanza or other steakhouses made steak a popular and affordable menu item for any budget when you went out to eat).

I wonder if it was like Chambers Restaurant on the other side of campus, near the Oxford House and just across the street from the Peabody campus?

Now I do remember Chambers. Long before I came to Vanderbilt, my dad took me there for my first official steak dinner on my birthday when I turned 12. Anyway, it was quite a big deal for me at the time, although I remember the steak itself was more than a little tough(more like tasty shoe leather than a tender piece of meat).

But when you are taking another big step in your life towards becoming a man (and for me, having your first steak dinner with your dad was one of those),it was more the event itself and its symbolism that mattered, not the steak sauce or whether it was a ribeye or a t-bone (sorry, filet was still too expensive).

Today, Chambers has long since been gobbled up by the Vanderbilt Medical Center, while the Flaming Steer has also headed for the last roundup. In fact, its location on West End has housed a Mrs. Winner's Fried Chicken restaurant for several years now.

More on the places around Vanderbilt where we went to eat in some upcoming postings. We are now here everyday through Reunion Weekend, October 24-25, trying to get your memories refreshed and your mind in the mood for a great time as the Centennial Class returns to Vanderbilt for our 35th Class Reunion.

By the way, we are still looking for winners in the VU trivia contest. The questions are contained in the posting right below. Many of the answers can also be found in earlier postings on this site, including the name of the first Vandy dorm to go co-ed (to help someone who missed that question).

So You Think You Know Vandy 1969-1973?

2008-09-15T10:49:00.001-07:00

Welcome to your Vanderbilt Class of '73 Reunion blog!

This is your place to get "in the mood" to come back for our 35th Reunion October 24-25 as the VU Centennial Class returns to campus once more.

You can get ready for Reunion by coming here to interact with your Vandy classmates and think back on the days we were all together on West End here in Nashville.

There are almost 40 blog postings already on this site (which started up back in February). Hopefully they'll help you remember those special times in the late 1960s and early '70s.

And we plan a new posting here at least once a day, everyday, from now all the way to Reunion weekend itself. So come back often.

But whether this is your first visit or you've already been here several times, how about a chance to win some prizes from the Vanderbilt Reunion Office? (and when's the last time you got anything free from the University?) :)

All you have to do is be one of the first three class members to correctly answer the Vandy trivia questions below. Please submit your answers by hitting the comments link at the end of this post (and leave us some contact information like your name and e-mail address, so we can get back in touch if you are a winner).

Here's the quiz (It's an open book test but Honor Code still applies) :)

1.What Vanderbilt assistant football coach has gone on to coach and win in the Super Bowl?

A. Bobby Proctor
B. Alexander Heard
C. Watson Brown
D. Bill Parcells

2. The first co-ed dorm at Vanderbilt was?

A. Stapleton Hall
B. Landon House
C. McGill Hall
D. Oxford House

3. If you had long hair you could not eat at what area restaurant?

A. Loveless
B. Rotier's
C. Tex Ritter's
D. Pancake Pantry

4. Which of the following rock groups were the featured performers at Homecoming our freshman year?

A. The Grateful Dead
B. Sha-Na-Na
C. The Association
D. Bread

I believe many of you have seen most, if not all, of these questions before. In fact, we asked them 20 years ago when we were preparing for our 15th Reunion in 1988.

We sent out a special Blue Book mailing with the questions. The answers were contained in a special HUSTLER we sent out later.

So rummage through your memories and maybe your attic to find the correct answers. Then submit them below and you could be a winner!

Then remember to come back here often as we all get ready for Reunion '08!

Study Up On Those Yearbooks...You Don't Want to Miss This.....

2008-09-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

Very soon (Monday, September 15) all members of the Class of 1973 will be receiving a special blast fax e-mail from the Alumni Office about our upcoming Reunion (October 24-25).

Of course, the e-mail will once again encourage you to sign up to come back to campus for our special weekend. By the way, we are ahead of some previous classes (i.e.,the Class of 1972), in our projected attendance.

58 classmates and their guests have already registered to attend the Friday night party with another 74 folks saying they plan to come but haven't registered yet. We hope to have at least 200 classmates and guests total, so there's still plenty of time and space if you want to "come on down" (check out the Class of '73 Reunion web site for the full list of those who have registered or say they plan to attend).

The coming blast fax will also give you an opportunity (believe it or not) to win some free prizes from Vanderbilt. All you have to do is be among the first three folks to come here to our Class Blog Site on September 15 and provide the correct answers to a Class of1973 Vanderbilt trivia contest.

The questions are really not that hard. In fact, we asked several of them 20 years ago to promote our 15th Reunion. That's when we sent out a special Blue Book exam with the questions, and later provided the answers in our own Reunion HUSTLER (with apologizes even today to Neil Skene, the real editor of the HUSTLER our senior year). :)

Now through the wonders of the Internet, we can do this quiz on line here at the blog site and provide some great prizes to those who get the answers right (at least the first three folks who do).

So study up on those COMMODORE annuals and try and find that 15th Reunion Blue Book exam or the Reunion HUSTLER we sent you back in 1988 (I know, yeah, right. I do still have my copies, but then I am wierd like that).

So see you back here Monday as we pick up the pace on this blog. We want to get everyone in the mood and excited about our Reunion, which is just a little over 6 weeks away.

We will begin at least daily postings here, including more photos, stories, memories, TV news stories and TV ads, all from that special period we spent together at Vanderbilt from 1969 to 1973.

So bookmark this site or set up an alert from here to your computer to let you know everytime we have something new posted. For those of you coming to the site for the first time, welcome and please feel free to review all the previous posts (over 30 of them) that date back to when this blog first began back in late February.

And to everybody who comes here, please let me know what you think about what you read and see and hear on this site. Also tell me what memories you have or stories or pictures you'd like to share...all by clicking on the comments link at the bottom of each blog posting.

If you do have photos, I would happy to get them from you and post them on the blog for everyone to enjoy. The easiest way to do that is to scan them and e-mail them to me (pat.nolan@dvl.com). Or we can work out a way to have them mailed to me (or locally in Nashville I can pick them up). I promise to return any photos after they are scanned so we can place them on the site.

Thanks!

But We Had Fun Anyway....

2008-09-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

We've talked several times on this blog about the fact that the Class of 1973 did not get to enjoy its own Student Center. In fact, the Sarratt Center opened in the fall of 1973 just a few months after we graduated (May 25)and left campus.

We also didn't get to enjoy some of the other more modern and luxurious campus facilities of today, such as the Student Rec Center or The Commons on the Peabody Campus (now called the south campus, by the way), where all the freshmen students live.

But as you can see from the photos above, we always managed to find a way to amuse ourselves!

When the construction of the Sarratt Center closed off our major on-campus green space for recreation on Alumni Lawn, we used the fence itself to have some fun as these coeds outside their dorm (is that Tolman or Cole?) demonstrate.

I hope nobody pulled a muscle doing this for the photo. :)

From the other picture above you can see we also had a banner/ fence painting contest to perhaps allow some kind of creative outlet for our inability to use Alumni Lawn, as well as the frustration of having to walk all the way around the fence instead of cutting across the Lawn to get to class more quickly.

For obvious reasons, some of the more "creative" signs or slogans we used in those days about the situation we were enduring (i.e., "Pluck the Pence", etc.) are not included, living on only in our memories. So please feel free to share your thoughts and memories below.

Another Word From Our Former Sponsors

2008-09-04T07:59:00.000-07:00

As we continue to look back on our years at Vanderbilt, sometimes the change from those days to now can be quite striking.

And some of that change began while we were still on campus....

The commercial below was something you saw everday on TV back in the late 1960s and the very early 1970s. But cigarette ads were banned from the airways while we were in school at Vanderbilt.

In April,1970 Congress passed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act which banned both TV and radio ads for cigarettes as of January 2, 1971.

It is interesting how so many of the cigarette ad concepts from those days ("The Marlboro Man", "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should", "Outstanding, and they are mild") continue to live in our pop culture even today.

But this ad for the "extra long" Benson & Hedges cigarettes (with its catchy jingle) was already on its way to being a thing of the past when it aired on the Evening News on July 21, 1969....

Once again, we thank the Vanderbilt New Archives for making these TV ads and news clips available. By the way, if you are wondering, the last national TV ad for a cigarette was for the Virginia Slims brand. It aired at 11:59 PM on January 1, 1970 during a network break for THE TONIGHT SHOW on NBC.

It Was Quite A Year

2008-09-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

As the University settles into another academic year, it's quite interesting to take a look back at our freshman year at Vanderbilt in the fall of 1969.

While lots of things have clearly changed in 35 years. For example, check out tuition. Or check out the new Commons where all the freshman now live on the old Peabody campus and compare the living quarters there to what we had in Kissam and Branscomb.

Nevertheless, looking back through the headlines of THE HUSTLER, you can see a lot of things occurred our first year that began traditions that still endure today:

September 12, 1969: Quadrangles over overflow with 1,195 freshman

We were the largest freshman class to ever come to Vanderbilt up until that time. To say the least, the University wasn't fully prepared, with some of us sleeping four people to a lounge. And those areas really weren't designed for anybody to sleep there!

September 12, 1969: Women Get Permission To Live Off Campus

Now this didn't apply to freshmen but it sure was something a number of the coeds of the Class of 1973 eventually took advantage
of for living arrangements. And to think, just a few years before, VU coeds were not allowed to wear shorts or pants on campus.

September 16, 1969: Freshman Say Parietals Now!

A lot of us were outraged to learn when we got to campus that opposite-sex dorm room visitation was set to begin in all campus dorms, except for freshmen. We raised hell, and demanded equal treatment.

October 17, 1969: Frosh Parietals To Begin For Spring Semester

We win! Parietals is a right every freshman class has enjoyed ever since we came to campus and demanded it 35 years ago. That is, except for Stapleton Hall, which voted not to implement parietals, earning the ever-lasting nickname, at least for our class, of "Sterile Stapleton."

