CEU History through the Eagle: October 12, 1976

The Eagle newspaper has been around for 82 years, since 1938 when Utah State University Eastern started as Carbon College. The newspaper has seen its fair share of historical events through the school newspaper like World War Two, Vietnam, the Space Race, hippies, etc. The historic newspaper used for this edition of the Eagle is from October 12, 1976.

In Volume II Number I of The Eagle, one of the articles was called “Greetings extended by Administration.” The administration of the College of Eastern Utah welcomed new students in 1976 to the college. The administration included President Dean. M. McDonald, Dr. Alphonso Trujillo and Dean Walton.

Trujillo was a professor in the science department for years and became dean of instruction in ‘76. It was his job to guide the development of the curriculum at CEU. Walton was the dean of students, in a quote, he said, “We believe this will be one of the finest years in our history. We pledge our support to each of you.” (The Eagle)

There’s a reason Walton said ‘76 would be one of the finest years in CEU’s history. It was the Bi-Centenial of the United States of America’s birth. An article called “Bicentennial goes on … and on,” talked about how the Bi-Centenial was just about over and that there was a rush to pack as many Bi-Centenial projects as possible into the remainder of 1976.

The Eagle collected news about some of the events. These events are President Ford wants to pardon Benedict Arnold, Jimmy Carter threw a peanut across the Potomac, the Brooklyn bridge will be renamed “The Car Strangled Spanner” and the Liberty Bell will be melted down into 10,000 first edition souvenir pet rocks.

Many old buildings remain on USUE’s campus, including the McDonald Career Center. There is an article on the front page called “Career Center to be dedicated Oct. 13.” Utah’s Governor Calvin L. Rampton cut the ribbon to officially open the Career Center. Other local, state and federal officials were also at the ceremony. Gov. Rampton led a list of speakers before the open house for the new building where there were refreshments and tours. The Career Center spans 58,000 square feet and cost $2.5 million dollars. The classes that were to be held in the building included cosmetology, nursing. mining and auto mechanics.

An article called “DECA comes to campus,” talks about a new club on campus that year, called DECA. Distributive Education Clubs of America and was associated with the Phi Beta Lambda club. The club’s goal was to develop leaders in marketing and distribution. Students in the DECA club had the opportunity to compete at local, state and national competitions.

Back in September, the Institute of Religion held its second annual open house to introduce students to the building, faculty, officers and clubs under the direction of the Institute. At the time, the institute offered 13 classes to choose from in fall, which was anything from the New Testament to the living prophets. The Institute sponsored an invitational instructor series for outstanding CEU-LDS professors, they were invited to teach a college-level religion class.

Jay Andrus, CEU instructor of vocal music, taught a Book of Mormon class in the fall semester. Back then, Friday Forums were held once a month on the first Friday at noon. It’s crazy to think, but there was an old Institute building in ‘76, which received some renovations that fall.

CEU had different athletic teams in ‘76. These teams included the cross country team and the wrestling team. The cross country team competed against some amazing schools in ‘76 that USU does not compete against. They opened the season against BYU on Oct. 1, Weber State College Oct. 9 and Southern Utah College on Oct. 16. They ended their season at Utah State University in Logan at the USU invitational. Coach Kent Huff was the new cross country coach as well as wrestling and track; he replaced Coach Ray Barrus. Two of his top players were Carlos Escondon and Norman Carter. Escondon attended Carbon High School and held the third fastest time in the six-mile at CEU with a time of 37:18. Carter attended Spanish Fork High School and held fifth best time in the two-mile and three-mile at 10:31 and 16:35.