Category Archives: Back then

RFK

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On the early morning of June 5, 1968, classmate and roommate Richard Sullivan shook me awake at about 3 or 4 to tell me, “Bobby Kennedy’s been shot.”

I was, of course, stunned, as I’m sure you were when you first heard. Didn’t we just experience the assassination of Martin Luther King? What’s going on? I hung on to the fact that I knew only he had been shot. Maybe he would survive. . . . No, he died 26 hours after being shot.

I post about this on this blog, because, while the shooting of RFK did not fall specifically within the time we were at BC, neither did the assassination of his brother, John F. Kennedy, in November 1963, but they were tragic bookends to our college years.

Most of us, by that time, had gone our separate ways after graduation on June 3. There was no group or institutional response, no Heights, no University gathering, as there had been when Dr. King had been killed in April.

As college students, we had some wonderful times, times we celebrate and remember during this reunion. But we also were college students during some terrible times. I’m certain we remember many of those times, too.

Commencement Ball 1968

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Look, up on the ceiling.

Between the technicalities and tedium(?) of Commencement ceremonies on June 3 and the real world crashing once again on us on June 5 came several hours of magic in McElroy Commons. (We’re posting on June 4, because no one left the ball before the clock struck midnight June 3.)

The 1968 Commencement Ball took place in McElroy Commons. !? “Upstairs,” the main dining hall, featured Count Basie and his band. “Downstairs,” Eagles’ Nest(?), there was Lester Lanin and his band. Back in our day, those were two premium musical entities. McElroy may have never heard better musical sounds.

Classmates invested $15 per couple to attend. Was it worth it? Were you there? What do you remember?

Here’s a gallery of photos taken at the Ball and published in the spring supplement to the 1968 Sub Turri. If you have identifications for people in the photos, please let me know.

 

A toast to 50 years hence

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Today, we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of our graduation — a half-century to the day. This photo was taken at the Commencement Ball the night of commencement and I’d like to think this handsome couple extended then a toast to us now. Here’s to you, Golden Eagles!

Commencement 1968

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The Class of 1968, assembled for the last time as students on the field of Alumni Stadium. Where were you in this crowd? Sub Turri photo.

It finally came. For good or ill, our undergraduate days at BC were coming to an end.

According to the account in the Boston Globe the following day, “Boston College Graduates 2440” (BGlobe_BCgrad_060468). In the earlier Commencement 2018 post, we had noted that BC gave out 4,287 degrees this May 21st.

The following are somewhat estimates. (Actually, I tried to count the names in the 1968 commencement program, which I still have, so that explains any errors.)

Of the 2,440 degree recipients announced by the Globe, approximately 1,462 were undergraduates. Of those, 568 were A&S, 437 CBA, 279 Education, 127 Nursing, and 51 Evening.

Among the approximately 830 graduate and professional degree recipients, there were 17 PhDs awarded: 9 in education, 3 biology, 2 economics, and 1 each in chemistry, history, and philosophy. The remaining totals for graduate and professional degrees were: Master of Arts, 209; Master of Science, 64; Master of Arts in Teaching, 19; Master of Science in Teaching, 8; Master of Education, 198; Master of Social Work, 59; and LL.B. (law degree) 256.

Kingman Brewster, president of Yale University and 1968 Commencement speaker, leads this portion of the procession. Following (r-l) are Charles Donovan, SJ, Academic Vice President; Richard Cardinal Cushing; and Michael Walsh, SJ, President. Sub Turri photo.

Kingman Brewster, president of Yale University, was an honorary degree recipient and commencement speaker. The Globe said he spoke about making more loans available to college students. (Well, that seems to have happened, perhaps to an unfortunate degree.) I don’t remember anything he said. But I do remember that he was our commencement speaker, because not that long after this day, he became somewhat immortalized in Doonesbury, the iconic comic strip by Yale graduate Gary Trudeau. Many believe the Doonesbury character, President King, is the comic personalization of president _King_man Brewster.

Other honorary degree recipients were theologian Henri deLubac, SJ; Solicitor General of the US Erwin Griswold; Rita Kelleher, retiring dean of Nursing; John McEleney, SJ, archbishop of Jamaica; Cornelius Owens of NY Telephone Co.; James Shea, Jr., chairman of Milton Bradley; and California Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Traynor.

In this post are two of the only three pictures of graduation in Sub Turri (the other photo somewhat inexplicably being of John Wissler ’57, executive director of the alumni assocation.) You must have more. Didn’t your folks take tons? Won’t you please share? :)

This photo of classmate Tom Sugrue is in classic mode.

Share if you have something like this, or, even better, candids.

Now, this is a a movie of commencement. It is very short (53 secs) and of poor quality. My younger sister took it and, as you can tell, it was at the proverbial end of a reel. But it shows a bit of the A&S procession and some of the stadium. Please let us know you have better movies.

