Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas
Dedication Celebration July 20-22, 2003

Media Kit: KU News: Headlines from 1941-1943

The 1943 Jayhawker yearbook included news summaries that give a quick picture of the top 10 events of 1941-42 and 1942 through spring of 1943 for KU students.

March 1943 p. 373 – Stories of the Year [1941-42] by John Conard

1. Japs attack Pearl Harbor. [ see more]
2. Students celebrate KU’s 20-16 Nov. 4 victory over K-State by taking an undeclared holiday.
3. Kansas defeats Oklahoma Aggies March 7 in Kansas City to represent the 5th district in the Western Division NCAA playoffs.
4. Marjorie Rader wins WSGA presidency in heavy balloting. MSC fills council by party caucus vote after the March 16 election-suspension bill.
5. Men’s Student Council votes to abandon plans for 1942 Dandelion Day.
6. Presson Shane and Bob Allen are named Honor Men of 1941.
7. George “The Cop” Snyder retires after serving the University 11 years.
8. Nightshirt paraders rebel a pepmen’s paddles.
9. Student supreme court bars David Whitney from Men’s Student Council after long council argument over alleged vacancy created by Bob McKay leaving school for the Army.
10. Jimmie Lunceford and his “Harlem Express” beat out the jive for Junior Prom.

April 1943 p. 268 – News Hi-Lites of 1942-43 by Matt Heuertz

1. Anatomy building razed by wind-blown flames of unknown origin. [$53,000 fire on March 3, 1943 While the building was still burning, Chancellor Malott called a meeting of medical school authorities, department heads and deans. The group made arrangements for class schedules, and although the building housing the classes and equipment was destroyed, the medical classes did not miss a meeting. 70 cadavers in a large underground storage tank …were not damaged. The buildings and grounds department moved the cadavers to the basement of Lindley Hall early the morning after. A model brain standing nearly four feet high was destroyed… This mammoth model was the only one of its kinds in the United States…)
2. War Dept. announces that all Army Reservists will be called for service.
3. Kansas defeats Oklahoma 42-35 to take Big 6 basketball championship. [Feb. 27 game in Hoch Auditorium]
4. Student protest over short Christmas vacation ends in “riot.” [Dec. 18, 1942]
5. Olin B. Templin, member of University staff for nearly 60 years, dies after illness of two months.
6. Ray Evans placed on All-American football team; Charlie Black placed on All-American basketball team.
7. First KU New Year’s Eve celebration turns Hoch auditorium into a Country Club. [more than 1,000 students attended, music by Danny Bachmann’s student orchestra and KC entertainers. It was the only school night in … year that University women were permitted liberty until 1:30 a.m.]
8. Shortened school calendar results in earliest Commencement in history on May 17. [shortened calendar released “members of the graduating class to the armed services and war industries at the earliest possible moment, and” provided flexibility in … plans for a longer 1943 summer session.]
9. Naval Machinist’s Mates School on campus brings about many changes in University life.
10. University curriculum offers compulsory physical conditioning courses for all men and freshman women. (Former students now in the Service have nothing but praise for their “commando” training on he Hill, which enabled many of them to assume leadership early in their military careers.)