Dear Members of the Great Class of 1975:

Welcome to this month's Class of 1975 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 April 1974 flashback was prepared by our classmate, Skip Fox '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: 

APRIL 2024

50 years ago, APRIL1974, in the US and around the world …

US News:

• The “Super Outbreak,” the second largest tornado outbreak in a 24-hour period with 148 reported tornados struck in 13 states, killing approximately 320 people and injuring about 5500 people.
• Two months after being kidnapped, Patty Hearst announced in an audiotape that she had joined her captors from the Symbionese Liberation Army and that she had adopted the name "Tania" for the SLA.
• The White House Press Office announced that the Internal Revenue Service had determined that President Nixon owed $432,787.13 in back taxes and an additional $43,644 in penalties and interest, an amount almost one-half of Nixon's stated net worth. The ruling by the IRS disallowed deductions including a $576,000 deduction for the claimed worth of Nixon's vice-presidential papers.
•  A new federal law requiring that almost all prescription medications have “child-proof” caps took effect.
•  Richard Nixon said that he would release edited transcripts of Watergate tape recordings. The transcripts used “expletive deleted” in place of profanities.
• Millicent Fenwick resigned her position as the director of the New Jersey Department of Consumer Affairs to run for the Republican nomination for Congress in New Jersey’s 5th Congressional District which includes Princeton. (She won the nomination and the election and served from 1975 to 1983. She was often cited as the model for the character, Lacey Davenport, in the Doonesbury comic strip.)

World News:

• French President Georges Pompidou died of leukemia at age 62.
• After a siege of more than a year by North Vietnam's army, the 92nd Ranger Battalion of South Vietnam's army surrendered the Tonle Cham Camp, only 60 miles from the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon.
• Following the resignation of Golda Meir as Prime Minister of Israel and as leader of the ruling Israeli Labor Party, the Labor Party's 552-member central committee chose between Labor Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Information Minister Shimon Peres. Rabin won the election, 298 to 254, and would take office as Prime Minister on June 3.
• Günter Guillaume, a personal adviser to West Germany's Chancellor Willy Brandt, was arrested on charges of espionage, after West German intelligence discovered that Guillaume was a spy for East Germany's Stasi security service. Brandt resigned as Chancellor 12 days later.
• The “Carnation Revolution” took place in Portugal leading to the overthrow of the “Estado Novo” regime.

Sports News:

• Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run off L.A. Dodger Al Downing in Atlanta, breaking Babe Ruth’s longstanding record. (Aaron retired in 1976 with a then-record 755 home runs.)

        Image Credit: New York Post

• National Football League owners voted to make nine changes to NFL rules, including sudden-death overtime for regular season games tied at the end of regulation, moving the goal posts, and returning missed field goals to the line of scrimmage, after the new World Football League had announced that it would have similar rules. One WFL owner told reporters, "It looks like they went right down the line and copied our book." (The WFL would fold midway through its second season in 1975.)

Entertainment:

• High school teacher Stephen King’s first novel, Carrie, was published.
•  At the 46th Academy Awards ceremony, The Sting won seven awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (George Roy Hill), and Best Original Screenplay (David S. Ward). Best Actor and Actress awards were given to Jack Lemmon for Save the Tiger and Glenda Jackson for A Touch of Class, while the Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards went to 71-year-old John Houseman for The Paper Chase and 10-year-old Tatum O'Neal for Paper Moon. O'Neal became the youngest actress ever to receive an Oscar and also upstaged her co-star, father Ryan O’Neal.
• The Swedish group ABBA’s, Waterloo, won the Eurovision’s 1974 song contest in Brighton, England.
• The F.B.I., starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr., broadcast its 241st and final original episode after nine seasons on ABC.
• Billboard Number One Singles in April 1974:

           Hooked on a Feeling                                Blue Swede

           Bennie and the Jets                                Elton John

           TSOP (the Sound of Philadelphia)           MFSB featuring The Three Degrees         

Meanwhile, Back at Princeton University …

Princeton News:

