Dear Members of the Great Class of 1975:

Welcome to our class’s fifth Fifty-Year Flashback. As our class prepares for and ramps up to our 50th Reunion from May 22-25, 2025, we are sending a monthly flashback that will highlight events that happened fifty years ago that month. The goal is to help us remember our Princeton experiences, both good and not so good, and recall how our experiences at Princeton changed us and, hopefully, benefited each of us. We also hope that they will encourage as many classmates as possible to come back to Princeton for our 50th Reunion and to participate in the planning for our 50th Reunion.

This flashback contains links to articles in the Daily Princetonian to many of the items discussed below. If you are interested in reading more about one or more of the topics in this flashback, you can access the archives of the Daily Princetonian at:

https://theprince.princeton.edu/princetonperiodicals/cgi-bin/princetonperiodicals

Each edition of the Daily Princetonian is easily searchable by date.

This March 1974 flashback was prepared by our classmate, Maxine Lipeles '75, and we hope that you enjoy it. We welcome any comments that you have about the flashbacks.

Please let us know if you would like to volunteer to help out with our 50th Reunion or with the Flashbacks!

Julie Raynor Gross '75, Class Co-President

Maureen Kelly Scott '75, Class Co-President

Nikki Ballard Rosengren '75, Reunions Chair

PRINCETON CLASS OF 1975 FLASHBACK:

MARCH 2024

50 years ago in March 1974 in the US and around the world …

US News:

Watergate grand jury indicts 7 former aides of President Nixon (Attorney General John Mitchell, White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, domestic affairs advisor John Ehrlichman, White House counsel Charles Colson, and assistants Gordon Strachan, Robert Mardian, and Kenneth Parkinson), and names Nixon as un-indicted co-conspirator (not publicly known until June) in the Watergate cover-up.
Federal grand jury in Cleveland indicts 8 members of the Ohio National Guard on civil rights violations for the May 4, 1970 shooting of 13 students at Kent State University. The indictments were later dismissed for insufficient evidence to support the charges.
Anne Klein, American fashion designer, dies of breast cancer at age 50.
Chet Huntley, co-anchor of NBC’s Huntley-Brinkley Report from 1956-1970, dies of lung cancer at age 62.

World News:

Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries ends oil embargo (started October 1973).
Israel completes the first phase of its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula, giving Egypt control of both sides of the Suez Canal for the first time since the June 1967 Six-Day War.
France decides that nuclear energy will provide all the country’s electricity by 2000.
Scientists from 13 nations warn that the Mediterranean Sea would become dead by 2004 unless water pollution is reduced.
Seven nations bordering the Baltic Sea sign treaty banning the dumping of solid waste and controlling pollution from DDT and mercury.
Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashes in the woods near a Paris, France suburb, killing all 346 people aboard.
Two armed hijackers claiming to be from the Palestinian Liberation Army take control of a British Airways flight headed from Beirut to London and direct it to land in Amsterdam. Hijackers order the passengers and crew to leave via emergency slides and then set fire to the jet, slide down the slide, and are arrested.
Ugandan dictator Idi Amin talked the armed hijackers of an East African Airways plane into surrendering and safely releasing everyone onboard the flight from Nairobi to Mombasa.

Sports News:

NC State defeats heavily-favored UCLA in double-overtime in the semi-finals, and then beats Marquette to win the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, the first tournament officially designated as a Division I championship.
George Foreman TKOs Ken Norton in second round to win the WBA, WBC, and The Ring heavyweight boxing titles in Caracas, Venezuela.

Entertainment:

Grammies: Roberta Flack wins Best Record for Killing Me Softly and Stevie Wonder wins Best Album for Innervisions.
Academy of Country Music Awards go to Loretta Lynn and Charlie Rich.
Film adaptation of The Great Gatsby, starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, released.
New Grand Ole Opry House opens in Nashville, with President Nixon playing the piano as part of the dedication in honor of his wife Pat’s 62nd birthday.

Image Credit: National Archives and Records Administration, https://garystockbridge617.getarchive.net/media/dedication-of-the-new-grand-ole-opry-house-nara-194574-26a542

Top 10 billboard hits include Blue Swede’s Hooked On A Feeling, Cher’s Dark Lady, John Denver’s Sunshine On My Shoulders, Aretha Franklin’s Until You Come Back To Me, Terry Jacks’ Seasons In The Sun, Eddie Kendricks’ Boogie Down, Kool And The Gang’s Jungle Boogie, and then-married couple Carly Simon and James Taylor’s Mockingbird.

Space News:

Mariner 10 sends photos of Mercury to Earth during the closest approach to Mercury by an Earth spacecraft.

Image Credit: NASA

Meanwhile, at Princeton University …

Princeton News:

Classmate Quentin Easter is overwhelmingly elected UGA president, with classmate Mary Miller elected vice president. Easter, who was already serving as UGA vice president, ran on a platform including self-scheduled exams before Christmas, establishing an academic advising programs for A.B. students similar to one already existing for B.S.E. students, and allowing for semester leaves of absence.
Art and Archaeology Professor Evelyn B. Harrison, one of only two female full professors at Princeton (the other being Sociology Professor Suzanne Keller), announces that she will leave the University for the Institute of Fine Arts in New York. Explaining that she thought that the Institute was “probably the top place in the country for art history,” she also noted: “What seems striking to me is that there were two women when I came [1970] and there are still only two.”
University announces plans to renovate Witherspoon Hall and convert it from the only all-female dorm to a randomly-coed dorm. Classmate Wendy A. Zevin, a Witherspoon resident and Residence Committee member, explained that the Committee aimed to create a communal atmosphere, with halls running through each floor, multiple bathrooms on each floor, lounges on three floors, and kitchen facilities.
University denies request by library assistants to organize and announces an effort to review the job classifications of all library assistants with the help of an expanded advisory panel.

