Charles C. McCracken, president of Connecticut Agricultural College when it became Connecticut State College, was instrumental in launching the career of operatic soprano Ruby Elzy in the 1920s.

Charles C. McCracken, president of the University from 1930 to 1935, was born on June 27, 1882. In what during his tenure that the-then Connecticut Agricultural College became Connecticut State College; the Husky became the college mascot; and college received its first national accreditation. After years of disputes with trustees and faculty over his management of the college, McCracken resigned in 1935 after the Trustees had enacted what became known as “The Gag Rule”,  the aim of which was to stop campus discussion of whether military training should be mandatory for college men.

A little known episode in McCracken’s life is that he “discovered” Ruby Elzy, an African American college student who became a nationally known operatic soprano and who created the role of “Serena” in George Gershwin’s folk opera Porgy and Bess.

On a fact-finding trip with a committee studying Negro schools and colleges in the South, Charles McCracken, of The Ohio State University, visited Rust College in Mississippi. As the committee met, Elzy was rehearsing for a concert nearby, and her voice carried into the windows of the meeting room. Committee members left the room to hear her sing and McCracken was so taken by her talent that he decided to bring Elzy to Ohio State. She graduated from OSU in 1930, the year McCracken left to become president of CAC.

Connecticut Agricultural College's Class of 1907 was the first graduating class to wear caps and gowns. The graduates, standing on the steps to Grove Cottage, the women's dormitory from 1896 to 1919, include Lena Hurlburt, fifth from right. Hurlburt was captain of the women's basketball team and first woman on the staff of The Lookout, the student newspaper.

As candidates for graduation came forward to receive their diplomas on June 14, 1907, they looked different from their predecessors at Connecticut Agricultural College.

They were wearing caps and gowns.

The Class of 1907 was the first class to wear academic gowns and mortar board caps to their commencement exercises at CAC. Previously the graduates had worn either suits and ties or hand-sewn dresses.  In the more traditional academic garb, the graduates in 1907 listened as Rev. Rockwell Harmon Potter, pastor of Center Church in Hartford and later dean of the Hartford Seminary, deliver an address on “The School of Life”.

Also on June 14 in UConn history:

1895 – Andrew L. Hyde elected as first alumni trustee;

1899 – Storrs Agricultural College became Connecticut Agricultural College;

1914 – Gold Hall, first residence hall for men, burned down. It had been built in 1890;

1963 – The Mace, symbol of University authority, was first used at Commencement.

UConn's first president, Benjamin F. Koons, was a veteran of the Civil War, and had strong opinions on how Memorial Day was to be observed.

Memorial Day was first observed in 1866 in Waterloo, New York to honor the memory of Union soldiers killed during the Civil War (1861-1865). It was then known as “Decoration Day”, as the graves of the fallen were decorated in remembrance, and it consolidated what had been locally observed remembrances in many locations.

Over the years, the day has come to be a time to remember all who have fallen in service to the nation. In addition to visits to cemeteries and grave sites, it alos has become a day of picnics, parades, and events like the Indianapolis 500.

For some in the 19^th century, including Benjamin Franklin Koons, first president of UConn when it was the Storrs Agricultural College, the thought of spending the day grilling hamburgers and hot dogs would have been distressing.

Koons was a veteran of the Civil War, and was a member of the Francis S. Long Post No. 30 of the Grand Army of the Republic in Willimantic, Connecticut. He had enlisted as a private in his native Ohio in 1862, and survived 17 engagements, at was at Appomattox when the war ended.

The Hartford Courant noted in Koon’s obituary in December 1903 that “it has been his custom of late years to deplore the perverted use of Memorial Day, believing that May 30 was consecrated to the defenders of the Union and not athletic carnivals.”

In sweltering heat, the Class of 1963 received their degrees from the University of Connecticut in an outdoor ceremony held in Memorial Stadium.

The commencement speaker was Raymond Baldwin, who, 24 years earlier, while serving as Governor of Connecticut, signed the legislative act turned Connecticut State College into the University of Connecticut.

Before starting his address, Baldwin joked about the event that occurred on May 26, 1939. He recalled that he signed the bill with a quill pen, and told the commencement audience that he believed it was probably the last document in Connecticut that was signed with a quill pen.

“I’m not sure but I think the School [sic] of Agriculture produced that pen from some goose. Anyway, it worked pretty well. Actually, there is an aftermath to that. Today the question came up as to who had the pen, and President Babbidge and the Provost of the college looked at me with some suspicion and I want to assure you that I didn’t keep the pen. I gave it to Al Jorgensen and you’ll have to look him up for that.”

“Al Jorgensen”, of course, was former UConn President Albert N. Jorgensen. And there was no need to check with him.

The quill pen was, and is, part of the University Archives collection.

