Memphis State University - DeSoto Yearbook (Memphis, TN)

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Thev were then ready to pursue either the Academic- Course of study or the Normal Course. The Academic Course was designed primarily to prepare elementary school teachers, while the Normal Course was to prepare teachers for the secondary schools of the state. Upon completion of the Normal Course, the student received a diploma which was a life certificate of qualification to teach in any of Tennessee ' s public schools. The curriculum was divided into nine departments: 1. 2. Q O. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Education English I including public reading and speaking) History Mathematics Science Languages (Latin, French, German) Manual Training Agriculture 9. Training School (now Messick High School) Several organizations were quickly formed to offer the student extra-curricular activities: four literary societies, two for men, and two for women, a YWCA and a YMCA, and departmental organizations, such as the Home Eco- nomics Club, the Modern Language Club, and the Thalian Dramatic Club. The first student publication of the new school was The Columns, a monthly forerunner of the campus newspaper, The Tiger Rag. The name of The Columns, of course, was derived from the huge columns of the administration building. The name now belongs to the Memphis State Alumni newspaper. During the first school year, and at the beginning of the second, there was practically no library at the school other than the personal collections of individual instructors. Plans were made to begin a school .library, and by the beginning of the third year the school could boast of some four thou- sand volumes. The entire collection was housed in a spa- cious and well-lighted room furnished with studying facili- ties for the students. Just two days after the beginning of the school ' s second year, on September 17, 1913, the faculty and student body, were shocked by the death of President Mynders. The devo- tion and personal sacrifice with which the first president had handled his responsibilities had been costly. President Mynders was succeeded by Professor John Willard Brister, whose first tenure as head of the school lasted until 1918 when he entered in overseas war duty with the YMCA. While Professor Brister served with the Army Educational Corps in France, Andrew A. Kincannon served as president. The school which had begun as a preparatory school offering four years of secondary work and two years of collegiate work, expanded its curriculum in 1919 to include a third year of work on the college level.

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In charge of the construction and the planning, as well as the nomination of the faculty, the issuing of bulletins, and the preparation of a curriculum, was the recently appointed president. Professor Seymour Allen Mynders. He had been largely responsible for tbe passage of the General Education Bill of 1909 which created the school, and his enthusiasm for the project only increased with his appointment. On Tuesday. September 10. 1912. the dreams of President Mynders and of countless other staunch support- ers of the new institution were realized when West Tennessee State Normal School opened its doors and began its first regular term. The faculty totaled seventeen and the student body approximately two hundred. By the end of the first year, however, the original enrollment had jumped to nine hundred-nine. Those first students at Ole Normal. as the school was affectionately called, had fulfilled the following- requirements: 1 ) open and free to white males and females not under sixteen years of age and who had finished at least the elementary school course prescribed by the public schools of the state. 2) letter of good moral character from a responsible person. 3) good health — strong physically and free from chronic defects that would prevent satisfactory work. 1 ) no tuition charge to residents of Tennessee. Only fee collected is a registration fee of two dollars per term. Non-resident students pay twelve dollars per quarter plus the two-dollar fee. 5) sufficient scholastic requirements from high school or previous college.

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i iMBRa) . Tobacco is a dirty weed I like it: It satisfies no normal need. I like it. It makes you thin, it makes you lean. It takes the hair right off your bean; It ' s the worst darn ' stuff I ' ve ever seen; I like it! The Roaring Twenties In addition to this expansion, [here were other notable changes between 19] 1 and 1921: enrollment jumped to more than a thousand: the number of faculty members had risen from seventeen to thirty- two; a dining hall capable of seating eight hundred had been added to the college plant; Scates Hall. a dormitory for men. had been completed in 1923; the number of books in the library had risen to more than nine thousand: the athletic department had been greatly expanded; The DeSoto. had been published yearly since 1916; a variety of student organizations and societies had sprung up on the campus, and in general, the Normal School was beginning to assume the stature of a full-fledged college. The students, too, were beginning to assume the timeless characteristics of true collegians. Hours not spent with books were enthusiastically filled with courting, debating, social work, midnight snacks, music, sports, and pranks. They cheered lustily for the football team, which in 1916 was defeated by the Jonesboro Aggies, Central High School, and Memphis University School, but tri- umphed over Somerville High School. CBC, THG (State Militia) and Brownsville. They were heard reciting not only Shakespeare, but such gems as the following: The twenties rolled in. bringing to the nation Bathtub Gin. Speakeasies, Harding and Graft, and 23 Skidoos. They brought to the Ole Normal campus many things: the return, in 1924, of President Brister . . . a new name. West Tennessee State Teachers College, to accompany the new status it received in 1925 ... an enrollment of 1,641 . . . Zack Curlin as basketball and football coach . . . Flappers who outnumbered boys more than two to one, and invaded what had previously been male organizations . . . The Charleston . . . a full summer school session of twelve weeks ... a Training School enrollment of five hundred ... an Alma Mater written by President Brister and printed in the 1929 DeSoto ... a girls ' basketball team, the Tigresses, which in 1921 became City Champs, Tri-State Champs, Mississippi Valley Conference Champs, and World Free-Throw Champs. j a. n± A.. ' ■ ■■ 1 ■3 - .-■ aw L s v Al •v bs: ' sttABfc X: V :