The real world awaited. And that world showed itself in an ugly way less than 48 hours after we graduated.

 

 

Penultimate day before graduation

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Sunday, June 2, 1968, appropriately, focused on more solemn events prior to graduation.

Classmates in the School of Nursing were “pinned” that day. Classmate Joanne Calore Turco tells us: “Each school of nursing has its own distinctive pin. A nurse receives one on graduating from his/her school of nursing. Most wore the pin on their uniform, but I’m not sure many nurses still wear their school pin now that name tags on lanyards and other identification are required in health care settings. Just like the distinctive ‘caps,’ the pins may be a thing of the past, but most nurses still keep their pins and wear them with pride.”

Here’s a gallery of photos taken at Nursing’s pinning ceremony and published in the spring supplement to the 1968 Sub Turri. If you have identifications for people in the photos, please let me know.

It was also the day for baccalaureate Mass. Here’s a gallery of photos taken at Mass and published in the spring supplement to the 1968 Sub Turri. If you have identifications for people in the photos, please let me know.

Finallly, I am not certain this ceremony took place on Sunday, June 2, but it fits in terms of solemnity. Classmates in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) were commissioned as 2nd Lieutenants.

Here’s a gallery of photos taken at commissioning and published in the spring supplement to the 1968 Sub Turri. If you have identifications for people in the photos, please let me know.

We welcome any recollections of these events.

Senior Week, Day 3

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Saturday, June 1, 1968, was packed with Senior Week activities. Started off with brunch in McElroy Commons, followed by the Boston Pops Orchestra (with Arthur Fiedler!) in the acoustically wonderful Roberts Center, and then wrapped up with a night at the King Philip in Wrentham.

Tickets to the Pops appearance cost $2.50, while brunch clicked in at $3.25 per person.

The event at King Philip added a previously missing element: parents! Parents of members of the class were invited to attend. They and classmates danced to the “Father’s Mustache Banjo Band” from 8 pm to 1 am, for $3 per person.

Did you go to any of these? Any memories, recollections to share?

Here’s a gallery of photos taken on that busy Saturday and published in the spring supplement to the 1968 Sub Turri. If you have identifications for people in the photos, please let me know.

 

Senior Week, Day 2

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On to Glen Ellen Country Club! The second day of Senior Week featured “a day in the country (club)” at the facility in Millis, where classmates enjoyed swings, the pool, music, dancing. dinner, and adult refreshments.

When they said day, they meant day. Ran from 1 pm to 1 am. Tickets were $12 per couple, a dollar an hour.

Were you there? Do you have memories, photos to share?

Here’s a gallery of photos taken at Glen Ellen and published in the spring supplement to the 1968 Sub Turri. If you have identifications for people in the photos, please let me know.

 

Senior Week, Day 1

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The Surf, Nantasket Beach, was a regular, including for Senior Week 1968. Sub Turri photo

Today was the first day of Senior “Week” in 1968. Classmates kicked off the festivities on that Thursday at the Surf Ballroom in Nantasket. Three musical groups — “The Nine Lords,” “The Happenings,” and Dick Madison’s “Tijuana Brass Band” — entertained.

Tickets for the event, which ran from 8 pm to 1 am, were $5 a couple.

Did you go? Any memories, recollections?

Here’s a gallery of photos taken at the Surf and published in the spring supplement to the 1968 Sub Turri. If you have identifications for people in the photos, please let me know.

 

‘For here men are men’

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The topic of women at BC 1964-68 probably deserves an entire blog itself. So this post touches on only a few elements.

Until 1989, For Boston, the BC fight song, contained the lyrics that are this post’s headline — “For here men are men . . . .” In May of that year, the BC Alumni Association Board of Directors recognized the presence of women in all schools at BC and approved changing those words to “For here all are one.” (They also made lyrics in the second stanza gender-neutral, but who knows that stanza? :) ) Women enrolled in Education (since 1952) and Nursing (since 1947) and certainly our female classmates for years sang a fight song that, one might say, ignored their existence. One might also say BC had had that problem for a while . . . and at least undervalued their presence during our years.

One image of women students at BC is conveyed by the photo at right. The Heights, as enlightened as it perceived itself to be, regularly ran photos of, dare I say, “pretty girls” who were BC students. “The Heights Reader of the Week” was a page two staple for our freshman and sophomore years, at least. Sub Turri, for a number of years, had a “queen” each year and one could vote numerous times each year for the “queen” of this or that dance or event, e.g., Homecoming.

This is not to say BC was so different from many other colleges at the time. Even public institutions and women’s colleges in the day had policies and regulations probably intended more to “protect” women than “empower” them.

Looking back, however, brings you to some things that today seem humorous, bizarre, or both.

Classmate Joanne Calore Turco recalls learning right off the bat, at orientation, that female students could not wear pants (or, gawd forbid, shorts!) on principal parts of the campus, among the academic buildings.

