Memphis State University - DeSoto Yearbook (Memphis, TN)

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Golden Anniversary 1912 1962 DEDICATION With admiration and gratitude for those people of the past who dedicated themselves to the foundation of a great institution, with respect for the people of the present who are contributing to the growth of a great university, and with hope for people of the future who will further the progress of an even greater university, this Golden Anniversary Edition of The DeSoto is respectfully dedicated.

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CONTENTS Features Campus Life Personalities 22 26 53 ctivities 76 Sports 78 Music 113 Drama 117 Publications 123 w Organizations Greek Leadership Clubs Religious Military 132 134 179 199 216 225 caaemics 234 Administration 236 Arts and Sciences 238 Business Administration 275 Education 293 General College 311 Graduate School 314 Administrative Staff 315 Index 316

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Fifty Golden Years 1912 1962 Soon after the turn of the twentieth century, an old plantation died. Its inevitable fate was to become part of the growing city of Memphis, whose grasping boundaries stretched only two miles from its fields. Yet those forty-eight acres were destined to become more than a few ordinary city lots, for while they lay waiting in the Southern sun for the fatal subdivision, a minor war was being waged in Tennessee. Cities and counties, armed with pointed editorials and heavy arguments, were fighting to gain a promised state school. Memphis and Shelby County w ere the victors, and the old plantation became the birth-site of an institution now known as Memphis State Universih . The first of many names for the school was the West Tennessee State Normal School, an educational institution devoted especially to the preparation of teachers for the state ' s public schools. The former plan- tation land, along with an additional thirty-two acres, was cleared and leveled, plowed and planted, for it was to produce not onlv vegetables and pastures for the new school ' s Department of Agriculture, but a brand new crop as well: teachers. Buildings were constructed: an administration building, a three-winged, three-story women ' s dormitory con- taining one hundred-ten bedrooms (men were to be housed in the basement rooms of the administration build- ing), and a two-storv brick residence for the president. ■mi ■ltd i »l it I! R It H U Tl Flff |k KK If BE E IE IE II t t § - mmim- . I [ 1 [ ' ffaMftmtmt a fi i m m. ' « 2