November 4, 1969: Committee Begins Research, Planning for Co-ed Dorm

Another campus housing innovation which began back in our day. Landon House was the first co-ed dorm on campus, but soon others, like Carmichael Towers, would follow in the next few years. But across Tennessee not everyone liked co-ed dorms. In fact, by our senior year, in the winter and spring of 1973, the State General Assembly considered a bill to ban co-ed dorms, and finally passed it in 1974. Fortunately, Governor Winfield Dunn vetoed the measure and it stuck.

December 16, 1969: Manager Refuses Service: Youth Picket Pancake Pantry

It's always been a great place to eat in nearby Hillsboro Village (with pancakes to die for). But in the fall of our freshmen year, those with long hair were not welcome. That has fortunately long since changed,and the long line you see outside the Pantry today is not a protest, it's just all the folks waiting to get inside to eat!

April 3, 1970: Second Semester Rush Instituted

Another change that began when we came to campus. It was met with cries that it would kill the Greek system. But the University felt it best to give freshman a chance to settle in on campus for a semester before holding rush and that's the way it still is today.

April 21, 1970: Pre-Christmas Exams for 1970-71, PE Out

Remember how you'd forget everything you knew over Christmas break, then have to come back to school in January for final exams? And remember how PE was a required course for all freshmen? Well, that changed after our freshmen year and it probably helped everyone's GPA, if not our waistlines. Why didn't we try to end 8:00 AM classes too?

All in all it was quite a freshman year, especially when you add in the Vietnam Student Moratoriums (October & November 15, 1969); Chicago 7 Attorney William Kunstler speaking at the IMPACT symposium in February (and angering Governor Buford Ellington); the very first Earth Day activities in April, 1970; the Cambodian Invasion/Kent State protests in early May that led the faculty to vote to close Peabody College.

So what are your memories of our freshman year? Please leave your thoughts below.

It's More Than Just The News...

2008-08-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

The Vanderbilt TV News Archives is a wonderful resource.

Not only has it captured for research and history, all the significant news events of the past 40 years (as covered by the major TV networks), it also has a great collection of TV commercials mixed in with the broadcasts.

The Archives weren't designed to do that, but nevertheless you can literally track the changes in our culture and in our marketing by looking at these ads.

Here's the first installment of what will be several collections of TV ads we will feature here between now and Reunion weekend.

You will notice several interesting things about the ads, which were broadcast on September 21, 1970. Unlike today's evening newscasts which are filled with spots for prescription drugs, all of these are selling consumer products (deodorant, laundry detergent, flour and cake frosting) and notice the emergence of black actresses in a couple of the spots, something just beginning to happen in the late 1960s and early '70s. Also I am not sure the first ad (Secret) would be as well received by women today as it might have been when this spot was created.

Our class is part of the TV generation, born and raised glued to the tube. What do you remember about watching TV while you were at Vanderbilt? Too busy studying or hanging out? Did you even have a TV set in your room and if you did, what did you watch? Did you have any favorite shows? Your comments, as always, are welcome below.

39 Years Later

2008-08-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

Can it really be almost four decades ago?

This August marks the 39th anniversary of Woodstock, the rock concert held in upstate New York which came to symbolize, in many people's minds, the generation that came of age in the'60s.

39 years: that's how old comedian Jack Benny said he was every year when he celebrated his birthday. Ever thought you read Jack Benny and Woodstock in nearly the same sentence? But, if you think about it, unless you are our age, you may not really remember either one anymore.

Woodstock was held just a few weeks before the Vanderbilt Class of 1973 arrived on campus. Did any of us attend Woodstock that summer on the way to Nashville? What are your memories whether you attended or not? Please leave your thoughts below.

And in the meantime, thanks to the wonders of YouTube, enjoy these flashbacks to Woodstock:

Grace Slick & The Jefferson Airplane: White Rabbit (recorded live at Woodstock)

Crosby Stills & Nash: Sweet Judy Blue Eyes (recorded live at Woodstock)

And finally, especially for the Vandy Class of '73:

Jerry Garcia & The Grateful Dead: Lovelight (recorded live at Woodstock)

The mainstream media in the Summer of 1969 had a lot of difficulty both covering the Woodstock story (the rain, the mud, the crowds, the traffic) as well as coming to grips with what it meant.

Here's how CBS News reporter John Laurence talked about it (in a coat and tie in his New York studios) on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite on August 18, 1969. Notice in particular, he never uses the word Woodstock.

If you'd like to know even more about Woodstock, check out this website:

http://www.woodstock69.com

Peace

Where Did You Eat Off-Campus, Volume Two

2008-08-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

With Move-In Weekend having just occurred for the Vanderbilt Class of 2012, I thought it would be a good time to remember the long-gone Tex Ritter's Chuck Wagon.

The original building is still there. But today it is the site for a Qdoba Mexican fast food outlet, after also being a Pizza Hut location for many years.

But in our days at Vanderbilt, Tex Ritter's,located on the corner of 21st Avenue South and West End Avenue, was the place to go for a quick meal or late night snack.

It was very convenient, built just across from Kissam Quad, the freshman dorm of choice(not really) for most male members of the Class of 1973.

What do you remember about eating or drinking there? I remember hamburgers and, of course, the sarsaparilla (root beer), which was truly Tex's signature beverage.

What else do you remember about this favorite place for so many of us to eat during our early years at Vanderbilt?

Getting back to the most recent Move-In Day at Vanderbilt. It marks the debut of the new Vanderbilt Commons. Located on the back side of the Peabody Campus (now called the South Campus, I understand) the Commons are just beautiful and will provide an opportunity for all the freshmen to live together and be joined by some of their teachers.

Can you imagine some of our professors living in Kissam with us? How long do you think they would have lasted? Living in Branscomb maybe, it was (and is) a much nicer place to stay. But the Kissam Quad I remember was more like a barracks.

I understand the old Kissam Quadrangle is not long for the Vandy campus and will soon be torn down for something new. That's probably a good idea. That corner at 21st and West End needs to be a showcase location for the University. But I hope when they tear down Kissam, they take some time to do a forsenic dig on the site.

Can you imagine all the strange things they might find there? Maybe even some old take out bags,wrappers and cups from the dear-departed Tex Ritter's.

The Olympics, Then and Now

2008-08-12T09:21:00.000-07:00

As the United States and indeed, all the world, seems totally absorbed in the current Summer Olympic Games now underway in Beijing, China, I couldn't help but note some interesting parrells between those games and the ones that occurred while we were at Vanderbilt...the 1972 Munich Games.

Much as the current gathering of nations in Beijing has become a showcase for the new, modern China, so the 1972 Games sought to have that same impact for the new, modern (West) Germany of its day, finally emerging from the rubble of the Second World War (this was long before anyone could forsee the collapse of The Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany).

At the Munich Games, when American Mark Spitz set the all-time record of garnering 7 Gold Medals in a single Olympics, most thought it was an achievement never to be surpassed. But now comes another American swimmer Michael Phelps, who appears to be on his way to winning 8 Gold Medals in a single Olympiad.

But, unfortunately, the Munich Games will always be remembered primarily for the tragic terrorist attack that resulted in the deaths of a number of members of the Israeli Olympic team.

It was a terrible event that changed the Games and indeed, the entire world, forever. Little did we realize at the time how terrorism and the threat of such attacks would impact our years after leaving Vanderbilt; how it would become such an unfortunate and unwelcome part of our daily lives.

While most of us were busy beginning our senior year at Vanderbilt in that September of 1972 (The Olympics were held later in the year in those days),
no doubt the attached video above (courtesy of the wonderful Vanderbilt News Archives) will bring back some of the memories of that time.

The video, much like the Games, begins with a routine Evening News Report by Walter Cronkite about results from the Games, followed by a segment on NBC Nightly News with John Chancellor, the day after the tragic Munich massacre.

Please leave your thoughts and memories below, including your remembrances of our senior year at Vanderbilt, which was just beginning to unfold during the Munich Olympic Games.

There are more news videos to come in the weeks ahead, spotlighting the important (and maybe the not-so-important) events of our years at Vanderbilt.

Priceless

2008-08-05T13:04:00.000-07:00

On Monday evening August 4, I had the opportunity to attend a send-off party for the Nashville students of the new, incoming Vanderbilt Class of 2012. It was held at the home of Class of '73 member Barry Banker and his wife Jean Ann.

It was a wonderful affair. New Chancellor Nick Zeppos was there to greet everyone. You could see the young people were excited and a bit anxious, as they prepared to take that next big step forward in their lives.

I also observed their parents, all very proud of their offspring's accomplishment to be accepted to attend Nashville's most prestigious educational institution. As it has been for many years, Nashville students make up a pretty large fraction of the freshman class, so the Banker house was filled to overflowing.

Having been in both positions over the years (an incoming student and a parent of incoming student) I could certainly relate to it all, especially remembering how it was 39 years ago (that's right, almost four decades) when we, as members of the Class of 1973, prepared to come to Vanderbilt.

But I sure don't remember any "send off" parties. Heck, because I was a transfer student from Peabody, I didn't even attend the Freshman Picnic at the Chancellor's Residence.

From the information posted at very top of his story, you can tell just how much things have changed. This is official Vanderbilt University information listing the estimated cost for us to go to school for the academic year 1969-70. Tuition was $1,860 for the year, room and board just over a $1,000, books and supplies around $100, laundry and cleaning between $70 and $100, activity fees $50. Add it all up, and Vanderbilt for a year was around $3,000 t0 $3,200!

You can't do doggie day care for that anymore. But remember, in it's day almost 40 years ago, $3,2000 was a lot of money. Now tuition is $36,100, add in room and board (about $12,000) along with books, supplies, fees and personal expenses and today you can do Vanderbilt for a year for just over $52,000.