In October 1965, Bobbi McKuskie, ’69, became the “first girl to march with the BC band,” as she debuted at halftime of the BC-Penn State football game . . . not to play the trumpet or even the flute, but to twirl a baton. In March 1968, the Heights reported that the band had received approval to add three “lithe, lovely majorettes” to the band.

In 1965, Ann O’Malley, ’66, Education, served as co-editor-in-chief of The Heights and was the only woman to hold the top position, shared or otherwise, during our years. Janice Kolar was co-features editor in 1966 and “contributing editor” in 1967. No women were editors in 1968. Almost all of the members of the “business staff” were females, and all of the “typists.”

A “restaurant guide” in The Eagle’s (sic) Handbook for resident men offered this advice: “The economy-minded B.C. man with a hungry date will appreciate the Beacon Hill Kitchen, 23 Joy St., or The English Room, 29 Newbury St.”

The Resident Women’s Handbook for 1966-67 includes the following regulations and statements:

“Each student must make her bed each day before leaving the residence . . . .”

“The law requires that all dormitory shades be drawn as soon as the lights are put on.”

“A student may not sleep in any bed other than her own unless permission is given by her housemother, and more than one student may not sleep in a bed at any one time.” (!)

“If the student is more than an hour late and has not called her housemother, the latter will call the student’s parents, collect, to inform them of her absence.”

“When her residence is open, no student will be permitted to stay overnight in any hotel, motel, inn, guest house, or apartment within 25 miles of Boston unless she is with her parents or an approved chaperone.”

“Shorts and slacks are worn outside the residence only when they are appropriate attire for the student’s activities–as for picnics, the beach, etc.; and when leaving the residence in shorts or slacks, the student is expected to wear a knee-length coat.”

Male students had some interesting rules and regulations as well, but nothing really as onerous as some of those applied to women.

Example of room in women’s “residence hall.”

The women’s residences on South Street were apartment buildings, which BC even described as “not designed to serve as dormitories.” For several years, women complained of lack of privacy, no place to entertain guests, inadequate bathroom facilities, poor food, cold rooms, no recreation facilities, no televisions and no permission to bring one, and no options. The Heights in 1965 said, “It is surprising that BC, with all its beautiful new buildings on campus, can afford to let prospective students even see the women’s dorms.”

In February, 1966, The Heights provided an analysis of “. . . The Present Situation” involving housing for BC women. Written, not surprisingly, by a man. It is also, however, comprehensive and damning. The article was accompanied by a chart showing the differing curfews for resident women at local colleges. BC women, freshmen through senior years, had a 10:30 pm curfew Sundays-Thursdays. (A female classmate said that some cads actually had “late night” add-on dates, picked up after dropping off BC dates before 10:30.) On Fridays, curfews were midnight-1 am, depending on class year and semester. After first semester freshman year, when the curfew was midnight, Saturday curfews were 1 am.

No BC woman student was permitted to live in an off-campus apartment, even if she was over 21 and had permission from her parents.

In November 1967, there was a Sunday afternoon open house at each of the eight women’s dorms – Kirkwood, Linden, Pine, Radnor, Chestnut, South, Greycliffe, Alison. The event, the Heights reported, would “enable BC coeds to entertain guests in their rooms for the first time this year and to show visitors living conditions which many women believe are almost intolerable.”

And then there was the fact that no women could enroll in A&S or CBA. A petition to permit women in A&S, signed by 1,500 members of the campus community, was presented to the administration in March 1967. In September, 1967, The Heights reported “Fr. Walsh lists obstacles to women’s entrance in A&S.” Guess those were overcome somehow. Three years and a few months later, women were able to enroll in any and all of BC’s schools.

I had not been aware of this previously, but the female Bald Eagle is larger than the male. Today, the majority of students — both undergraduate and graduate in total and in all undergraduate schools except for the Carroll School of Management and Woods College (formerly the Evening School) — are women. And, while late starters compared to male students at BC, women now represent the majority of BC alumni.

Bygones

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This would fetch a nice price at auction at Reunion, wouldn’t it? I wish. Anybody know where it was located? Sub Turri photo.

Things . . . and campus buildings . . . and places where we had fun . . . gone. One of the products of time passing is that some of those disappear. Some of us may be happy that things and buildings have been replaced and some of us may feel nostalgic about what once was.

Campus buildings
Young alumni with whom I’ve talked about BC in our day and shown them pictures of the campus are often surprised at the degree of change. Hey, so are we! Classmates coming back for reunion clamored for the bus tours that will show the campus and they are “sold out.”

It’s probably safe to say that BC has been under construction since 1913, when Gasson Hall got built on the new Chestnut Hill Campus. Over the years, the campus has been transformed and, based on BC’s current strategic plan, will be significantly changed anew. In our day, upper campus was the focus of residential life. Now, and even more so in the future, that focus is lower campus, which used to be still mostly reservoir in our time.