• The UGA’s Ad Hoc Committee on the Junior Year’s Report found that juniors were frustrated with the enormity of the junior year workload which one member of the class of 1975 described as “running up the down elevator of the PanAm Building.” One alternative under consideration by the committee was to eliminate either one course or the junior paper each semester.
• The 30-minute recruiting film, Princeton: A Search for Answers, was one of five nominees vying for the Oscar for Best Documentary (Short Subject). Opinions of the film, which won the Oscar, ranged from “simulating” to “boring” to “sexist.” The film can be viewed on YouTube.
•  Anthropology Associate Professor Alfonso A. Ortiz resigned his position to go to the University of New Mexico citing the tension in the department and the administration’s “unprecedented usurpation of departmental powers.”
• The misunderstood meaning of “random coed” dormitories and the high number of women retaining in Spelman meant that only 6 suites were initially available for women in the random room draw while 31 suites were available for men. A subsequent change added 2 more suites for women.
• Letters of acceptance were mailed to 2,154 applicants for Princeton’s first class to be selected on an equal access basis. The newly admitted students were chosen from a total applicant pool of 9,755 of which 6,788 were men and 2,967 were women. The number of applicants rose by 13.78 percent over 1973 while the percentage of applicants accepted declined from 24.08 percent to 22.08 percent. The equal access policy did not seem to have any “noticeable effect” on the number of males and females admitted.
• Student dissatisfaction with the Priorities Committee’s initial recommendation of a 5.2 percent student wage increase led to a final recommendation of a 7.9 percent student wage hike.
• Convinced that women at Princeton should “speak with one voice,” the women’s faculty group officially became the Faculty Women of the Princeton University Women’s Organization (PUWO).
• Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies, Karen W. Brazell, won a National Book Award for her translation of The Confessions of Lady Nijo from Japanese into English.
• In an analysis of sexual problems at Princeton, counselors for the Sex Education, Counseling and Health program (SECH) found that while the image of free love and promiscuity prevailed at many colleges, a lack of sexual activity seemed to be the source of hangups at Princeton. In a companion article, SECH advised that incidents of reported pregnancy and venereal disease at Princeton had dropped this year in comparison to previous years.
• Accion Puertorriquena and the Chicano Organization of Princeton filed a complaint with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare charging Princeton with a “lack of commitment” to hiring Puerto Rican and Chicano administrators and faculty and recruiting students from those minority groups. Provost Sheldon Hackney, the University’s Affirmative Action Officer, denied the charges but admitted that Princeton could make better efforts in the future.
• The board of trustees followed the recommendation of the Resources Committee of the University Council to vote against management on three policy issues involving corporations in which the university held stock. The trustees voted to request that Standard Oil of California and Getty Oil wind down any investment activities in Namibia. They also voted to require Union Carbide to disclose information about its corporate activities in South Africa.
• The university added 3 female assistant professors as part of the 16 assistant professors hired from outside the university.
• Princeton offered Erich Segal, author of Love Story and formerly a lecturer at Yale, a position as visiting professor of classics.
•  After 72 percent of students voted for exams before Christmas and for pre-Christmas exams to begin in the 1974-1975 academic year, the UGA failed to bring the desired calendar to the faculty for a vote. It subsequently abandoned its efforts for 1974-1975 calendar reform and would instead lobby for a 1975-1976 change.
• President Bowen stated that the feasibility of a Princeton law school would be the next important question on the development agenda. The question would be taken up when Donald E. Stokes ’51 arrived in the summer to become dean of the Woodrow Wilson School.
• A marketing study to determine the economic feasibility of moving the University Store to an extension of the Palmer Square area was being conducted by a King of Prussia firm. The university was the controlling shareholder in Palmer Square Inc and was working closely with the borough of Princeton to develop the downtown area.

Princeton Sports:

• The varsity baseball team clinched its third Florida East Coast tour by beating Wesleyan 11-7.
• On April 9, rain and dreary weather caused the men’s varsity lacrosse team to postpone its match with Washington & Lee, but the women’s team played through the rain to notch an easy victory over Princeton Day School.
• Three Princeton runners experienced a “little hell and a little heaven” in the Boston Marathon. Senior Bob Bazley came in 71st place with a 2:31 time. Classmates Bill Johanson and Dave Kurman finished in 2:45 (240th place) and 3:52, respectively.
• Women’s tennis trounced Yale, 8-1. Classmate Louise Gengler (and future Princeton women’s tennis coach) outpowered Yale’s experienced senior Margaret Mercer at second singles, 6-3, 6-2 on April 21.
• The basketball team selected Armond Hill, who withdrew from Princeton for academic reasons midway through the basketball season, as co-captain providing he was readmitted in September 1974.
• Varsity women outrowed George Washington University to an easy victory in their first race of the season.