Now I know that can be breathtaking number, making some of us wonder where has the time and (for those of us with current students or alumni) our money gone?

But I look at it this way. What a bargain we got! My Vanderbilt degree is one of the best investments of my life. The work and sacrifice of my parents and myself (hey, I had to pass the classes) continue to pay off and increase in value every year. So much so, that I seriously doubt I could even get admitted to Vanderbilt today, the competition is so keen, and the kids who go there are so smart.

But we got in early, you might say, and now we all have the chance to come back to campus October 24-25 to celebrate our good fortune and how much our Vanderbilt experience (especially the people and classmates we met here) still mean in our lives. Please share your thoughts below.

One other note: next week I plan to add video as a regular feature of this blog. The Vanderbilt TV News Archives has been one of the greatest resources in the entire University ever since it was founded in the summer of 1968.

Twenty years ago, as a part of our Reunion activities, I persuaded alumni officials to let me put together a video tape covering the major news events of our four years together. I also found some wonderful commercials that showcase the popular culture of the time and how much things have changed.

Thanks to the help, and most importantly the technical expertise, of some wonderful people at Vanderbilt, especially Lacy Tite and Cindy Wall, I can now begin to share these videos with you here on this blog.

I can't wait to get started!

See You In the Funny Papers

2008-07-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

While we were at Vanderbilt, we had a lot of opportunities to see and hear from important and famous people. And I am not just talking about the annual IMPACT Symposium.

The poster above celebrates an event from late in our junior year (the weekend of April 28-29, 1972) that saw 10 of the best comic strip and comic book creators and artists in the world come to Vanderbilt.

Even today, over 35 years later, the roster of those present is very impressive:

Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury)

Stan Lee (Spider-Man, The Hulk, Thor, The Fantastic Four)

Mel Lazarus (Miss Peach, Momma)

Thomas K. Ryan (Tumbleweeds)

Dave Berg (MAD Magazine's "The Lighter Side")

Allen Saunders (Mary Worth, Steve Roper)

John McCampbell (Superstar, a comic strip that focused on country music and Nashville)

James Childress (Conchy)

Jack Kirby (Captain America, the Sandman)

Gahan Wilson (cartoonist for Playboy, The National Lampoon)

At the time of the event VERSUS magazine on campus wrote: "To say that the weekend of April 29 will find an interesting program scheduled by Forum is to speak a soft understatement. While "interesting" is an apt word, a better description might be wild, wonderful, wacky, fantastic, imaginative, and, of course, thought-provoking."

The free symposium was part of a nationwide celebration that year of the 75th anniversary of of comic books and comic strips. One of the organizers was Class of '73 member Bill Zimmern, who chaired the Forum. He told THE TENESSEAN: "The goal of the symposium will be a serious look at the past, present and future of the comics", adding, "the comic strip and jazz are described by many historians as the only two authentic art forms that originated in America."

But not all was serious scholarship that weekend. Lunch was provided by Tex Ritter's Chuck Wagon Restaurant and Steve Greil, another Class of '73 member who was instrumental in organizing the event (and who gave me the clippings and other information for this blog posting) also told me he took a number of the artists out for a night on the town in Nashville while they were here.

Where did they go? To Printer's Alley to see Heaven Lee :)

Now I can't remember what I did this April weekend in 1972. Unfortunately, I did not attend this terrific event and have absolutely no memory of it. I wish I had gone and I hope those of you who did will post your memories of it below, along with other memories you might have about other special speakers who came to campus while we were students.

A Mid-Summer's Night "Heaven Lee" Dream

2008-07-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

While we were students at Vanderbilt, the legal drinking age (along with the voting age) was lowered to 18.

That meant many of us (if we could get off campus) got our first chance to experience a bit of Nashville's nightlife (such as it was in the early 1970s).

One place some of us got to visit for the first time (legally) was Nashville's (World Famous) Printer's Alley, a hidden-away collection of smokey nightclubs and bars located between Third and Fourth Avenues North stretching from Union to Church Streets downtown.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, Printer's Alley, as its name suggests, was the location of many of Nashville's printing and publishing companies. It was also part of Nashville's "Men's District", with saloons, gambling halls and speakeasies, a tradition that was still in full swing when we arrived at Vanderbilt (although the approval of liquor-by-the-drink for Nashville in 1968 began a decline of The Alley after people could go to respectable restaurants and get their mixed drinks).

The Alley, especially The Black Poodle Club, was also known for exotic dancing. And during the days we were in college, when someone said the words "exotic dancer" in Nashville they were usually talking about Heaven Lee (yes, she was), a Cuban-born daughter of a wealthy plantation owner (according to one Nashville-history website I found) whose real name was Vianka de la Prida.

She performed off-and-on at the Poodle Club (if you'll pardon the pun) for over a decade, reportedly earning as much as $57,000 by 1980. She developed something of a following at Vanderbilt. The photo of her above was taken on a trip to campus where she visited a fraternity house (anyone remember which one?) for dinner.

There are also reports I found on this Nashville history web site that she "once lead a panel discussion on women's rights for a Vanderbilt fraternity." Was this on the same visit or another time?

I also remember a picture in our COMMODORE Yearbook of her being interviewed by Class of '73 member and WRVU Station Manager Steve Womack when she came to campus (hey, who could miss a scoop and a news assignment like that!).

If anyone has some memories of her visit or visits to Vanderbilt please share them below. Or tell us about going downtown to see her at the Black Poodle?

Or maybe you remember another big splash she made in the local news in 1970 when, again according to a Nashville history website, she appeared to ride (ala Lady Godiva) nude on horseback down James Robertson Parkway "to protest environmental pollution.... she later told a TENNESSEAN reporter she had worn a body stocking."

Things got a bit devlish for Heaven Lee after we graduated. Metro passed a law that made her wear pasties (her's were lace because, she said, she believed nudity was art). She had a couple of bad marriages, a drunk driving arrest, a near fatal car crash and finally had to declare bankruptcy. But perhaps, worst of all, she angrily denied reports she was really a tranvestite.

Heaven Lee seems to have left Nashville about 1990, and was last reported living in South Florida with her mother. For a while it appeared Printer's Alley was headed south too. But the area has been revitalized and might be a place to go visit if you want to sample current Nashville nightlife you come back for Reunion weekend October 24-25.

By the way, the old Black Poodle Club is no more. The building it was located in is now "The Fiddle and Steel Guitar Bar", also known (according to Printer's Alley website) as the "Cheers" bar of Nashville and "a place where musicians, artists, tourists and Nashville locals meet to listen to the finest country music in Nashville since 1996."

But Heaven Lee is not completely forgotten. The write-up on the Fiddle and Steel Guitar Bar mentions that "back in the '60s, it was the home of the world famous Heaven Lee. The club was always packed when she was in town."

Heaven Lee...yes, she was, and you are welcome to leave your memories below.

The Pay Phone

2008-07-15T11:26:00.001-07:00

Based on the number of responses we are getting on this blog so far, baseball seems to be a favorite topic. So with the Major League Baseball All-Star Game being played tonight, I thought it was time for another great Vanderbilt baseball story from the days when we were on campus.

I also wanted to do another baseball story to find an excuse to use the great photograph above of two of Vanderbilt's finest athletes ever, Jeff Peeples and Watson Brown.

My story isn't really about the Vanderbilt baseball team, per se. It's about what happened when we at WRVU tried to broadcast one of their games live in the spring of 1972.

In those years, WLAC-AM (1510) carried most of the major games, especially our SEC contests. But we at the campus station managed to work in our share of broadcasts. That included a game against Belmont that was actually played on old Diamond #1 in Centennial Park (where the Sportplex is located today).

I thought we broadcast a doubleheader that day (I remember it was Sunday afternoon). However in checking the Vanderbilt baseball media guide I couldn't find a twin bill listed that year.

Regardless, we rigged up a way to send the broadcast signal back to the station (including, I remember, someone wrecking their car on the way back and forth from WRVU to the park). We did it by sending the signal down a line from a pay phone booth (remember pay phones?). I think we used some alligator clips.

Anyway, we broadcast the game (Vanderbilt won, which the media guide confirms) and we went on with our business. Until about a week or two later when the WRVU Station Manager Courtenay Carson dropped by the studios. He was furious about a call he had gotten from someone at the telephone company. They wanted an explanation about a 4-hour-plus phone call made to the station from a pay phone in Centennial Park.

Now Station Manager Carson didn't know anything about our baseball broadcast of the Belmont game. Usually, you had to buy an expensive special line to broadcast remotes like that (we had a permanent line to McGugin to broadcast regular home games). So Carson denied any such call happening and swore to the phone company people that the station was innocent.

No, we told him. We did the broadcast, and yes, we did it using alligator clips and the line in the pay phone booth at the park....and all for one thin dime (the cost of a pay call in those days).

You should have seen the look on Courtenay's face. :)

There's another story I can tell about trying to broadcast Vanderbilt's 1973 SEC Championship Series game against Alabama from Tuscaloosa. But I'll save it for when the Major League playoffs get under way in October.

Don't forget to leave your thoughts below.

Where Did You Eat Off Campus?

2008-07-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

With this article, we begin a series of postings over the next few weeks remembering (and seeking your memories so please post them at the end of this article below) of our favorite (and maybe not so favorite) places to eat while we were at Vanderbilt from 1969-1973.

Let's start with Rotier's, an Elliston Place restaurant/bar that was a favorite of Vandy students long before we came to campus and it has stayed that way right up until today.

First full disclosure: As a Nashville native I have been eating at Rotier's since before I can remember. My father was a very good friend of Johnny Rotier, the owner, and my mother and Mrs. Rotier used to stroll baby carriages together. I spent many a weeknight and weekend with my Dad at Rotier's, he having "one more beer," while I nursed a Coke and ate a piece of chocolate fudge pie.

Hey, it's a great memory, although I will confess, remembering all the times I was one of the few, if not the only, non-smoker in the place: If second hand smoke can kill you, I should already be long dead.