Here are some examples of BC buildings that were integral, in varying degrees, to our lives as students and alumni that we will never see again, except in pictures.

Roberts Center
The site of many basketball games, concerts, speeches, etc., Roberts opened in 1958. It was the site of 327 varsity basketball games, with the last games taking place in spring 1988. BC won 246 of those games. Roberts was also the hub of the Athletics Department, with administrators and coaches having offices there. It was also the home of ROTC, and featured a firing range in the lower level.

One factor that led to the demise of Roberts and McHugh Forum was a Big East Conference requirement that teams play their games in settings of no fewer than 6,500 fans. With a capacity of 4,400, Roberts fell obviously short of that requirement, which pushed several of BC’s “bigger” games to Boston Garden during the mid-1980s.

Where Roberts Center once stood is now a science building, Merkert Chemistry Center.

McHugh Forum
McHugh was an example, with Roberts, of the “classic” bowed-roof arena of the 1950s. As classmate Reid Oslin once wrote, when he was assistant director of athletics, “McHugh was never a pretty place.”

It was where we first gathered as BC students, though perhaps in separate groups, to go through “orientation” in September 1964. It was also where students in A&S received their degrees following the commencement ceremonies in Alumni Stadium on June 3, 1968.

Mixers were held in McHugh. We watched “televised” away football games against teams like Miami. And BC played hockey there. Lots of hockey. Reid penned a “look back” at McHugh for Boston College Magazine in its spring 1986 issue (below).

Replacing both McHugh and Roberts is Conte Forum, an athletics and event center that seats 8,600 for basketball and just under 8,000 for hockey.

Alumni Hall and Philomatheia Hall
These weren’t places that we frequented as students, but, certainly in the case of Alumni Hall, many of us probably spent some time there after graduation.

Philomatheia Hall (l) and Alumni Hall. Before our time and when Commonwealth Avenue must have been a lot narrower.

Alumni Hall

Alumni Hall (74 Commonwealth Avenue) was of distinctive architecture. Tudor to the extreme? :) The building contained the offices of the Alumni Association, of course, and its large interior spaces, at least compared to other campus facilities, made it the site of both alumni and University events. Among other services it provided for BC grads, including being the site of several wedding receptions, it was a pretty good post-football game party scene in the ’70 and ’80s. Maroon Solo cups. :)

At one point, in the ’60s, the Alumni Hall property contained a small aviary, which housed “Margo,” a live eagle serving as the BC mascot. The raptor was later moved to Franklin Park Zoo for more appropriate residence.

Philomatheia Hall from the side facing campus.

BC purchased what became Philomatheia Hall (86 Commonwealth Avenue) in 1920 to provide a location for the Philomatheia Club, founded in 1915, a fundraising organization with members being women who represented a “ladies’ auxiliary” to the all-male Boston College. This was before, of course, the schools of nursing and education.

The buildings were neighbors on Commonwealth Avenue, but very different in appearance. The History of Boston College by Charles Donovan, S.J., describes Philomatheia Hall as “a gracious Norwegian chalet.”

Both buildings were taken down in 1988 (tough year for several buildings on campus) to be replaced by residence halls initially called Commonwealth Avenue Dormitories, later named after benefactors. The Alumni Offices initially moved to Putnam House on the Newton Campus, formerly the campus of Newton College of the Sacred Heart. The Alumni staff joined the Advancement staff on the Brighton Campus, soon after its purchase by the University in what has become Cadigan Alumni Center.

The summer 1986 issue of Boston College Magazine carried an article with anecdotal recollections of Alumni Hall (below).

St. Thomas More Hall
More Hall was the home of the BC Law School in our day. When the Law School moved to the Newton Campus in 1975, More Hall became an administrative building, housing such offices as the treasurer, human resources, and development.

St. Thomas More Hall, as seen from the other side of the Reservoir, since filled in.

Administrative offices in More Hall moved to the Brighton Campus soon after it was purchased, and More Hall was torn down in spring 2015. On the site now are the Thomas More Apartments, a student residence hall.

Off-campus
There were also the off-campus standbys. The buildings are most often still around, but the establishments are gone.

Technology
We had “technology” back then, right? BC, for example, actually did have a computer . . . a big one. And some of our technology was hand-operated, like the “word processor” in the gallery below. Here are examples of techology-related items you don’t see much any more.

Other
Remember the mention of the firing range in Roberts? Here’s a picture from the 1968 Sub Turri of our coed rifle team. Did that stop when ROTC left?

Also leaving with ROTC was the Lewis Drill Team. Now the flag-wavers at football games are all young women!

And finally, nuns. There are still nuns, of course, but most do not wear these habits. Brings back memories though.