Princeton Sports:

The women’s squash team has its best performance ever in the Women’s National Intercollegiate Squash Championship, with classmate Constance “CeCe” Turner Haydock advancing to the quarter-finals and Wendy Zaharko ’74 winning the tournament.
The men’s squash team ties Harvard for the national championship, capping the Tigers’ most successful squash season on record. Classmates Jeff Lewis-Oakes, Hollis Russell, and Dave Scamurra contributed to the victory.
The women’s swim team wins the eastern championship, setting 7 eastern records. The team then held the records in 12 of the 18 events.
The men’s swim team also wins the eastern championship, narrowly defeating Harvard after a three-day, neck-and-neck competition, becoming only the second team in the history of the Eastern Seaboard Swimming and Diving Championship to win in consecutive years. Classmates Bob Christensen, Curt Hayden, William Heinz, Mal Howard, and Mike McCaffrey contributed to the team’s success.
Men’s fencing team claims third in eastern championship, aided by classmate Frank Mirabello.
Classmate Walt Snickenberger joins the U.S. National Hockey Team to compete in the World Cup Tournament in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Basketball star Armond Hill forced to leave Princeton on academic standing grounds. Coach Pete Carril called Hill’s departure “the greatest disappointment of my life.” Hill would later return to Princeton to play (and become Ivy League Men’s Basketball Player of the Year in 1976), coach, and receive his degree in 1985.

Princeton Lecture Halls:

William T. Cahill, former New Jersey Governor and senior fellow at the School of Public and International Affairs (then called the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs), Reflections of a Governor.
Rex Goreleigh delivers second annual Alain Locke lecture, Alain Locke: The Afro-American in Art, A Personal View, Jones Hall.
Talent, Tokenism, or a Princeton Degree? Alumnae from Classes of 1970-73 share their career experiences with women students. Wilcox Hall.
The Meaning of Education for Social Change, by Gerald McWorter, Director of Afro-American Studies, Fisk University, and Director of Peoples College, Nashville, TN, at Third World Center.
Computers From Pascal to Von Neumann, by Dr. H.H. Goldstine, Institute for Advanced Study, Woodrow Wilson School Auditorium.
Computers and Society, by Dr. John G. Kemeny, President, Dartmouth College, at McCosh 10.
The Oil Embargo: An Iranian Perspective, by Dr. H. Askari of MIT, at 1879 Library.
The Economics of Racial Integration in the United States, by Andrew F. Brimmer, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System, WWS Auditorium.
An Evening of Poetry with Audre Lorde, 1974 Pulitzer Prize and Book Award nominee for poetry, Third World Center.

Princeton Entertainment:

Miscellaneous:

About 75 Princetonians participate in a mass streaking event, beginning at Cuyler Hall, running through a film night at McCosh 10, a humorous debate at Whig Hall, as well as through Nassau Hall, Firestone Library, and the Pub, and finishing at Dillon Pool, which was hosting a capacity crowd for the Eastern swimming championship. Jerseyvision (New Jersey Public Television) taped the swim meet, including the streakers. Classmate Andy Pollack reflected on his participation in his Prince column: “75 Princeton men braved the rain, the mud, the cold, and the checker at Firestone Library to bring some small amount of cheer into the lives of their compatriots, to add another chapter to Tiger history, and to act like complete idiots in front of TV cameras.” Andy lamented that the streakers did not include female students, notwithstanding the fact that the event took place on International Women’s Day: “not one Princeton woman was out there being liberated.”

Photo of Andy Pollack with his column, Paper Streaker: Confessions of a mild-mannered ‘Prince’ editor. Image credit: Daily Princetonian

The Original Firesign Theatre at McCarter Theatre.
The Grotto advertised beer prices of 30 cents (mug) and $1.25 (pitcher).

Movies:

Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in Sleeper at Brunswick Theater.
George C. Scott in The Day of the Dolphin at Prince Theater.
Peter Sellers, David Niven, Woody Allen, and Ursula Andress in Casino Royale at McCosh 10.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, adapted from Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s 1970 Nobel Prize novel, at McCosh 10.

Theater:

The Daughter in Law, a long-overlooked play by D.H. Lawrence, makes its American premiere at McCarter Theatre. The Prince was not impressed.
Theatre Intime presents The American Dream and The Sandbox, both by Edward Albee.

Music:

Jazz pianist McCoy Tyner and his quartet perform at Alexander Hall.
Harry Chapin at McCarter Theatre.
Pianist Andre Watts at McCarter Theatre.
Friends of Music at Princeton chamber music concert, featuring classmates Jean Beasley (flute), Janet Lazar (flute), Steve Westergan (cello), and David Newberg ’77 (piano). Woolworth Center.
Arch Sing with all five Princeton singing groups – Tigertones, Nassoons, Tigerlilies, Footnotes, and the newly-named, coed Katzenjammers. 1879 Arch.
Tickets go on sale for Billy Joel concert (May 4, 1974) at Alexander Hall.

Come to the Class of '75's 50th Reunion on May 22 to May 25, 2025!

The material and images from the Daily Princetonian in this flashback are used with the consent of the Daily Princetonian and we thank the Daily Princetonian for allowing their use.

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