What Rotier's has always been famous for are its hamburgers, particularly my favorite, the grilled cheeseburger. Some like it on wheat bread, some on French bread. I like it with mustard and pickle, others like it with lettuce and tomatoes and onions. However you enjoy it, with a Coke or a chocolate milk shake to drink, it is heaven on earth , esepcially with fries or onion rings (my wife, Betty Lee's, favorite) on the side.

On the inside or the outside, Rotier's looks about the same today as it did when we were students. John Rotier has long since passed on, but Mrs. Rotier still comes in to the restaurant and helps out from time to time. Daughter Margaret Ann works as well with the youngest son, Charlie, now running the place (John, Jr. passed on at a way too early age a few years ago from cancer).

Over the years, Mrs. Rotier has become something of a legendary figure in Vanderbilt history. That was already true 35 years ago when she was profiled in our 1973 Centennial Commodore Yearbook. Here are some things she had to say:

"The children are still basically the same except in looks and dress..but long hair doesn't bother me anymore than flattops used to..I look for what's inside. ...Rotier likes the children...he has a genuine affection for the students..he likes to talk to them, and he likes to talk to the teachers that come by...some of them come back to see us years after they've graduated."

So there's an idea, come back to Nashville for our 35th Reunion October 24-25 and make Rotier's your place for lunch on Friday or Saturday before the homecoming football game. Or here's something else a little different you can do. When I was in Rotier's last week, I saw the restaurant now serves breakfast (that's right, breakfast) on Saturday mornings. Now, that's coming back to an old, very familar place and having a very new and different experience!

Remember, please leave your thoughts and memories about Rotier's below and suggest other eating places around campus you loved or hated to go to when we were in school.

A Lottery You Didn't Want to Win

2008-06-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

When we were in school between 1969-1973, if someone mentioned the word "draft" they usually weren't referring to a sudden gush of wind coming into your dorm room.

They were talking about receiving a "Greetings from Uncle Sam" letter and the opportunity you couldn't refuse (unless you went to Canada) to go into the U.S. Armed Forces and see the world (especially a little place called South Vietnam).

For the first year or so we were at Vanderbilt, the draft offered exemptions for those in college full-time. It was called a 2-s deferment. Most of us kept the card granting the deferment in our wallet with our regular draft card.

But the draft began to change December 1, 1969 (see the photo above) when the Selective Service System held a lottery by birth date to determine the order of the draft (induction) into the Armed Services for all eligible men (18 years of age or older) born in 1950 or before. That, of course, included almost every undergraduate or graduate student male on the Vanderbilt campus at that time.

It did, however, exclude from the first lottery most, if not all members of our VU Class of 1973, (our lottery, for men born in 1951, was held July 1,1970). That's 38 years ago now.

Neverthless, I'll bet there is not a male member of our class reading this blog who doesn't remember that day of the first lottery in 1969 and his ultimate lottery number (mine was 151). I also suspect lots of the women remember their boyfriend's lottery number from that time as well (you are all welcome to post your thoughts and memories below!)

None of us were on campus when our 1970 draft lottery was held, but what I remember so clearly about the 1969 lottery was all the folks who descended upon or called WRVU that December day to find out what had happened and, most importantly, what their draft lottery number was!

The station became the place to go or call because it had a United Press International wire machine, and in those days, long before the Internet or the 24-hour, wall to wall news coverage of today on CNN or FOX, it was apparent the radio station was about the only place to quickly learn your fate.

At one point, we had people lined up all the way down two flights of steps coming up to the radio station in the south tower of Neely Auditorim. To be able to continue to operate the station, we finally posted the information down at the foot of stairs leading up to the studio, which helped clear out some of the crowd.

However, it didn't stop the phone from ringing, as our two lines (7424 and 7425) stayed jammed with people demanding to know what date their birthday fell in the lottery pool. Things got so frantic that when I answered the phone, the conversations went something like this:

"Hello, WRVU..."

"February 6"

"347"

"Hot damn!" (click)

"Hello, WRVU....

"November 22..."

"9"

"Oh my God..."

Class of 1973 member and WRVU Station Manager Steve Womack also relates the story of one student who came by the radio station that day and asked about his birthdate, September 14. It was #1. The student fainted.

I am not sure any future drafts ever went above 125 in calling up inductees and the draft was then suspended in July, 1973, right after we graduated from Vanderbilt and the War in Vietnam ended. But that doesn't mean, we didn't have one more queasy moment about the draft while we were students.

It occured a few months after our 1970 draft lottery. As I remember it (and I could be wrong) if you already had a 2-s deferment you could stay out of the draft as long as you stayed in school and passed your classes.

But in the fall of 1970, some kind of administrative paperwork glitch occurred that resulted in all the men on the Peabody campus (as few as there were in those days) receiving notices from their draft boards that they were about to reclassified 1-A (and then drafted).

Yikes! You can imagine the tumult and angst that resulted when those notices were received and how quickly all the draft-eligible men on campus (including me) descended upon Peabody officials to get that changed. Fortunately, it was. I am also told by Steve Womack of our VU Class of '73 that a similar incident occurred at Vanderbilt that same fall semester.

THE FENCE

2008-06-23T08:27:00.000-07:00

I noted with some interest the other day a story on THE TENNESSEAN's website (6/5/08) listing recent building permits that had been issued by the City of Nashville's Codes Department.

One permit issued for Vanderbilt particularly caught my eye: $1.3 million for the Orion Building Corporation to renovate the Rand Hall dining area.

Rand Hall: It was in effect our student center while we were at Vanderbilt from 1969-1973 . The Sarratt Student Center was under construction during our last year or so on campus but did not open until the fall semester AFTER we graduated. Lucky us :(

The picture above shows about all the use we got out of the Sarratt Center. Even its construction had its controversy.

Remember the big chain-link fence that was erected all the way around Alumni Lawn?

It led to a campus wide protest by students who could no longer play on the Lawn or had to alter their campus walking patterns to and from class or elsewhere (like over to the Divinity School where the food was always better than Rand).

There were also plenty of protest signs placed on the fence and elsewhere around the campus that sought to tell University officials what they could do with their fence. Let's just say it was something that was likely physically impossible or, if it could be done, might be very painful. In a form of secret Vanderbilt pig latin it was: phuck the phence.

I am pretty sure this latest renovation of Rand is hardly its first since we left Vanderbilt 35 years ago. We'll have to drop by and see how he looks during our Reunion weekend October 24-25.

What are your memories of Rand Hall? What about the C-Room, the bookstore or the post office that were also housed there? Please leave your thoughts and memories below.

By the way, I know the Sarratt Center has had its renovations too. That's when you know it's been a while since you graduated. When buildings that were not even open when we were on campus are being redone!

Going Back In Time

2008-06-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

When our Class of '73 Reunion Leadership came together for the first time earlier this year (no, that is not our picture above), it was amazing how our conversations kept coming back to the events of Saturday, October 21, 1972.

Anyone remember that day in the fall of our senior year?

That's when the Grateful Dead came to campus and performed a free concert on Alumni Lawn. Remember the Mickey Mouse ears some one put on Kirkland Hall clock that day?

With apologizes to R. Kelly and Tyrone Davis (both whom had hit songs using the words I am about to paraphrase), do you ever wish you could turn back the hands of time and re-live a little bit of that performance?

Well, you can!

Go to this link and you will find streaming audio of several of the songs in the second set from that Grateful Dead performance beginning with "He's Gone."

http://www.archive.org/details/gd1972-10-21.sbd.pset2.91505.flac16

This appears to be a recording of the actual performance at Vanderbilt. Pretty cool, huh? The site will also give a complete run down of that show, listing every song that was played in the order they were performed. Unfortunately, only a portion of the second set is posted on the site to be played.

Please take a listen, then share your memories below about that special day while we were at Vanderbilt.

As for myself, I have a couple of memories to share from that day. I spent most of it taking the LSAT exam at the Law School (you can be sure that was a lot of fun. :)

Then when I came by WRVU (located right off Alumni Lawn in Neely Auditorium in those days), I spent the rest of the afternoon helping sell concessions out of one of the front windows of the building.

For our hungry disc jockeys and news people, some of us (we called ourselves the News Council) started a operation upstairs outside the studios we called "The News Council's General Store."

We kept it stocked with candy bars, pop tarts and other kinds of junk food (hey, we could eat that stuff in those days) so no one would ever go hungry during their air shift. We used the honor system for people to pay for what they ate, and that worked pretty well most of the time.

Not surprisingly on the day the Grateful Dead came to campus, some of the folks who ran the operation, saw a chance to make a little extra $$$, so we started literally selling stuff out one of the front windows of Neely Auditorium.

I think we did so well we had to run out to the Giant Foods store next to 100 Oaks Mall (our main source of food stuffs) to replenish our supplies a couple of times during the afternoon.

So what our your memories?

Please leave them below.

And be sure to relive the memories of that special day on the Vanderbilt campus, October 21, 1972, by clicking the link above and enjoying the Grateful Dead just like we heard them almost 36 years ago!

Jeff Peeples Still the Greatest 35 Years Later

2008-06-08T09:12:00.000-07:00

Vanderbilt has just completed another very successful baseball season under Coach Tim Corbin. While we didn't manage to defend our 2007 SEC title, the team did advance to both the SEC and NCAA tournaments and stayed in the national rankings most of the year.

Certainly the pro baseball scouts like Vanderbilt's talent. In the recently concluded major league draft, eight of Vanderbilt's current players were selected along with ten of our incoming recruits.

Vandy may have also set some kind of record with one of its athletes being the top collegiate baseball player taken in the draft two straight years. This year it was third baseman Pedro Alvarez (selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates), while last year pitcher David Price was the first pick overall.