Princeton Lecture Halls:

• Norman Mailer described himself as “some small pudgy equivalent of Muhammad Ali” as a guest in Professor of Journalism Larry L. King’s Literature of Fact Class.
• Connecticut Republican Senator Lowell Weicker, a member of the Senate Watergate Committee, attacked President Nixon, but sidestepped calling for Nixon’s impeachment in an appearance before an overflow crowd of 400 in McCosh 10.
• Marshall McLuhan, the author of Understanding Media, who made the phrase “the medium is the message” household words, appeared before 80 persons in Whig Hall to expound upon his belief that television is more beneficial to society than the printed word.
• Dr, Richard Ellman on “Biography and Criticism” at McCormick 101.
• Professor Peter J. Rigby on “African Religion and Urbanization” in Jones Hall 202.
• Rep. Paul McCloskey (R. Cal) on “Impeachment: An Insider’s Perspective” at Woodrow Wilson School.
• Eugene Kennedy on “The New Sexuality: Myths, Fables and Hang-ups” in McCormick 101.
• “Politics, Race and Racism” with Howard F. Taylor, Walter L. Wallace, and Roberta S. Cohen of the Sociology Department at the Woodrow Wilson School.
• Third World Center presents “An Evening of Poetry with June Jordan” at the Third World Center.
• “Genetic Engineering, Counseling and Control” – an informal discussion at Tower Club.
• Professor Leon J. Kamin on “The Science and Politics of I.Q.” at Whig-Clio.
• “An Evening Seminar with Dan Rather” at Whig-Clio.
• “Clean Fuels from Coal,” a series of 10 lectures by Professor Arthur M. Squires at the Woodrow Wilson School.
• Dr. J. Bronowski on “Science and Imagination” and “Art as a Mode of Knowledge” at the Woodrow Wilson School.
• The Association of Black Collegians presented Tim Thomas on “Black Student Organizations and the Basis of Political Consciousness” and Brenda Paris on “The Role of Women in the Black Liberation Struggle” at the Third World Center.

Princeton Entertainment:

Movies:

• Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford in The Way We Were and Joanne Woodward in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams at the Playhouse.
• Fantastic Planet at the Garden
• Attica with Frank Bisignano, former Trenton State Prison inmate, at Stevenson Hall
• Goodbye Columbus at Whig-Clio
• Little Big Man in McCosh 10
• American Graffiti at the Brunswick
• My Uncle Antoine at McCarter Theatre
• Dr. Strangelove at Whig-Clio
• The Garden of the Finzi-Continis at McCarter Theater

Theater:

• The Verna Blum Disguise is Stamped in Green by Karen Simon ’74, PIC Theater.
• Triangle Club announced A Titter Ran Through the Audience for its annual spring production.
• Wilson College presented Little Malcom and his Struggle Against the Eunuchs at the Truckstop.

Music and Dance:

• Murray Perahia, Pianist, at McCarter Theatre.
• Music from Marlboro in McCosh 10.
• Pilobolus Dance Theatre at McCarter Theatre.
• Ravi Shankar at McCarter Theatre.
• Dick Traegler (former Pub manager) and his “50’s nite” at the Pub.
• Friends of Music at Princeton present Musical Alta with Late Italian Madrigals at McCosh 10.
• The Fairmont Dance Theatre, in concert at Alexander Hall.
• Centennial Concert of the Princeton University Glee Club at Alexander Hall.
• Cat Stevens at Jadwin Gymnasium, the first rock-pop artist to appear there.
• Pinchas Zukerman and the English Chamber Orchestra at McCarter Theatre.

Who Came in First and Who Came in Last?

Did Anyone Go?

The Best in 1974 Technology for Princeton Students:

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.