Quill pen used by Gov. Raymond Baldwin in 1939 to sign legislation that changed Connecticut State College into the University of Connecticut.

Governor Raymond Baldwin signs bill creating the University of Connecticut, May 26, 1939

Marking the fifth and final name change of the small school in the eastern hills of Connecticut, Governor Baldwin formally signs the bill creating the University of Connecticut with state and school officials looking on.  Previous names reflected the changing nature of the institution as it evolved to meet the needs of the citizens of Connecticut: 

• Storrs Agricultural School                   1881-1893
• Storrs Agricultural College                  1893-1899
• Connecticut Agricultural College         1899-1933
• Connecticut State College                  1933-1939

President Charles L. Beach, right, and student Paul Manwaring, stand under the north arch of Hawley Armory at the dedication of Gardner Dow Field on Alumni Day, May 22, 1920. After the north and south arches were taken down sometime around 1950, the Dow plaque was moved the to west side of the Armory building.

In May of 1920, the campus community, at what was then Connecticut Agricultural College, gathered near the north end of Hawley Armory for a solemn occasion.

Eight months earlier, on September 27, 1919, Gardner Dow, a member of the CAC football team, died from injuries he sustained when he collided with an opponent from the University of New Hampshire. The tragedy occurred during CAC’s season opening game at UNH in Durham, New Hampshire. 

On October 6, the CAC Athletic Association, which had oversight of all campus athletic activities and facilities, approved a measure naming the college’s athletic field the Gardner Dow Field.

Students, faculty, alumni, and others gathered on May 22, Alumni Day in 1920, to dedicate Gardner Dow Field, which at  one time stretched from Hawley Armory east to Memorial Stadium, with football and baseball fields, tennis courts, a track, and other athletic facilities. As the University grew, those facilities were moved to separate locations throughout the campus.

On that day in May 90 years ago, a plaque was unveiled in memory of Dow, and placed on an arch at the north end of the armory.  The plaque was moved to the east wall of the armory in the 1950s, and it is still there today, in 2010, facing what remains of Gardner Dow Field.

Homer D. Babbidge and students in front of the Student Union, 1967

Homer Daniels Babbidge, Jr. was born today in 1925, in West Newton, MA.  Educated at Yale University, Dr. Babbidge became the eighth President of the University of Connecticut on October 20, 1962 at the age of 37.  A charismatic, respected and much beloved member of the University community, Babbidge resigned from the University in the summer of 1972 after ten years of service.  Several years after Dr. Babbidge left the University the new library, which replaced the Wilbur Cross Library in 1978, was named after him.  Today, Homer Babbidge would have been 85 years old.  Unfortunately, he died on March 24, 1984, but his legacy and name live on at the University.

The first University Scholars, recognized in 1952, with President Albert Jorgensen and Provost Albert Waugh.

The University of Connecticut began honoring its highest achieving students with the University Scholars program in 1951, and six years later, it started a tradition of recognizing all academic achievements.

The first Scholars Day was held May 11, 1957 as part of the University’s 75^th anniversary year celebrations. Nearly 600 students with high scholastic standing were honored in the afternoon program at the University Auditorium (it would be a few more years before it would become known as Jorgensen Auditorium).

The honorees included ten University Scholars and 579 students who had received general University honors, were members of honors societies, or who had distinguished themselves in a special field of study.  The guest speaker that day was Edward D. Eddy, Jr., provost and vice president of the University of New Hampshire, who later was president of the University of Rhode Island. His topic: “On Being Gloriously Content.” He concluded that college students were not challenged enough, and that they should seize opportunities for learning outside of the classroom to complete their education.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the massacre at Kent State University, where Ohio National Guardsmen sprayed tear gas and then opened fire on students protesting the escalation of the Vietnam war into Cambodia.  Four students were killed, and eleven others wounded.    John Filo, a Kent photojournalism student, took an iconic photograph of a 14-year-old runaway, Mary Ann Vecchio, kneeling beside the body of 20 year old Jeffrey Miller.  The photo appeared in the New York Times, as well as various other media outlets, and earned a Pulitzer Prize for Filo in 1971.

Georgia Straight, an anti-establishment alternative newspaper from Vancouver, Canada, published a front page story on the Kent State Massacre. Newspaper from the Alternative Press Collection.

Following the massacre at Kent State, the faculty wrote a resolution condemning the use of violence on their campus.  Kent State University closed for the remainder of the semester.

Resolution passed by faculty at Kent State University, May 5, 1970. From the Alternative Press Collection.

Hundreds of thousands of university students across the country protested the use of violence by the National Guard, as well as the escalating violence in Vietnam.  A  campus wide strike was held at the University of Connecticut on May 7, 1970.

Flyer for the University of Connecticut Student Strike, May 7, 1970. From the Alternative Press Collection.