You could put up a pretty good argument that Price is Vanderbilt's greatest pitcher, and if he puts up the great statistics he's capable of in the pros for the Tampa Bay Rays, it will be hard to argue otherwise, although some will say other former Vandy hurlers now in the major leagues like Jeremy Sowers and Jensen Lewis deserve some consideration, as does Scott Sanderson from years gone by.

But in terms of what they accomplished while at Vanderbilt, there's not much question in my mind that the late Jeff Peeples (pictured above), a member of our Vanderbilt Class of 1973, is the greatest Commodore hurler ever.

It been 35 years since he last took the mound for the Black & Gold, yet he still holds the school record in many pitching categories including most wins in a season with 12 in 1973 (when we won our first SEC title), most career wins 29 and lowest earned run average for a career (1970-73) at 1.68.

In addition, Jeff was one of only two pitchers in SEC history to lead the conference in ERA two years in a row (1971 & '72). He was an All-American his senior season and a three-time All-SEC selection.

And believe it or not, he may have been even better than we fully appreciated at the time.

Here's a story I found on the CSTV.com sports website. It's an interview conducted by Bill Traghber with then-Vandy baseball Larry "Smokey" Schmittou.

Schmittou recounts a game our senior season on the road with then-national baseball power Southern Cal.

" Rod Dedeaux (the USC coach) was such an icon in college baseball...He had won five consecutive national championships when we went to Riverside (CA). Before the game they would get on the dugout and bug you unmercifully. I had a third baseman named Bill Hardin. He asked me, "Coach, what's a grummet?" I said I think it's a desert bug. I asked him why and he said that's what the USC players were calling him. My assistant, Roy Carter, asked me what I was going to say to the team before the USC game. I walked down there and you could tell everyone was nervous. I said, "Fellows, we'll win. Peeples is pitching. Let's go." Peeples struck out Fred Lynn four times. (Note: Lynn was later AL MVP for the Boston Red Sox and had a long near-Hall of Fame career in the Majors).

Schmittou concluded: "We beat them (USC) 5-4 and were ahead the whole game."

Vanderbilt certainly remembers and appreciate Jeff's contributions. Since 2001, the annual team MVP Award bears his name.

I knew what a great athlete Jeff Peeples was long before we got to Vanderbilt. He played high school sports for my school's (Father Ryan) arch-rival in Nashville, Montgomery BellAcademy. Peeples helped MBA beat us very regularly.

In high school he was actually better known and honored numerous times as an All-State football player. He actually signed a football scholarship to play at Vanderbilt. Of course, the football recruiter for VU in those days was also Larry Schmittou and he, being no fool, often signed athletes he thought could be successful in multiple sports (especially baseball :)

A few years before we went to Vanderbilt, I once saw Jeff Peeples do something I stilll don't believe I actually witnessed. A local radio station had a contest to see if anyone could throw a 45 RPM record (remember those?) across the Cumberland River. I think the competition was trying to emulate what George Washington once did in throwing a stone or some kind of item across the Potomac River. Well, Jeff stepped up and he did it! What an athlete!

Unfortunately, Jeff did not enjoy the same success in pro baseball as he did at Vanderbilt. A career-ending car wreck, resulting in major damage to his shoulder, ended his career after pitching only briefly in the St. Louis Cardinals' minor league system. But the sportswriters and others in Tennessee never forgot his career at Vanderbilt and he was named a member of The Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.

As we prepare to remember so many great things about Vanderbilt as a part of our 35th Class Reunion, please feel free to share your thoughts and memories of Jeff and of Vanderbilt baseball below.

To Get You Ready For Reunion Weekend

2008-06-02T13:02:00.000-07:00

I know after hearing about the fabulous opportunity we have at 4:00 PM Friday afternoon of Reunion weekend (October 24) to hear Vanderbilt Vice Chancellor David Williams and his presentation on the history of Motown, you might be thinking you need a little help to get ready for the big day.

You know, remembering Motown....remembering the '60s. After all, those of us who lived through the '60s (and early '70s) aren't supposed to remember it, right? Maybe too many funny cigarettes for some (like in the photo above), or fading memories for others.

Regardless, to help you bone up for our big "education session" on Reunion Friday afternoon, check out this website. It's really cool.

http://classic.motown.com/timeline/

After you had a chance to refresh your memory, come back and leave your thoughts about the impact of Motown and other forms of music on your life while at Vanderbilt and after we graduated.

Yet Another Reason You Have To Make It To Reunion!

2008-05-26T18:44:00.000-07:00

Throughout our time at Vanderbilt, the leadership of the school was always in the hands of extraordinary people such as the two Deans of Students pictured above, K.C. Potter and James Sandlin. (Now, how someone got them to pose in this American Gothic scene is anybody's guess, and I'll bet a fascinating story..but I digress).

35 years later, our class will be privledged to see the extraordinary talents of another Vanderbilt leader when we return to campus for our Reunion, October 24-25.

The rest of this week's posting is courtesy of our fearless leader, Class of 1973 Weekend Reunion Chair John Stein, who explains what I mean:

Dear 1973 Graduates,

By now you have likely heard about our fall reunion (October 24-25). I certainly hope you plan to attend. Let me highlight an activity you may not be aware of that is an additional strong reason to venture back to campus.

On Friday afternoon (October 24) each class organizes various "educational" activities. These are typically lectures from professors, updates from Deans of various schools and usually follow a fairly typical academic subject matter.

Not to say that there is anything wrong with that, but our class has orchestrated something that is different and truly outstanding (of course)!

Here's what we have planned.

One of Vanderbilt's extraordinary assets is Vice Chancellor David Williams. You may know David as the "athletic director" that Vanderbilt is not supposed to have. I am sure it has not gone unnoticed how extraordinarily well all our athletic teams have been doing. The last several years under David's watch he has done a tremendous job with his role of overseeing athletics and student affairs.

He is a real Superstar and a true Renaissance man. There is yet another facet of his extraordinary abilities that we will be unveiling on campus on Reunion weekend, Friday afternoon at 4:00 PM.

David grew up in the neighborhood in Detroit that birthed Motown. He is one of the world's experts on this wonderful genre' of music, delivering a lecture that walks us through the history and sidebars of Motown, replete with an absolutely fabulous sampling of that unforgettable and distinctive musical sound. I've already had the opportunity to hear this presentation and let me tell you, it rocks!

You don't want to miss this. If you don't do anything else Reunion weekend, you must come to this lecture because David Williams has an extraordinary grasp of his subject matter and when he gets his groove on...it is something else!

So, there you have it, another strong reason to make it back to campus for reunion. We certainly hope to see you here.

John Stein

Class of 1973 Weekend Chair

So there you have it, guys and gals! What a great opportunity awaits us this fall here in Nashville. And we will also be trying to liven up this blog in the weeks to come. I've got some old WRVU tapes that feature some Motown music and other sounds of '60s and '70s that I hope to add to the festivities here, along with some the top TV new stories of our day (1969-1973), courtesy of the Vanderbilt News Archives.

Stay tuned!

How Does That Compute?

2008-05-19T11:21:00.001-07:00

If you saw two students on campus today playing checkers, like the ones pictured above from the early 1970s, they would more likely be doing so using some kind of video game format, or even doing so on-line and prehaps competing against multiple opponents.

Technology...particularly the rise of the personal computer... is probably the greatest change that has occurred since we left Vanderbilt 35 years ago.

For example, we had a computer center while we were in school. It housed the Vanderbilt computer....as in one...a singular piece of technology so large it took up the entire bottom floor of the large circular building in the middle of campus where it was located.

If you'll remember, to run a program on the computer you had to create all these punch cards. If any one piece of data on any one of the cards was wrong, the computer would spit out the whole program, and give you little or no clue what was incorrect.

I can remember being frustrated for hours while trying to get a program to work for a political science class I was taking. It was so embarrassing I think I have blocked out any other memories about it, including what the exact assignment was. I think it had something to do with analyzing some survey data.

Steve Womack of the Class of 1973 has an ever "better" memory to share. As a computer major in the School of Engineering, he had lots of opportunities to work with the University computer. That includes the time he says he had "a suitcase full of punch cards to run a relatively simple program that came back with 846 fatal errors!"

Is it no wonder some of us are still afraid to do things on a computer for fear we might "break" it?

And there was other new technology coming out in our day. Steve Womack reminds me that the first hand-held calculators from Texas Instruments went on sale in stores our sophomore year (1970-71). "They cost $400. All they did was add, subtract, multiply and divide." Nevertheless, as Steve remembers it, those new devices "were banned from being used on E-school exams, you had to use a slide rule. By our senior year, they were $100 and mandatory."

Isn't technology wonderful?

And you know those early calculators had about as much computer power back then as that key chain in your pocket or purse today that you use to open your car door or the trunk.

And of course, unlike in our day, everybody now has their own computer, which probably also has about as much, if not more computing capacity, than the entire University computer had we were on campus.

In many ways, we certainly could not have guessed how technology would change our lives after leaving college...and it's probably only just begun. The internet, web sites and blogs all help us keep in touch better these days. And hopefully what you read and share here on this blog, along with what you find on our class reunion web site, will help you get ready to join us for our 35th Vanderbilt Class Reunion, October 24-25.

So leave your thoughts and memories below, remembering a time when computers were truly strange and mysterious things, and the coolest way to play checkers or chess was with a bag lunch from the Burger Whop while occupying a warm sunny spot on Rand Terrace between classes.

Pomp & Circumstance

2008-05-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

It's pretty quiet on the Vanderbilt campus this week.

Commencement was last Friday, May 9.

3,215 degrees were conferred, including 1,541 to the undergraduate Class of 2008.

These young men and women are the 35th class to walk across the stage to shake the Chancellor's hand and receive diplomas since we did it back in 1973.

Obviously, many things have changed, but some things haven't.

Here are some examples.

Graduation exercises are still held on a Friday (like they were when we did it) but it occurs much earlier now. In fact, it was Friday, May 25 when we got our official degrees. That's over two full weeks later than when commencement was held this year.

