Butler Community College - Grizzly Growl Yearbook (El Dorado, KS)

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Progress ( from previous page) The 1927 building that housed some of the first classes for El Dorado Junior College no longer exists. Contemporary marks the present campus. Athletics were just as important then as they are now. The E Club was organized for men who earned letters either in football or basket- ball. The first football team con- sisted of sixteen members and they participated in seven games, win- ning four of them. The basketball squad had seven active members and played eleven games, winning six for the season. The courses for the first year of EJC included rhetoric, required for all freshmen, and other liberal arts and science courses. No vocational training courses were offered. A total of 38 courses was available. There were five classrooms up- stairs in the junior high school building with the labs, library and study hall in the upstairs of the senior high school building, a far cry from the ten buildings and hun- dreds of classrooms available at BCCC today. Susan Burgess Brett Perry Introduction 3

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1927 1987: 60 years of progress In the school year 1927-28, J.F. Hughes was named the first superintendent of El Dorado Junior College when the college was foun- ded. There were only nine instructors, six full-time and three part-time, representing ten departments. They were French, Spanish, social science, English, history, mathematics, chemistry, music, library and athletics. Today the BCCC faculty numbers 81 full-time members and 131 part time in- structors, with departments ranging from business education to art to nursing to auto body to data processing to theatre. The enrollment in 1927 numbered ninety-two freshmen and twenty- three sophomores bringing the total enrollment to 115 compared to 2,139 freshmen and 991 sophomores enrolled in the fall semester of 1986. The Lantern didn ' t start as a college newspaper. Its humble beginnings were in the high school journalism department. The EJC newspaper was then called the El Doradoan. Other organizations included Pi Delta Theta, student council, debate squad, science club, YWCA, Sans Souci, one of the exclusive women ' s clubs, mathematics club which sponsored a demonstration with a magician ' s instrument called a slide rule; Gold Diggers, called this because the object of this organization was to dig out the pep which anyone in school had hidden away ; and the Hoboes, a women ' s club with the only requirement being that each mem- ber bring her lunch in a bandana. (continued on next page) 2 Introduction

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60 years later First student amazed at college Helen (Ruth) Moss is still on the move after sixty years. ; Mrs. Moss was in the first class at the newly founded El Dorado Junior College ( BCCC ) in 1927. She graduated in 1929. There were two reasons why Mrs. Moss chose to attend El Dorado Junior College: chiefly, because of its availability; the other reason because like many today, many, many of her classmates decided to attend. Mrs. Moss and her classmates enjoyed the warmth and informality of everyone. She states that there weren ' t any snobs and everyone was on the same social status. Extra-curricular activities sponsored by the college included: dramatics; girl ' s glee club; forensics; newspaper; annual; YMCA; football; basketball; Young Women ' s Christain Association to which Mrs. Moss was elected vice- president her freshmen year; girl ' s pep club, every girl could be a member and like most girls Mrs. Moss was a member; and the Science Club, in which she was a member of also. While being interviewed, Mrs. Moss telephoned a fellow classmate, whom she called Rabbit, alias Maurice Gwin, about the cost of tuition for the year. Both decided there wasn ' t any cost because if so, how could they have af- forded it? Mrs. Moss is very proud of the college although neither she nor her former classmates ever ex- pected it to grow as much as it has. Most students in those days wore whatever clothes were obtainable. Money was hard to get so they couldn ' t afford to buy many fashionable school clothes like today ' s students can, Mrs. Moss commented. The college has changed in many ways over the years, but one item that hasn ' t is the Grizzly loyalty. One can still find college sports fans shouting for their number one team just like they did sixty years ago. For entertainment students went gomping in 1927 Model T Fords. Amazingly enough, this sixty year old activity of going gomping is still around today, except nowadays it is called ' cruising ' . w w$± Helen Ruth Moss in 1927. There were only thirty graduates from the class of 1929 (compared to the hundreds today). Some went on to be lawyers, dentists and presidents of oil refineries in Kansas. Eight of those first year students, including Mrs. Moss, still live in El Dorado. They include: Maysel McLemore, Kenneth Burgert, Eva (Genntz) Cour, Maurice Gwin, Bill Poole, Opal Reed, and Samuel Unger. Every credit from El Dorado Junior College transferred to Wichita State University. She majored in political science, a field in which women were uncommon. After graduating from W.S.U., Mrs. Moss tried to help her father bring their little family store back to life during the Great Depression or the Hoover Boom as it was called. Later she married Dutch Moss and helped at his family ' s store Mrs. Moss hopes everyone at Butler County Community College appreciates hearing how it was sixty years ago. Jolena (renter 4 First student