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:: History Site
Index :: USF Site
& Name :: 1st Student :: USF
Sarasota/Manatee
:: Traditions
Overview :: Rocky the
Bull :: Homecoming
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Grace Allen remembers it all. Like it was yesterday. A warm summer day in 1957. Riding in a car down a narrow, two-lane, dirt road known as Fowler Avenue. Her husband, John Allen, was driving. He had just been selected as the new president of the University of South Florida. "People said we must want to be missionaries," Allen recalls. "Of course there was nothing on the land...the ruts were so deep we didn't stop for fear we'd be mired in the sand. And when we got out here, he waved his hand in the general direction of the campus and he said, 'This is it.' And he always claimed that I said,'Is that what we're coming here for?' It just seemed to me that it was a wilderness for a long time. Until Mr. Hamilton, who was a campus planner, came down from the University of Florida, and one evening he set up an easel in our room in the hotel and there he sketched, in blue and yellow and green and so on, the campus. Then all of a sudden the whole thing came to life. I realized we were dealing with something that was really alive." It was only a month earlier that the Cabinet and the Board of Education chose this 1,700-acre scrub area in Temple Terrace, the former site of Henderson Air Field, as the location of Florida's first metropolitan university. During the spring of 1957, lawmakers allocated $8.6 million for site preparation and construction. The University of South Florida was the first university of its kind to be conceived, designed and constructed from scratch in the 20th century. A False Start Legislators mandated that this proposed USF serve a coeducational population, a highly progressive idea for its day. At that time, the three existing Florida state universities-University of Florida (UF); Florida State College for Women, the forerunner of today's Florida State University (FSU); and the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College (FAMU)-were segregated by gender or race. The governance structure for higher education differed greatly from today. An aptly named Board of Control supervised activities at UF, the State College and Florida A & M, as well as the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind (in St. Augustine). Interestingly, this administrative body also doubled as the State Plant Board. Critics of the Board noted that its members often spent as much time debating fire ants as they did discussing the needs of overcrowded schools. The Board of Control was replaced by the Board of Regents during the mid-1960s, a time when reapportionment, constitutional revision and other legislative reforms reshaped higher education and life in Florida. So, what happened to this first University of South Florida? Although lawmakers approved Lewis's bill to create this medical school, allocations fell apart in the face of World War II. By war's end, this early "University of South Florida" remained nothing more than an annotation in a dusty law book. A Road Less Taken During this time, U.S. Congressman Sam Gibbons and Representative James Moody (of Plant City) developed a proposal for a new public university in Hillsborough County. Delegates in Pinellas County lobbied for a new university to be placed in Oldsmar, or at the former U.S. Maritime Service Base along Bayboro Harbor. State officials sided with the Hillsborough delegation. In June 1955, Governor LeRoy Collins signed House Bill 1007 to establish a university in Hillsborough County. But where would the school be located? Some officials proposed the University of Tampa as the site. The plan to purchase UT failed in March 1956 after that school's Board of Governors refused to sell and state officials realized that the UT campus could not readily accommodate future expansion. Getting Started From Sand Dunes to Classrooms "When he first came, he was invited to every civic club and organization to speak because people were anxious to know about the university," Allen says."And he would tell them in 10 years this place was going to be over 10,000 students and they would gasp and say, 'Well, you're just dreaming.'" Allen quickly set up shop. He settled into his office at the Hillsborough County Courthouse on August 6 with pencils, a notepad and great hope. On September 1, he hired Elliot Hardaway to serve as head librarian and the university's first professional staff member. In May 1958, university employees moved from their cramped courthouse office to new headquarters at 349 Plant Avenue. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on September 5, 1958, as Governor LeRoy Collins led a delegation of dignitaries who dug sand at the Temple Terrace site. During his tenure as Florida's thirty-third governor, Collins championed a number of platforms that benefitted higher education in general, and the University of South Florida in particular. After retiring from political life in 1968, Collins donated his political papers to the USF Library. "Governor Collins had a very intense interest in the university," says Allen. "He caught the vision of what could be here. He agreed, for instance, on the name the University of South Florida. We were anxious to have a name to indicate we were a true university. That we were not just a liberal arts college. So Governor Collins agreed to that. And the color of the buildings. It was decided we should have buildings that would look like south Florida. I remember one member of the Board of Control said, 'Oh no, you can't have a university without red bricks.' And Collins said, 'Oh no, we aren't going to have that. We're going to make it look Southern.' He and John got along just beautifully. They seemed to understand each other." In the summer and fall of 1959, Allen recruited faculty from throughout the United States. Nearly all charter faculty members were young and held doctoral degrees. Their average age was 39. A Cool School "Governor Collins, of course, spoke at the convocation. For me, the high point was when Governor Collins said [I now declare the University of South Florida officially open.