I also remember our graduation being held in the afternoon. Graduation now is in the morning ( before it get too hot or starts raining and they move the activities to Memorial Gym, where it is usually very hot and it is very hard to find a seat!) Fortunately, there was no rain this year.

Graduation is also held in a slightly different part of campus than in our day. We went through the exercise on Currey Field, down near the Law School and Kissam Quad (where we all met to line up in alphabetical order before we marched in).

Now commencement is held on Neely or Alumni Lawn (which I guess is a more fitting location). But I suspect the construction of Wilson Hall next to Currey Field also meant staying at that location would be a real tight squeeze.

One thing that hasn't changed over the years is that the featured speaker at every Vanderbilt graduation is the Chancellor. This was new Chancellor Nick Zeppos' first opportunity to address a group of graduates. He advised them (according to a university alumni e-mail I received) to "lead lives filled with joy. Start that immediately."

After 35 years in the work force, I'd say that's good advice. Does anyone remember what Chancellor Heard told our class when we graduated? I haven't got a clue.

What are your memories of our final event together on campus before we each went our separate ways? Was it a big family event for you? What were your graduation presents? Was it cash? A car (lucky you)?

Just leave your thoughts and memories below. What I remember is the day after graduation trying to get out of the dorms, especially Carmichael Towers. Elevator space was hard to come by and if you (or my future wife, Betty Lee Love, in my case) lived on an upper floor getting out was really hard, especially since she had so much stuff to move, accumulated over four years, including text books, riding saddles, you name it) :)

Speaking of getting through congestion, I can tell you driving by campus last Thursday afternoon, the traffic was pretty backed up on West End as everyone seemed to be getting ready to go out and celebrate.

In that regard, there are clearly many more nice places to eat close to campus than there were in our day. So where did you celebrate? Viscaya? Mario's? I remember going with my family, my future wife and her folks and Pam Zinga and her family somewhere way out Gallatin Road. The Omni Hut? I can't remember.

But here's the most important question for any graduate (and this hasn't changed in 35 years): Did you have a job or some post-graduate studies lined up when you walked across that stage? Or were you truly going solo? Again leave your thoughts and memories below?

I know not everyone in our group made it to graduation. I will leave it to my friend and WRVU Station Manager Steve Womack to tell his stories about being in Starkville, MS with the Vanderbilt baseball team at the NCAA tournament while the rest of us were getting our sheepskins.

But hopefully almost all of us can be back together again soon. Our 35th Class Reunion is October 24-25. The weather should be cooler and maybe the football team better (well, maybe, and hey, we are playing Duke so we ought to have a chance).

Just come back to campus and see...and find that old Vanderbilt diploma you have. Dust it off and you will find something no other Vanderbilt class has. Written on the diploma is our official designation as "The Centennial Class."

So feel special...and we hope to see you in October!

Seven Days In May

2008-05-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

It was perhaps the most tumultuous week in the history of modern American higher education.

For the Class of '73, it was the first week in May of our freshman year back in 1970, now some 38 years ago.

It began a few days earlier on April 30 with the announcement by President Richard Nixon, during a nati0nwide TV address, that he was expanding the War in Vietnam to include an invasion (he called it an incursion) into neighboring Cambodia.

It was already clear after the continuing anti-war demonstrations and the national "moratorium" days held the previous fall, that America's colllege campuses would erupt in a new round of protests. But nobody expected what was about to occur.

It was Monday, May 4 when a multi-day protest effort at Kent State University in Ohio resulted in National Guard troops, (who had been brought to the campus by the administration for security), shooting and killing four students (a couple of whom were just passers-by or on-lookers) as well as wounding nine others.

Shock and anger quickly spread across college campuses all over the nation. I can remember finishing class and arriving at the campus radio station, WRVU, to learn about what happened through our UPI wire machine and the news feeds we got from ABC. It all seemed very surreal and more than a little frightening.

As you can see from reading the headlines above from THE HUSTLER and VERSUS, the Vanderbilt campus was thrown into some turmoil. Nearby Peabody College (where I was then attending classes) had its faculty vote to shut down the school in protest, joining hundreds of other colleges and universities across the country in a strike that some reports later said involved up to eight million students. I covered the Peabody closure for both WRVU and several local radio stations (it was first time I ever made any money as a radio stringer reporter). I think they paid me $25.

Vanderbilt did not close. There was a protest mounted at the spring Naval ROTC Review on Neely Lawn and someone later threw a bucket of blue paint on side of the Naval ROTC building, but that was about it.

Class of '73 member and WRVU Station Manager Steve Womack and I covered the Naval ROTC event. We remember there was a mime troupe there as a part of the protest. It was so inept that a vocal interpreter was needed to tell everyone what they were trying to emote.

Meanwhile, several large members of the Vanderbilt football team were present, seemingly acting as security. Unlike some weekends on the girdiron, this worked pretty well as the football players held the line between the protestors and the Naval ROTC folks, so they never got too close to each other.

But just days later, Vanderbilt was the focus of the entire nation as the national student protest crisis continued. On May 8, 1970 President Nixon asked Chancellor Alexander Heard to be his Special Adviser for the next two months to "keep (me) fully and currently informed on the thinking of the academic community and especially of the young," said the White House statement announcing the appointment. "I will look to Mr. Heard to help present to this administration the views and sentiments of the campuses around the country... I appreciate Mr. Heard's taking on this assignment which should be of great benefit to the country."

(Ironically, there was yet another campus shooting with two students killed just days later on May 14 at predominantly black Jackson State University, but that event never aroused the same nationwide attention as what happened at Kent State).

The other photo at the top of this posting was taken on the day of the Chancellor's appointment as he addressed the University Community with a speech in Neely Auditorium (or was it really Class of '73 member and Heard impersonator Jim Lober?).

If you look closely you can see all the TV news film cameras capturing the moment. (And yes, Steve Womack and I once again made a little pocket money by sending excerpts from the speech to the national radio networks. Actually, it was easy, the station had it own special tap on the Neely sound system and could easily record any event held there.)

However, all this was before the days of videotape and live broadcasting by microwave or satellite. Can you image all the 24/7 coverage and video satellite trucks on campus such a development would bring to Vanderbilt today?

So what are your memories of this most eventful time?

Did you attend or help organize any of the protests? Did you attend the Naval ROTC event on Neely Lawn? Did you go to the pro-Nixon rally sponsored on Rand Terrace by The Young Americans for Freedom? Or did you just keep going to class and studying, espcially with final exams not too far away? Just leave your thoughts and comments below.

Even with another unpopular overseas war raging, life seems to be much more tranquil these days on the Vanderbilt campus. It's probably got something to do with not having a military draft. And that's the subject for some more blog postings down the road as we remember our time on campus and count down to our 35th Class Reunion this fall the weekend of October 24-25. Be there.

Exam Week

2008-04-29T06:43:00.000-07:00

It's time for final exams on the Vanderbilt campus.

That's a topic (much like the photo above) that probably still brings back less than pleasant memories for many of us even 35 years later.

So, Class of '73 members, what was the worst test or exam you ever took at VU?

What was your least favorite class?

Do you still have nightmares about showing up for class and finding out you'd forgotten to study for a test that day?

Or have you ever dreamed you just forgot you had signed up for a class, and when you did show up there was an exam being given?

How about that dream of showing up for class naked or in your underwear? (and don't tell I am the only one with unresolved issues here) :)

Let's also look on the positive side:

What was your favorite class and/or teacher while you were at Vanderbilt?

What were the classes you really hated to skip (I really want to hear about those)?

And what former professors would you really like to see again?

You know as a part of our Reunion this fall (October 24-25) there'll be a chance to meet with the faculty at a reception late on Friday afternoon. While a somewhat disturbing number of our instructors have retired or taken emeritus status, if you tell us who you'd like to see, we will do our best to try and see if we can get them to attend the reception.

How that's for trying to get some extra credit for you to come back for our 35th Reunion!

Just please leave your memories and thoughts by clicking on the comments link below.

Earth Day

2008-04-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

Earth Day is another one of those national celebrations that got its start while we were at Vanderbilt (April 22, 1970, our freshman year).

Does anyone remember how Vanderbilt or we as students celebrated the first Earth Day? What, if anything happened on campus? Did we all just have another reason to skip class? Did we plant or hug a tree? Did we help Dr. Don Evans set up another of his "multi-media geodesic experiences" somewhere on campus? See the photo above that I think was taken in one of his classrooms.

Here's another Earth Day-related type news item I found looking through our Senior year annual--THE 1973 CENTENNIAL COMMODORE. Do you remember the recycling center set up on campus that year? If I ever knew it existed, I had sure forgotten about it. But there it is on Page 202, a photograph of someone working at the center and moving around what appears to be glass bottles.

Does anyone remember the recycling center? Where was it? Did you ever bring anything there to be recycled? Did any of us ever know what recycling was in those days or what should be recycled? Please leave your thoughts and memories below.

Now some things Vanderbilt tried to address while we were in school are still issues today. How about this story from the pages of THE HUSTLER:

April 10, 1973

KALUDIS TO STUDY MASS TRANSIT

By Zanese Brown

Vice Chancellor for Operations and Fiscal Planning George Kaludis has been selected to serve on a Commission to help solve Nashville's transportation problems. Kaludis said the Metro Mass Transit Committee is "putting things in place in Nashville before the crisis occurs."

Hmmm...well, we are not Los Angeles or Atlanta, but Nashville sure has its moments that can approach gridlock when it comes to traffic and parking. The University has built several high rise parking garages all around campus, but traffic and parking can still be a challenge here too.

Of course, that won't be the case Reunion Weekend. Join us October 24-25 and see if I am right :)

A Legacy of Change

2008-04-16T08:34:00.000-07:00

The time we spent at Vanderbilt (1969-1973) was a period of significant change.

