Drake University - Quax Yearbook (Des Moines, IA)

Page 21 text:

. . . seeking a modicum of contrived sophistication, campus night clubbers quietly chatted, languidly sipped coltes, watched a floor show and left early to insure lingering good nights Mesh-sfoclcinged cigarette girls pro- vided club denizens with pleasant dis- 'traction 1 On IZ chill fllomlny afffrnoon las! .lIIllNI1I'j', Lau' Demi Nlartin Tollefson was Finishing up a bit of routine orlice work before going home for the evening, when he heard a brisk rapping on the door. Come in, the hearty dean bellowed. It was blond, crew-cut Bill NVay, Drljrhiz: reporter- photographer, on a far from routine assignment for the newspaper. Wa5f showed Dean Tollefson a copy of the Chicago Sunday Tribune for Qlmmai-y 10, which contained an edi- torial that had made the usually reserved Tollefson at lirst Hush with anger. The editorial, though written in the T1'ib1uzz .v phonetic, roundabout style, left no doubt as to its implied meaning. Presumably dictated by Col. Robert R. lVIeCormiclc, the al- mighty fit was strictly in line with his preachingsi, the editorial claimed that Tollefson took action pleasing to Russia. The dean, then an army colonel, had been chief of the war department's legal branch and director of pris- oner-of-war operations.

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One enterprising Deljrhir staffer dug up a tape re- corder, used same to transcribe the nightly dissertations and play them back, giving the journalism department a topic of discussion and laughs for many weeks. By this time, it was nearly February, and the campus was roughly divided into two camps-one, remembering the days of yore when college football was an amateur sport, decided that the present-day variety was little bet- ter than nothing, too expensive, and advocated dropping it. The other, siding with the president, maintained that a campus isn't a campus without a weekend stint at the gridiron, mediocre record or not, and opposed to the death any move to take it away. One bald fact remained: college football is a full- time job. The armchair quarterbacks acted acco1'dingly. ALL PHOTOGRAPHSZ J. K. BROYVX Campus carnival was a success tor a number of reasons County fair atmosphere prevailed as United Cam- paign hucltsters tool: over tieldhouse to raise money for worthy charities. Jeans and plaid shirts were dis- carded a month later, when . . . On February 8, word was received of the forma- tion of a Growlers Club -cynically referred to as the club for homeless athletes. The purported idea of the club was to furnish room and board to musclemen. The odd name stems from its an- nounced aim to put the growl back in the Bull- dog. President Harmon, seemingly relieved to get off the hook, bought the first membership: price 3100. - Tentative goal of the Growler project was set at 540,000 By late February, all but 555,000 had been raised, thanks to the generosity of 350 local citizens. The remaining amount was to be sold in the form of junior memberships to the campus cli- entele: price 50 cents each, but by spring takers were few and the campaign for the collegiate source of revenue was running like a dry creek.

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Homecoming queen Ronnie Purcell's reign was brief but happy I8 The Tribune, supporting its case for the disputed Bricker amendment fa proposed constitutional correc- tion which would drastically limit the president's treaty- making powersj, claimed that Tollefson was regrettably vague as to what happened to 5,000 POWs in German uniform who lVIcCormick alleged to be Russian deserters to Hitler's cause. - After reviewingpthe editorial, Tollefson was then more 'amazed than angry. On July 29, 1953, he had written a letter to Republican Senator Alexander Wiley, an anti-Bricker VVisconsinite who was then busily en- Gleeful gridders' viciory dance presaged . . . Pl 1'll0'l'0UIIAI lfSI DES MOINES REHISTIGR AND TRIBUNE