The
Number 67: Volume 55
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1955
Price 5 Cents
Looking Through
Balt 1955 Files
“Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a
thunder-storm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of
a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only
we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.”
—Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was right; it is only we mortals in a lonely world
that mark the passage of- time. And the means by which time is
marked for the majority of us is through the medium of the newspaper.
With this thought in Tihnd, I leafed back through the files to bring to
our readers the world of 1955 as seen through the eyes of The Battalion.
January
January, 1955, started with a boom as the muscular youth of our
colleges and universities unleashed the power and brains of their bod
ies on the battlefields of New Year Bowl games. In the Cotton Bowl,
the visiting Georgia Tech Rambling Wreckp rolled to a 14-6 win over
Arkansas, the champion of the Southwest Conference.
Jan. 4. The first 1955 issue of The Battalion. On the front
page we find “All Aggies Return; No Holiday Deaths,” and a story
about murder in Panama.
The next day shows that bids for the sewer outfall lines will
be taken Feb. 1, and that finals at A&M College now count a fourth
of the final grade. Rice Institute beats the Aggies in a basketball
game.
Robert G. Cherry is installed as the new president of the Col
lege Station Kiwanis Club, while A&M awaited Governor Shivers
to appoint new members to the A&M Board of Directors. N. Ross
Strader was hired to take over as manager of Student Publications,
at the college.
On Jan. 7 the president of the United States pledges swift retalia
tion to Red agression; that same day we carry a story about a defense
school to be scheduled at A&M in February.
Mrs. W. A. Price and Mayor Ernest Langfo?-d are named as Col
lege Station’s Woman and Man of the Year for 1954.
An A&M student is suspended for violation of the rule against
secret fraterniaties. January gi-aduates prepare to leave A&M and go
out into the world to make their living.
The Aggies drop another basketball game, the March of Dimes
needs funds,'and dog ownei’s are urged to get tags for their pets.
The Rt. Rev. John E. Hines is named as the principal speaker for
Religious Emphasis Week at A&M. A visiting dignitary from Great
Britain, speaking at a Great Issues presentation, tells us that an attack
at Formosa is unlikely. The Battalion is advised in a “Letter to the Ed
itor” to put the letter’s contents in the “garbage-liner wo call a student
publication.”
An Aggie dies of a heart attack at the school; a top Air
Force general is announced as a visitor for Military Day.
The Aggies drop another basketball game; Consolidated’s Ti
gers win a pair from Waller.
Finals start at A&M. The cadets dump LSU in a basketball
game.
, February
February comes in with a welcome to new students at A&M.
The United States turns thumbs down on Chiang Kai-shek’s wish
that we agree to go to war if necessary to protect the islands of
Quemoy and Matsu.
Feb. 8. Silver Taps are held for an Aggie killed in a car crash;
Malenkov resigns in Russia. The Aggie Band is considering going
to California for the UCLA football game.
Ike says America will remain alert.
Shivers appoints four men to Board of Directors.
Religious Emphasis Week opens Feb. 20, with Bishop Hines,
saying that temptations often show signs of strength. On the
same page: “Campus Thefts Increasing.”
March
March 1. Boai'd approves gymnasium fee; “Pinky” shows im
provement in Galveston hospital.
High School Day at A&M draws about 1,000. Senate asks for
earlier holidays and sets a new location for the pre-Turkey Day bon
fire. A headline: “This Takes All the Fun Out of It.”
March 8 brings Public School Week at Consolidated. In Austin
the State Boaixl of Education avoids discussion of the school troubles
in Irving, Tex.
Shepardson is approved by U.S. Senate as a member of the Federal
Reserve Board.
The new buildings at A&M Consolidated are dedicated. The local
Lions Club elects as president A. B. Medlen.
John Floyd, basketball coach, resigns March 15; Placement Office
at the college keeps busy; Col. Henry Dittman named to take over
as PAS.
The city’s Chamber of Commerce and Development -Association
runs into a problem. They want to amend the constitution—but no
constitution. A search proves to no avail. Later, a copy was found
in Battalion files.
Aggies win two baseball games, giving them a 5-1 record.
