Lehigh University - Epitome Yearbook (Bethlehem, PA)

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Enlisted Reserve Corps were not eligible automatically for commissions; in fact, it was said, their chances of staying in school were slim. Naturally this did not encourage heavy studying for finals — and many talked of not registering for the spring term, but the Dean ' s advice was to stay in school as long as possible, and this most students did. After finals had passed, and the usual fruitless talk about a 3-day pre-exam study period was to no avail, the first accelerated class of the war was graduated — the class of ' 43x. Joseph Grew, former United States Ambassador to Japan and author of the revealing, much-read book entitled Report from Tokio, was the speaker, warning the American public against underestimating the resourceful- ness of Japan. Dame Rumor then overtook the Lehigh campus, as she does in any nation at war. In fact, things got so far out of hand that Dean Congdon issued an official statement denying that ( 1 ) the University would be taken over, lock, stock, and barrel by any branch of the military service, and that (2) neither the arts nor business college would be discontinued. On February 2, all of Lehigh and, indeed, the whole football world was shocked by the sudden death of George W. Hoban, beloved coach of Lehigh championship team. Friends, students, townspeople, faculty and alumni paid tribute to him at impressive funeral services two days later in Packard Chapel. Coach Hoban died as a result of a heart-attack suffered while driving; his car home during his lunch hour. The Army finally came through as anticipated and the orders for 28 E.R.C. men to report for immediate active duty followed. No sooner had they been given a noisy sendoff at the station than orders for 95 more E.R.C. men to report were received. The orders for 11 of these were almost immediately rescinded, however, since they were advanced ROTC boys and senior engineers. The Air Corps then issued orders for 83 more of their reserves to report. In all, 240 stu- dents left the University for the armed services in February, and the enrollment dropped from 1430 to 1190. It was then announced by the Army that Lehigh had been selected to train Army Student Training Program (ASTP) men, starting sometime in the near future. To make matters more complicated, the Army, unlike the Navy, decided that its boys would not be allowed to participate in college athletics, thus throwing a shadow of doubt on Lehigh ' s future in the sport world, since Lehigh was to be an all Army college. In spite of the loss of several good men to the armed services, Lehigh ' s cham- pionship wrestling team went undefeated in this, the thirty-second year of the Billy Sheridan regime. The climax came when the Brown and White grapplers stopped the University of Pennsylvania ' s string of 22 consecutive victories by a 17-14 win. For the third straight time, the faculty reversed its war-policy and agreed to allow a spring houseparty — this one to be positively the last for the duration. Chemistry Building 17