[ And he put the medallion around John[s neck and I knew then we were married to USF. What always amazes me is that on opening day, after the convocation, students could go directly to classes. There was a teacher waiting for them. The bookstore was open. Completely staffed. Everything was there. And on the day we said we would open, we opened." Accent on Learning During the first few years, members of the USF community were encouraged to read "All-University Books" that allowed members of the academy to discuss and share ideas across academic disciplines. USF's size even permitted retreats at Chinsegut Hill, where all of the instructional and administrative faculty could congregate to discuss policy and resolve differences. "We had no difficulty getting strong faculty. The idea of the university and its newness, the chance to institute new programs. For faculty, there was an amazing esprit d' corps because every single one of these faculty had come from good jobs. They had come from institutions that had a name. And here they were, coming to a place that was brand new, had no reputation. So every man and woman was putting his or her career on the line. And it meant that they had to work very hard to make this thing go. And so they did. They just put forth tremendous effort. As a result, things got off to a very good start. And that continued through the years." No Shorts, No Sports In August 1961, Allen reaffirmed his belief that athletics could never come at the expense of academics, when USF indefinitely ruled out intercollegiate football and basketball. While some early campus plans called for an athletic complex and sports stadium near the present site of the colleges of Medicine and Public Health, for the time being, students had to confine their participation to physical education classes and intramurals. The debate raged throughout John Allen's term as president. As Allen continued to stress intramural activities over intercollegiate sports, student leaders even appealed to members of the Board of Regents to override the president. The Board and Allen refused to budge. Money was tight. While students clamored for football, Allen had to cope with nearly $200,000 less in library funding and no increases in operating and capital outlay budgets at a time when USF's facilities had to absorb an increased enrollment of 2,000 students. Though USF finally gained admission into the NCAA in mid-1968, its students would have to wait nearly three decades to see their dreams of intercollegiate football realized. A Cock and Bull story But their plans for a mascot nearly flew the coop as representatives from the cattle industry immediately told students that they had committed a bovine blunder. Although the word "brahma" may refer to a bull or steer, it more commonly is used as the short name for Brahmaputra fowl, a breed of large chickens originally found in Asia. Ultimately, the Golden Brahma(n)s simplified their name to the Bulls, a moniker that left no question as to its meaning. Breaking Barriers When Ernest P. Boger Jr. submitted his application to USF in March 1961, the senior from Blake High School in Tampa made history. With nearly perfect scores on his college placement tests, Boger had received scholarship offers from four universities. When he began classes during the fall semester, USF became the first white state university to integrate its facilities at the undergraduate level. Boger entered USF the same year another African American, James Meredith, faced hostility at the University of Mississippi. Boger attributed his peaceful arrival at USF to the school's newness. Without any longstanding traditions to challenge, he did not feel that he was breaking any barriers. To Boger, entering USF was not a political statement, but simply a way to take advantage of educational opportunities on his doorstep. Other African Americans soon followed. In September 1962, Henry Wallace Smith and Verlee Fort, graduates of Gibbs Junior College in St. Petersburg, became the first students to transfer from Florida's segregated "Negro" junior colleges to a white state university. The Witch Hunt According to testimony, the committee surmised that USF's curriculum corrupted students through the use of "trashy and pornographic" works such as The Grapes of Wrath and Brave New World and that some faculty "were not qualified to teach" because they introduced evolution into their lectures in biology classes. "A representative of the Johns Committee, I think Senator Johns himself was involved in this, was taking students to a motel on Dale Mabry late at night and asking them all kinds of questions and really frightening them," recalls Allen. "When we learned that, John decided that he could not do away with a committee that had been established by the Legislature, but