Student killed in a car wreck; city approves widening of Highway
6.
A variety show is held March 24, honoring “Pinky.” New
charges are filed against a student in a dog-killing case.
Ken Loeffler is named as basketball coach; Military weekend
starts at A&M; a headline reads: “What’s Happening.”
March ends with President Eisenhower saying that too much
speculation over war does not serve the cause of world peace.
April
April 7. Churchill resigns and Eden takes over as prime min
ister in England; three class officers at A&M elected; new editors
for the college’s student publications named.
“Ag Nine Meets SMU for Lead Today”
SMU game postponed. Loeffler arrives. First and second
graders at Consolidated are to get Salk shots.
Baseball team splits with the University of Texas; Aggie netters
split a pair of matches, cadet golfers down Rice 6-0; Aggie Bowlers
tumble Rice; Ag Soccer team blanks Ellington; A Armor Fish dump
Squadron 22, 29-5. Oh, yes—Dr. Einstein died yesterday.
April 21. A&M Muster around the world.
Aggies split two games with Baylor and will meet SMU for the
showdown in baseball. Ag golfers to meet SMU also.
Board meets, coming through with the proverbial horn-of-plenty:
“Room, Boai’d Fees Raised; Board Names Two Deans.” On the same
page a headline: “Anything For The Students.”
New PMS&T, Col. D. P. Anderson, takes over.
Nelson pitches Aggies back into the baseball title race, following
Hardgrove’s win the day before. Arkansas knocks Aggies out of golf
championship.
May
Pet show held at Consolidated early in May. Aggie seniors are
given barbeque by Former Student Association.
May 5. “Plans Complete for Student Conference on National Af
fairs”
(See BATTALION, Page 2)
Lawrence Welk
Bringing His ‘Champagne Music’ Here Jan. 5
Here’s Hoiv
To Reach
The Battalion
As does every phone in our
area after yesterday’s change
to a major city system of sev
en digits, The Battalion has
two new numbers to call. These
are VI 6-4910 and VI 6-6618.
The Office of Student Pub
lications’ new number, which
is the proper one to call for
classified or display adver
tisements and subscriptions, is
VI 6-6415.
The changeover was made
by the Southwestern States
Telephone Company in antici
pation of the future when
long distance numbers can be
dialed.
New Year Games
Played Jan. 2
Cotton Bowl Matches
TCU vs. Mississippi
New Year’s Day, or rather the day after, promises to
bring a lot of football into the homes of those having tele
vision and radio sets. And a lot of people will be seeing the
games in person.
The Cotton Bowl game in Dallas Jan. 2 provides the ma
jor point of interest for local fans. This battle will pit the
Horned Frogs of Texas Christian University and their great
James Swink against Mississippi. Both teams piled up 9-1
records during the regular season; TCU was rated number
six team in the nation by the Associated Press and Missis
sippi number 10. Swink is a tremendous runner, coming
within just a few yards of breaking A&M’s Bob Smith’s
♦most-yards record- and within
Town Hall, Jan. 5
Welk Show Promises Fun
If the Hooper ratings of televis
ion shows mean anything A&M
should have the best popular show
that is available foi’ the special
bonus Town Hall attraction in
White Coliseum Jan. 5.
For Lawrence Welk is bringing
his “Champagne Music” to A&M
on that date, and his show has the
highest rating at this time.
The program will start at 8
p.M., and Town Hall season tickets
are good for the evening. Indi
vidual tickets can be bought at the
Office of Student Activities, sec
ond floor of Goodwin Hall, start
ing Jan. 3 and on until the show
starts. Tickets will be on sale at
the door. General admission for
students is $1 and for non-students,
$2. Reserved seat tickets are $1.50
for students and $2.50 for non
students.
Lawrence Welk recently com
pleted a tour of cities in the Middle
West, breaking the box-office i’ec-
ord in every city he played. He
is featured each Saturday night ov
er the ABC television network on
his own one-hour show.
Alice Lon is the orchesti’a’s new
“Champagne Lady.” She started
her career when six years old,
singing for clubs and over the lo-
Commencement
Speaker Named
Chancellor M. T. Harrington of
the A&M College System will de
liver the commencement address
at the Jan. 20 graduation cere
monies at A&M.