It was when the University first gave permission for women to live off campus, when it first allowed parietals (visits in dorm rooms by the opposite sex) and opened its first co-ed dorms. It was also when semester exams were given for the first time before Christmas and when the Greek rush period for freshmen was moved to second semester.

All these changes, made well over 30 years ago, have endured to become a routine part of University life. That also includes an event happening this weekend (April 18-19) on Alumni Lawn called Rites of Spring.

In fact, Rites of Spring has become a major annual music festival on campus, much larger in scope than the music on the Lawn and the simple displays on Rand Terrace when we were in school (as seen in the photo above from Spring, 1971).

What are your memories of Rites of Spring? Or playing touch football on Alumni Lawn? What about the times you spent out on Rand Terrace, studying, doing homework (if you did those things) :) or just enjoying the sunshine or people watching? How about going to the C Room? Or the Bookstore? Please leave your comments below.

Not a lot has changed around Rand Terrace or Alumni Lawn. Oh sure, there is a nice Student Center nearby, which we never had, but the overall look and feel of the campus in this area is much the same now as it was in our day. You can experience that for yourself when you come back for our 35th Class Reunion the weekend of October 24-25. You have to be there!

Now there are some things have changed from our day. Remember Freaky Fridays? How about Intersession between first and second semester? What about the Free University of Nashville? All gone as far as I know. As I mentioned before, even Rites of Spring has evolved quite a bit.

There's now an admission charge ($15 for students, $35 for campus visitors with weekend passes ranging from $45-$55). Of course the music is different with groups such as Spoon, Lil John, Feist and Old Crow Medicine Band set to perform (don't ask me, ask your kids who these groups are).

Rites of Spring also has official food vendors (Mountain Jim's Ice Cream and Chick-Fil-A) and even official sponsors (F.Y.E., Scion and Apple).

It also has a very strict alcohol policy, mandating that all 21-year-old and older guests can bring no more than six twelve ounce cans of beer with them each day. They strictly check IDs and give out color-coded bracelets to under age students (which I think change each day) to make sure nobody's drinking who shouldn't be. ( I wonder if Dean Potter and Dean Sandlin ever thought about things like this?). I'm sure it would have made our first Rites of Spring a little different, not to mention the 1972 Grateful Dead Concert on Alumni Lawn.

The Night We Beat The Bear

2008-04-07T10:14:00.000-07:00

Spring Football practice has just ended on campus with diehard Vanderbilt fans (are there any other kind?) once again hoping that this coming fall will bring the school its first winning season in just over a quarter of a century.

Like our Senior Year (1972) Homecoming Queen Lucy Scott Fuqua (seen above with her runnerup in the voting, the Collective Senior Women), we didn't have a lot to applaud on the gridiron during our time in school.

But for one night, during our freshman year in the fall of 1969, things were very different. In fact, the contest played at Dudley Field that evening still ranks as one of the greatest games (and upsets) in Vanderbilt history.

It was October 1, 1969. VU came into its first Southeastern Conference home game against Alabama having lost its first three contests against Michigan, Army and North Carolina. The Crimson Tide, under its already legendary Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, came in undefeated and nationally ranked.

But behind the leadership of quarterbacks Watson Brown and (West End) Denny Painter, Vanderbilt rolled up 473 yards in total offense while the defense harressed Alabama quarterback Scott Hunter into completing just four passes in 25 attempts for a paultry 91 yards.

But the final outcome was still in doubt well into the 4th quarter as Alabama led 10-7. That's when Vanderbilt linebacker Christie Hauck (now more famous for his cookies than his football prowess) intercepted an Alabama pass in the end zone and returned it to the Commodore 8.

Let's let Ira Deitsch of THE VANDERBILT HUSTLER tell the story as he did in article two years later in October, 1971. "At that point Painter took over the reins of the offense and cooly directed the team to the Tide 21-yard line by way of four passes--three to Curt Chesley of 18, 6 and 17 yards and one to David Strong for 19 yards."

"Brown then returned to the field and on third down from the 21, he handed the ball to Doug Mathews (now more famous for his years as a UT assistant football coach and local radio talk show host) who galloped ten yards (for a first down) to the 11. Brown then flipped the ball to Jim Cunningham in the end zone for the winning points."

When the game ended, many fans (and students) stormed the field in victory. Suddenly things looked bright. Vandy had had a winning season the year before (5-4-1 in 1968) so who knew what was possible. Unfortunately while we were there over the next four years Vanderbilt would win but 4 other SEC games and post an overall record of 15-27, 5-18 in the SEC.

But, even so, a revival was being built. With Coach Bill Pace dismissed after our senior season, a former Alambama quarterback, Steve Sloan, was selected to lead the Commodores and within two seasons (1974) he took many of the players recruited by Pace and had a team that won 8 games and garnered a berth in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.

So what our your memories of Vanderbilt football? As I remember it was a big place to go on a date and get dressed up. What about the parties, both pre and post-game? Did you go for the game itself or to be seen (or what we call networking today)?

Well, be sure and make your plans to come to our 35th Class Reunion October 24-25. One of the highlights of th weekend is our football game against Duke. And who knows, if things go right, Vanderbilt could be playing for its first winning season since 1982. Beating the Blue Devils...now wouldn't that be some kind of Homecoming treat just a few days before Halloween!

2008-04-01T12:00:00.001-07:00

Play Ball!

2008-04-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

As the Major Leagues begin another season, I am reminded how big a sport baseball has become again at Vanderbilt. That's much like it was when our Centennial class was on campus.

As Tim Corbin has done with his Commodores since he came to Nashville in 2003 (going to the NCAA Tournament almost every year and winning the SEC Regular Season and Tournament Championships last year), so Larry "Smokey" Schmittou (he's in the center of the photo above) did for the Black and Gold starting in the late 1960s.

While we were in school, Coach Schmittou built a program that set new records each year for most wins (33, 35,36 and 37 from 1971-1974) and won back to back SEC championships in 1973 and 1974 (our first baseball championships in school history).

Under Schmittou's guidance the team won the SEC Eastern Division three years in a row from 1972-1974 (yes, even before the league expanded and went to divisions in almost all sports in the early 1990s). Vandy then won back to back league crowns by sweeping Western Division champs Alabama in the SEC playoffs two years in a row (no 8-team, double elimination post season tournament in those days).

I had the great fortune to broadcast the championship series my senior year and was at the mic when the final batter struck out and we won the pennant. It rates as one of my fondest memories while I was at Vanderbilt and the deciding pitch was thrown by a member of our Class, John McLean, who was one of several great hurlers on that squad (including fireballer Doug Wessel and All-American Jeff Peeples).

My other great Vanderbilt baseball memory comes from a mid-season weekday game during the 1973 championship season against the University of Tennessee. Early on, our guys got cuffed around pretty good and fell way behind. But then came a furious ninth inning rally which climaxed with the bases loaded, the Commodores behind three runs, and centerfielder Tommy Powell (another Class of '73 member) up to the plate.

Tommy crushed a pitch from the UT relief hurler over the fence (I actually belive it wound up on top of the swimming pool in Memorial Gym), plating four runs and giving Vandy a very sweet 9-8 victory!

I think I still remind Tommy about that home run almost every time I see him....and he never seems to get tired of it :) Tommy is on the left in the picture above. The other player (with the catcher's glove on the right in photo) is catcher Greg "Radar" Collins, who led the 1973 team in homers with nine.

So what are your memories of Vanderbilt baseball? Remember sitting down the right field or left field lines and heckling the opposing players (especially whatever poor persons were playing first base or left or rightfield)? How about just enjoying the warm sunshine and maybe some smuggled-in "refreshments" while watching the game? Please leave your thoughts below.

For those of you not in Nashville, you'll be happy to know Vanderbilt still plays baseball in the same part of campus, right next to the football stadium, where they were 35-plus years ago. But now it is a wonderful little stadium, called Hawkins Field, where you can actually find a nice chair-back seat down the first or third base lines, and the left field wall looks a like the Green Monster in Fenway Park in Boston (hey, our coach is from New England and he loves the Sox). Be sure and check it out when you come to Reunion October 24-25.

Spring Break?

2008-03-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

It's been that time of year again...time to go on Spring Break and get a little rest and relaxation.

I just returned from a week in South Florida, visiting relatives and seeing some spring training baseball.

It was great fun and the weather was wonderful!

Barry Banker of the VU Class of '73 has already raised the question on this blog about what is the "most exotic" place anyone has gone on spring break trip?

So where was it? Leave your reply below.

And what about while we were at Vanderbilt?

Where did we go in those days for Spring Break?

Florida?

The Gulf Coast?

Out West?

Just happy to go home and get away from teachers and tests or maybe a terrible roommate for a week?

Again leave your post below and don't forget to start making your plans and contacting your former classmates to get ready for our big "fall break" trip October 24-25 for our 35th Class Reunion celebration back on the Vanderbilt campus in Nashville.

It may not turn out to be very "exotic", Barry, (although I'll bet some pretty strange, even exotic stories of campus days gone by will be told) and I am sure we'll have lots of fun!

So be there!

Happy Birthday, Vanderbilt!

2008-03-17T08:51:00.000-07:00

It was 135 years ago on this date (March 17, 1873) that Vanderbilt University was founded.

It all began with a $1 million endowment contribution from The Commodore, Cornelius Vanderbilt. He made the gift to Methodist Bishop Holland McTyeire as a way of healing the nation's wounds after the recent Civil War.McTyeire had an in. His wife was the cousin of the Commodore's second wife.

It also from this gift that our Vanderbilt Class of '73 got its nickname "The Centennial Class". But since students did not start attending Vanderbilt until 1875, I suspect we got the name because we were the class that graduated in the school's cenntennial year, not be because we were the 100th class to graduate.

What do you remember about Vanderbilt's 100th birthday on March 17, 1973? I remember the schoool invited lots of Vanderbilts to come to campus for a celebration and I believe there were some commemerative trees planted and a special luncheon held, with some selected student leaders invited.