he did insist that if they were going to be questioned, they come to the campus and do it in the open. The investigation, of course, went on for days. It was a very uncomfortable time, because they interviewed students and faculty and with all of this they found nothing that was derogatory." Growing Pains New buildings dotted the landscape, as concrete and grass quickly covered the sandy terrain. Structures built during this period included the first Engineering building (at a cost of $2.5 million), the Science Center ($2.5 million), the Social Science building ($2 million), the Education building ($1.5 million), and Business Administration (now the Human Services building, $1.5 million). On July 1, 1965, USF took control of the old Maritime base at Bayboro Harbor, a site once proposed as its main campus. At first, the St. Petersburg campus offered lower-level courses to accommodate the overflow. By 1968, however, the campus converted into an upper-level institution that served as the prototype for regional campuses throughout the State University System. Such extensive growth in a short period of time led Allen to describe the university as the "campus where the concrete never sets" in an October 1968 interview. In December of that year, the Board of Regents set USF's ideal enrollment at 18,000 students. With Florida's dramatic growth, the university quickly surpassed those projections. While a 1961 report assumed nearly half of USF's students would live in dorms, the school was quickly turning into "Drive-Thru U," with 12,000 cars competing for only 7,000 parking spaces during the 1968 school year. With enrollment ever increasing, officials examined a number of alternatives, including shuttle buses, moving sidewalks and monorails. "Oh, yes there were parking problems," remembers Allen. "And there was much discussion about a parking garage. And it was considered very seriously. But at that point, to have built the building, our budget was so tight that we would have had to rent space at a higher price than students were willing to pay. And so the parking garage idea was dropped. You could say it was like a child growing too fast. The need was here and the demand was here, so you always had to be planning for future buildings. You had to have lead time to plan your buildings and figure out the budget, and have it ready to go before the Legislature, years before you were going to put the first spade in the ground." Berkeley of the South In March 1969, approximately 200 students wielding forks, knives, ketchup and steak sauce marched on the Administration building. Singing "We Shall Eat Allen," they went to President Allen's office, only to find the door locked. Other students brought large placards with images of Alka-Seltzer, with hopes of preventing indigestion. Identifying themselves as members of the Committee to Eat President Allen (CEPA), these protesters had serious goals for their frivolous activity: CEPA members questioned guidelines established by the Board of Regents that curtailed clubs and organizations. They called for a relaxation of restrictions that had prevented new political and activist organizations from forming on campus. Later that spring, a number of students demanded that the university increase its commitment to ethnic minorities and develop an AfroAmerican studies curriculum. Some walked out of a black studies class taught by two white instructors. In October, anti-war demonstrators blanketed Crescent Hill, now the site of the Special Events Center, for Moratorium Day activities that included a peace rock concert and a teach-in at the University Center. Allen experienced growing pressures to step aside by the end of 1969. A student-faculty coalition wanted to oust Allen from the university Senate. By May 1970, Student Government officers voted 25 to 9 in favor of forwarding a letter to the Board of Control asking for Allen's dismissal. In this time of uncertainty and turmoil, Allen thought it was best to step aside. He tendered his letter of resignation on July 4, 1970. In his letter, he stated that USF's continued progress "is assured and so I desire to be relieved of the day-to-day pressures of the presidency." The Legacy In less than 20 years, the University of South Florida had transformed from an idea into a marketplace for ideas. At the time of John Allen's departure, the school had more than 16,000 students and 800 faculty (far exceeding any original projections). On the drawing boards were the colleges of Medicine and Nursing, as well as proposals for future campuses in the Sarasota/Manatee area and Southwest Florida. Such growth was evident to those who attended the 1969 commencement ceremonies, which was held in St. Petersburg's Bayfront Center. The university conferred over 2,500 baccalaureate and 360 master's degrees before a crowd that exceeded 5,000 persons. Indeed, during Allenês last semester as USF's president, he could rightfully claim that his school was the largest in Florida. The summer 1970 enrollment of 8,900 students topped both Florida (8,866) and Florida State (6,991). As USF sought a new president, alumni predicted that USF would permanently surpass UF as the state's biggest university. As the university now enters its fifth decade, Grace Allen admires USF for maintaining its focus on academics. Though much has changed since her husband's retirement and subsequent death in December 1982, USF still places the accent where it belongs: on learning.
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