Rabbi Robei’t I. Kahn of Hous
ton will deliver the baccalamreate
sermon at 10 a.m. and the com
mencement address will begin at
6:30 p.m.
Two hundred and forty-one stu
dents are candidates for degrees.
Carl Tishler, head of the Phy
sical Education Department, is
general chairman for the com
mencement program, which will be
held in Guion Hall.
Graduate Students
Attend $50 Dinner
Three graduate students in the
Department of Oceanography and
Meteorology were invited as guests
for a $50 per plate benefit dinner
for the Institute for International
Education.
Attending the dinner which was
held recently in the Rice Hotel,
Houston, were Marius Todsen, Ivar
Dugstad and Herman Gade, all
fi’om Oslo, Norway.
Among the guests at the meet
ing were Dr. Kenneth Holland,
president of the Institute, and Sen.
William Fulbright (D.-Ai’k.), whose
Fulbright Act provides for the
exchange of students between this
country and other nations.
cal radio station in her home town
of Kilgore. By the time she was
10 years old she was singing reg
ularly on her own sponsored radio
show.
Welk also has the most expen
sive accordian ever made in the
United States, according to its
manufacturers. This $5,000 in-
France Starts
New Year Off
With Elections
France is preparing for an
other of its man elections
for a new National Assembly
Jan. 2, and the pre-election
campaigning promises that
this will be one of the hottest elec
tions ever held in the history of
that country.
Recoi’d crowds are being drawn
throughout France, according to
the Associated Press, by Premier
Edgar Faure and other candidates.
Campaign meetings were being
held at the rate of 3,000 a day and
even more on weekdays.
According to the AP, a public
opinion poll has reported that 88
per cent of those questioned in
tend to vote in the coming elec
tion. Eleven per cent either have
n’t -decided or won’t say; five per
cent have no plans to vote.
The best record in the last 80
years was set in 1936 when 84 per
cent voted. Frenchmen often say
they are disgusted with politics,
but when election day comes they
turn out in numbers that put many
other countries to shame. This
year the number of voters is esti
mated to have jumped 700,000 over
the 1951 figure of 24,530,523.
Faure has claimed credit for this
in speeches in his home district.
An example of the busy schedule
followed by the campaigners is
Faure’s Sunday a couple of weeks
ago. He held five village meetings
in the morning, five more meet
ings in the afternoon, and a big
session at night. All of his
speeches followed the same gen
eral theme — defense of his dis
solution of the National Assembly,
a plea for governmental stability,
a report on his financial and so
cial programs, an outline of his ac
tion in North Africa, and a brief
statement on foreign affairs.
Hope for 1956
“Courage,” .the Old Year whisp
ers as it ends,
“Weary’s the world, and peni
tent and sad,
Waiting the touch to make all
mankind friends—
Yours may be the luck and
strength to do it, lad!”
—Harry Irving Phillips
strument has 14 automatic switches
and electric volume control, and
was under construction for a year.
The love of music, and especially
accoi’dian music, Welk inherited
from his father. He started on
the road, leaving his parent’s farm,
during his teens. At Aberdeen,
S.D., he formed his first orchestra,
which consisted of drums and ac
cordian. Eventually it was aug
mented by a saxaphone and piano.
The band got a daily program on
station WNAX in that stateT'’
After experimenting with vai’-
ious arrangements and giving
prominence to various instruments,
Welk hit upon a grouping of in
struments that created a bouncing
effect. Because of its lightness in
quality and bubbling flow it was
labeled “Champagne Music.”
A few years later he and his
orchestra struck out for the “big
time”. During the past seven
years “Champagne Music” has been
featured on all major radio net
works, records, NBC transcriptions
and Paramount movie shorts. And
now the orchestra is firmly estab
lished in television.
This is the show which the Ac
tivities Office has predicted will be
one of the most popular programs
ever brought to A&M.
New Commission
To Meet Jan. 9
AUSTIN—'<A > )—The first meet
ing of the Texas Commission on
Higher Education will be held here
Jan. 9 after members are sworn
in during ceremonies in the gover
nor’s reception room.