Does anyone remember any kind of general campus celebration or activity? I don't and looking back that seems odd to me. I do remember WRVU did a series of special reports that ran all weekend with interviews with Chancellor Heard, Chancellor-Emeritus Harvey Branscomb, retired Dean of Students Madison Sarratt and other campus dignitaries. But otherwise it seemed like business as usual to me. But I was a town student, so maybe I missed something.

Don't miss your chance to celebrate! Make your plans now to join the Class of 1973 for our 35th Reunion celebration the weekend of
October 24-25, 2008. Look for the link to the Class of '73 web page at the top of the left hand side of this blog for more details about the fun and games we are planning.

Please don't be like the original Commodore, who despite giving the money to found the school that still bears his name, never once set foot on the campus. Also if you have memories or thoughts to share about Vanderbilt's 100th birthday back in 1973 or what Vanderbilt still means to you today, just hit the reply link below and write away.

Before it was March Madness.....

2008-03-11T11:24:00.000-07:00

Of all the sports that Vanderbilt competed in while we were at the University, I think basketball generated the most support and excitement(baseball, with our 1973 SEC champions, came a close second).

We didn't win any championships in roundball while the Class of '73 was at Vandy, but the team improved every year and actually won the SEC in 1974, the year after we graduated. Just our luck, huh, and just like the Sarratt Student Center, which opened the fall after we departed. Rats!

What are your memories of Vanderbilt basketball? Is it when Pete Maravich came to Memorial and put on his show (I think that was freshman year)? How about the "oranges game" against UT and Coach Ray Mears with his unicycle show? Remember freshman guard Joe Ford beating UK with two free throws with no time left on the clock to beat the Cats in 1973? Or our last home game that senior year, when we blew Tennessee all the way back to Knoxville (after all the years of frustration against the Orange, now that was sweet)?

Do you remember how we had to get to the gym early to get our tickets to get good seats? Was it Row 9 that was most coveted because you had a wall behind you to put your coat (and rest your back)? How many of you did homework or played cards waiting for the games to begin? Too bad there were no lap tops or cell phones to help pass the time in those days!

1973 was indeed a frustrating year for Vandy basketball. We had a team good enough to win 20 games for the first times in several seasons. We beat UT once and UK twice. Yet we stumbled against other conference foes and finished second in the league.

There was no SEC tournament in those days and only the conference champion could get invited to the NCAA Tournament (that was before it was called The Big Dance or March Madness).

They had started a Commissioner's Tournament for runnerup teams in major conferences. But we didn't get invited to that either because we were hosting the Mid-East Regionals in our own gym that year and the NCAA said if you did that, your team couldn't go to any other post-season tournaments.

So not only did we miss a chance to play our way to the Final Four on our own home court, we were probably the only major college team in basketball that year to win 20 games and stay home. Double rats!!

But what a tournament they played at Memorial Gym that spring! Somehow I got my hands on some tickets (I think I got them through WRVU but I can't remember how or why). Regardless of how I got in, I watched three of the best basketball games I have ever witnessed.

And what coaches! Bobby Knight of Indiana, Al McGuire of Marquette, Joe B. Hall of Kentucky and Lake Kelly of Austin Peay (with his superstar Fly Williams and that unique Austin Peay cheer)!

After UK beat APSU in overtime and Indiana edged Marquette, it was the Wildcats and the Hoosiers at Memorial. Joe B and the Cats came up short again as IU won and went to the Final Four where UCLA, John Wooden and Bill Walton won yet another national championship. The Bruins beat Memphis State in the Finals, a team that Vandy had lost to narrowly earlier in the season in a barn burner of a game at Memorial over Christmas Break.

So for the VU Class of '73, it was that kind of year in basketball, so close and yet so far. But for our seniors like Ray Maddux, Rod Freeman, Steve Turner and Chris Schweer, they laid the groundwork for the SEC Championship that followed the next season.

With both Vandy's men's and women's basketball teams certain to go to the Big Dance this year, lots of excitment lies just ahead. The same is true for our 35th Class Reunion coming up in October. Make your plans to attend now. And share your memories of basketball seasons past by hitting the reply link below and posting your memories.

Just In the Nick of Time...

2008-03-04T12:41:00.000-08:00

It's Spring Break week at Vanderbilt!

Not surprisingly, it's kinda of quiet on campus as students and faculty are away, either taking some well-deserved R&R or participating in Alternative Spring Break.

That's a volunteer program to help others, which was not around for the Class of '73. But its something I think many of us would have enjoyed participating in (if we'd just had the idea first). :)

Actually the quiet on the Vanderbilt campus is a little deceiving, as one of the biggest stories of the year has broken, something that is sure to be the talk of the campus when everyone returns(rivaled only by the great success of Vandy's men's and women's basketball teams this season).

The selection of Nicholas S. Zeppos to be the eighth Chancellor of Vanderbilt University seems likely to get great marks all around as he moves from his stint as Interim Chancellor to take over the job permanently (effective March 1).

If I may speak for those of us in the Class of '73 who had the chance to meet, talk and listen to the new Chancellor speak during our Reunion Leadership Planning Weekend recently, he is a very engaged, knowledgable and entertaining fellow, and someone you can tell that loves Vanderbilt very deeply.

He's another reason, you need to start making your plans now to come to Nashville for our 35th Reunion the weekend of October 24-25,2008. So if you're planning to come, just sign in here and let us know!

So What Was Your Favorite Vandy Concert and other Questions from Steve Greil ?

2008-02-27T09:10:00.000-08:00

Class of '73 member Steve Greil raises an interesting question in his reply below under the posting concerning Chancellor Heard. He wants to know:

What was your favorite concert during our four years at Vanderbilt (1969-1973)?

To help get the conversation started, and for the memory impaired (aren't we all a little bit these days), here are a few concerts I remember, in no particular order:

THE ASSOCIATION (Homecoming 1969)

THE GRATEFUL DEAD (Senior Year on Alumni Lawn)

BREAD

SHA-NA-NA

JOAN BAEZ

GORDON LIGHTFOOT

Now I am sure there were plenty of others. And I am also sure Steve Greil probably helped book the shows to campus, so I hope he comes back to post his own favorites and tell us his "inside stories" about the stars.

As for me, remember I was a junior transfer from Peabody and a town student, so I missed a lot especially the first two years.

Please hit the reply button below and post your thoughts on your favorite Vanderbilt concerts and any special memories they still envoke. By the way, you don't have to have a Google account to participate!

Maybe you can also help Steve Greil with his other questions (sorry I have no clue, but I am very curious :).

What ever happened to the KA cannon?

How long did it take Alan Mazer to get the Corn Flakes and molasses off his body?

Just hit reply and post away!

Pat

Almost Neither Seen Nor Heard

2008-02-25T08:11:00.000-08:00

Now here's an interesting what-if for the VU Class of 1973.

I uncovered it going through archival files working on our 30th Reunion five years ago. I think it's even more relevant now as the University continues to look for a new Chancellor to replace Gordon Gee.

It was the lead, front-page story in the summer edition of THE HUSTLER dated August 21, 1969 with a headline that blared:

CHANCELLOR REJECTS COLUMBIA OFFER

That's right, Alexander Heard, our Chancellor for the entire four years we attended Vanderbilt, almost wasn't there. He looked strongly at an offer to become the head of Columbia University before deciding to stay a Commodore.

So with the Chance almost neither seen or heard by our Class (sorry, couldn't resist the pun), who would have hosted that all-important, initial Vanderbilt rite of passage for our Class, the Freshman Picnic, which was held at the Chancellor's residence on Deer Park Drive in Belle Meade?

What are your memories of that early event in our Vanderbilt careers? Scared? Bored? Excited? What picnic?

What other memories do you have of Chancellor Heard during our four years on campus?

Was it President Nixon appointing him to head a national commission to study campus unrest after the Cambodian invasion in the spring of 1970?

Maybe it was just seeing him on campus. Since he spent so much time out of town for the University and the Ford Foundation, there was a running joke about how rare it was to have an on-campus siting of him?

For me, I remember, as a member of the campus media, going to periodic news conferences he would hold in his office in Kirkland Hall. All questions had to be submitted in advance and in writing (what was the fun of that?). And that's all he talked about (with not many, if any, follow-up questions allowed).

But, hey, he was the head guy, and we usually found something he said that we could make a news story out of for our daily newscasts on WRVU.

Then I remember when the Vanderbilt baseball team won the SEC championship in the spring of 1973. Chancellor Heard was at the clinching game, and we got the opportunity to interview him live on the air right after we won.

While Vandy had garnered few SEC crowns up to that time, and it was our first ever in baseball, Chancellor Heard handled the interview like it was an expected, routine occurence for Vandy to prevail(and without any questions being submitted in writing or in advance, what a concept!).

Please share your thoughts about the Chancellor, who I believe remains a beloved figure for our Class, and for everyone who had the fortune to attend Vanderbilt during his tenure.

Welcome!

2008-02-20T12:54:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the blog for the Vanderbilt University Centennial Class!

We are members of the Class of 1973, graduating just a few short months (May 25, 1973) after the 100th anniversary of the founding of the school (March 17, 1873).

It even says so on our diploma.

So dig yours out of the closet and dust it off already! :)

Now we are set to come back to campus (the weekend of October 24-25, 2008) to celebrate our 35th Class Reunion.

Wow! Can it really be that long ago? After all, we are all still in our 40s, right?

We hope this blog will stir long-forgoteen memories of those wonderful days gone by, and help build enthusiam for everyone to come back to Nashville to celebrate!

In that regard, we invite your reflections and memories about the years we spent together at Vanderbilt. We will do our best to stimulate your brain cells and help you recall what was happening during this fascinating period of history for our country, and especially for Vanderbilt.

But after that, it's really up to you. This is your blog to share what you remember about your college experience and what it still means to you 35 years later.

So let the blogging begin.