Old Main Memories
For 65 years I have read with interest each issue of the CU alumni magazine. I was delighted to see a photo of Old Main [THEN, 1888] inside the back pages of the Fall 2021 issue.
I was a language major (Spanish, French and Italian) and spent most of my classes in Old Main. I remember sitting in the building, on the third floor, looking west at the Flatirons, admiring the gorgeous view.
I lived on University Avenue and crossed Varsity Bridge each day to get to my classes. A photo of the bridge was in the 1954 movie The Glenn Miller Story. Glenn Miller attended Colorado University in 1923.
Those were very happy days and I treasure my time as a student on the campus of CU.
Francine Hafer McCrea (Span’56)
Willmette, Ill.
I grew up living at my grandmother’s house on Pine Street in the Mapleton Hill section of Boulder. As a little boy we’d listen to the CU football games on KBOL radio, and if the Buffaloes won the game we’d go out on the front porch to see if we could hear the bell ringing atop Old Main. I was told that a freshman was chosen to run from Folsom Field to Old Main as soon as the game was over, run up the stairs to the bell tower and ring the bell for the victory.
My great aunt graduated from CU circa 1920, as did her brother a couple or so years before her. Family lore has it that he “carried the cane” at graduation as the class valedictorian. My uncle graduated from CU in the 1930s and earned a master’s degree in fine arts before the war. My mom also attended for one year, somewhere near the 1933-34 school year.
I remember in the late 1950s when my great aunt treated the whole family with tickets to a football game, probably near Thanksgiving. It was the one and only time I saw a CU football game at Folsom Field.
When I read the story about CU’s victory over Oregon State in today’s Denver Post (online) I wondered: Did they ring the bell atop Old Main yesterday evening?
Russ
Amherst, Ohio
Carroll Hardy 
I was delighted to read Jim Deeds’ (ArchEngr, Mgmt’56) letter in the Fall 2021 issue [Letters] regarding the legacy of Carroll Hardy (A&S’55). He was a bit before my time, but I had already become a Forever Buff when he was the tailback for Dal Ward’s single-wing offensive steamroller.
One more bit of information about Carroll Hardy: He is the only person who ever pinch hit for the immortal Ted Williams. Once upon a time, CU had a baseball program, and Carroll excelled there as well. He was good enough to play for the Boston Red Sox, mainly as a reserve. In an at-bat, Williams fouled a ball off his foot, causing him to leave the game. Carroll finished the at-bat for him, lining into a double play. He also replaced Williams in right field after his final career at-bat, when Williams hit a legendary home run. Carroll had the additional experience of pinch hitting for the then-rookie Carl Yastremski, and later for Roger Maris. Carroll had turned to baseball after a brief career with the San Francisco 49ers, who drafted him third.
Dennis Davis (A&S’65)
Denver
Life on Mars
Enjoyed reading the latest edition of the Coloradan. Reading the “Life on Mars” article and about the “overview effect,” I was wondering if the researchers experienced issues with the different times of day (versus Earth) based on Mars — such as longer rotational time around the sun and adding something like 45 minutes per day to our 24-hour day. Makes daytime/nighttime a rather fluid concept!
Tim Thomas (Jpn’85)
Durango, Colorado
CU’s Language Immersion Program
In 1972, the university (presciently!) decided to try out a language “immersion” program for their students — way ahead of its time.
Otherwise totally ordinary CU students would lodge in a dormitory where they were to speak the specified foreign language (only) — and obtain college credits for doing the same.
In 1972, I was a college freshman entering CU and I got my last choice of dormitories (as I vaguely recall) and ended up at Williams Village on the “Spanish Language Floor” (the fourth floor, I think it was). The French speakers had the fifth floor and the German speakers had the sixth floor. I’d had four years of high school Spanish but had never “immersed” in that language — what an exciting and puzzling experiment for a college freshman to enter into.
Living and studying there changed my life in so many ways!
Have you given thought to bringing back as many of those “pioneers” — alumni in language immersion from 1972 to 2022 — to see how their lives turned out? Did living in the “foreign language house” change or affect their career or life? If so, how?
I feel that CU should not shy away from this bounty of pride and wonder — the graduates that you produced from that “experiment” have done incredible things for our country and humanity — and I, for one, think that CU should pat itself on the back via a really momentous homecoming of these otherwise totally ordinary CU students!
Nancy L. Manahan (A&S ex’76)
Arlington, Virginia
Love for Outdoor Preschool
On Facebook, alum Andra Stern Slavsky (PolSci’91) commented on our fall 2021 story about Megan Patterson’s (Comm’05) Denver outdoor preschool WorldMind: “A CU graduate piloted this innovative preschool in Colorado. Let’s hope this style of learning will expand throughout my state and the U.S. Love it!”
Teka Israel (Arch’12) also shared: “This is a really cool education model!”
Special Boulder Place(s)
In response to alum Taylor Hirschberg’s essay [Boulder Beat, Fall 2021] on his special Boulder place — Trident Booksellers — other Forever Buffs chimed in on Facebook with their own favorite city spots. They included The Sink, Tulagi, Round the Corner, Lucile’s, McGuckin Hardware, Potter’s and Lolita’s.
Contact for Jim Wagoner
I saw in the latest Coloradan Class Notes that Jim Wagoner (ElEngr’65) is wanting to get in touch with CU graduates. I have tried to find Jim but was never successful. We worked together at Westinghouse Georesearch from 1967 to 1974.
Ed Jackson (ElEngr’67; MS’72)
Brighton, Colorado
Coloradan Love 
I just read the Fall issue and as usual, you crushed it! Emily Heninger’s article about the history of camping was riveting — I bought the book immediately and it’s next on my reading list.
Grace Dearnley (Engl’21)
Monument, Colorado
My wife asked me to pass on her thanks for the latest issue of the Coloradan. She very much enjoys the variety of articles that you put together.
Joe Maclennan (MPhys’85; PhD’99)
Boulder
I’m really impressed with the great job you’re doing on the alumni magazine Coloradan. Top drawer!
Elizabeth Trewitt Sadilek (Comm’71)
Laguna Woods, California
Thank you for another good-looking issue of Coloradan. I appreciate your including my Class Note 1984, for sure. You and your staff do a very good job and I look forward to reading it as always.
Geary Larrick (DMus’84)
Glenview, Illinois
Photos courtesy Carnegie Library for Local History/Museum of Boulder Collection (Old Main); CU Athletics (Carroll Hardy); Nancy L. Manahan; McGuckin Hardware; Matt Tyrie (The Sink); Lucile's
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