The commission was created by
■the Legislature this year to study
problems of state supported junior
colleges, colleges and universities.
MISS SALLY TULL of Ama
rillo will reign Jan. 2 as the Cot
ton Bowl Queen in Dallas. She
is a senior at Texas Christian
University, the host team in the
Cotton Bowl, which will play
Mississippi. Also on hand for
the game will be Miss Kathy
Rodgers, “Miss Mississippi Re
bel” of 1955; and princesses from
other Southwest. Conference
schools. Miss Tull recently went
to New r York to appear on sev
eral television and radio shows
in that city.
three points of beating' the
scoring record. Much of the
credit for TCU’s success must
go to the faking of their fine
quarterback Charlie Curtis and to
a solid front wall led by Hugh
Pitts, Norman Hamilton and Bry
an Engram.
TCU Athletic Director Dutch
Meyer has said that the 1955 team
is the best they’ve ever had at
TCU, not excluding the 1936 team
of Sammy Baugh and the 1938
team of Davey O’Brien.
The Rose Bowl will feature
Michigan State (No. 2, 8-1)
against UCLA (No. 4, 8-1). Ohio
State won the Big 10 title this
year, but under conference rules
could not return to the Rose Bowl
where last year it beat Southern
California 20-7. UCLA last year
won the Pacific Coast Conference
title but could not play in the
Bowl Game because of the agree
ment that no team could play in
the Rose Bowl two years in a row.
Michigan State, which finished
second to Ohio State in conference
play, had a more successful sea
son record and a higher AP rating.
So the game should be quite a bat
tle.
The Orange Bowl present what
is probably the top game of the
day with the No. 1 team in the
nation playing the No. 3—Okla
homa versus Maryland. Maryland
was at the top of the heap for
awhile, so this promises to be
(See BOWL GAMES, Page 2)
New Year’s Eve Fun
Highlight for Students
Dallas, (Spl.)—Highlight of stu
dent activities—-always a big part
of Cotton Bowl Week—will be the
annual Cotton Bowl Student Dance
here New Year’s Eve.
Held in the new Umphrey Lee
Student Union on the campus of
Southern Methodist University, the
dance is Dallas’ welcome to the vis
iting students of TCU and Missis
sippi as w^ell as to all other college
students vacationing in Dallas for
the holiday.
The dance Avill feature a floor
show and music by the Cell Block
Seven Dixieland Band, a nationally
known recording group. There is
no admission charge to college stu
dents.
Guests for the evening include
YEAR
from
ihe
BATTALION
the Cotton Bowl Queen, Miss Sally
Tull of TCU; “Miss Mississippi
Rebel,” Miss Kathy Rodgers; and
princesses from other Southwest
Conference schools.
Southwest Conference student
I'epresentative here to vote on the
conference’s Sportsmanship Award
—to be made at halftime of t h e
January 2 Cotton Bowl Classic—
are also special guests, as are the
famed Rangerettes of Kilgore Col
lege.
The SouthAvest Conference
Spoi’tsmanship Committee includes
the student body president, cam
pus newspaper editor, head cheer
leader and representative athlete
from each member school of the
Soutlnvest Conference.
The student committee along
with the Cotton Bowl Queen, her
princesses and their escorts will
attend several other Cotton Bowl
Week functions, among them the
State Fair’s production of “Plain
and Fancy”, Texas Sports Hall of
Fame Luncheon and “Cinerama
Holiday.” The ladies of the group
are invited to the Cotton Bowl
Style Show in Neiman-Marcus’ Zo
diac Room.
Climax will be the participation
in pre-game and halftime activities
at the 20th annual Cotton Bowl
Game, January 2, between TCU
and Mississippi.
A&M representatives to the
Sportsmanship Committee meeting
are Byron A. Parham, Gus Mijalis,
Ronnie Greathouse, Ralph Co^e and
Jim Bower, who is executive secre-
tary of the Committee.
Student Activities
Student Activities’ new numbers
are VI 6-4751 and VI 6-4752. Guion
Hall’s number is now VI 6-5112; the
Golf Course, VI 6-4813; and the
Music Hall, VI 6-7110.