Blue & gold apparently pre-date athletics

The recent gift of two antique East Texas Normal College pennants to the Alumni Relations Office raises the question of the history of these symbols of student enthusiasm and loyalty to their school.
Some of the earliest photographs of East Texas Normal College show students proudly displaying school pennants. An example is one photo in which three students with their backs to the camera display three large pennants, two with the letters: E.T.N.C. The image is in black and white, but it appears the letters are blue on a yellow background. The introduction of organized sports —football—on campus in 1915 probably stimulated campus interest in school pennants, mascots and colors. From pre-1915 photos and other sources, however, it appears that the school had already adopted blue and gold as its official colors. A 1908 photo shows the Amothenian Society—an early form of sorority—with two co-eds holding a large handmade pennant with the name of the society and date on it. In the photo’s left-hand corner is a satin pillow decorated with the initials E.T.N.C. Displaying college pennants had its own etiquette. None of the surviving portraits of the graduating classes of ETNC or later graduating classes exhibit pennants. Commencement was too serious an event for banners and pennants.Pennants remained popular with students after the state took control of the college in 1917. Ms. Lula L. Mullins (See photo on previous page), who graduated from the college in the ‘30s and went on to a successful career in public school teaching in

Athens and Dallas, recalls that she purchased pennants for her room, including a small paper pennant for
her scrapbook. This paper pennant has the letters E-T-S-T-C (East Texas State Teachers College) in blue on a yellow background; near the wide end is a lion and the word “Lions” in yellow on a blue background. Pennants were conspicuous elsewhere. The1940 Locust yearbook contains a full-page photo of campus beauty Margaret Harris holding a large ETSTC pennant with a lion over the college seal at the wide end and E.T.S.T.C. running the length of the narrow end.
Later pennants in the post-World War II era depict the changing name of the University but remain similar in design, color and function. A 1980s version is probably typical of the modern pennants in that it has the University seal and letters E T.S.U. in blue letters on yellow background. Others of this time period reverse the colors, with yellow letters on a blue background.
The school pennant, still popular today with incoming students at A&M-Commerce, has had a long and honorable history on the campus starting with
East Texas Normal College.

Army Specialized Training Program celebrates 60th Anniversary

Veterans award two scholarships as thanks to students who work with annual Vigil on campus

There’s something very special about a group who, 60 years after they were here for only a few short months, are still celebrating that brief period in their lives. Perhaps it’s because the young soldiers considered the campus, with its good food and women, a feast for more than just their hungry tummies.
Perhaps it’s because when they were abruptly ousted from this paradise, they were dropped down into some of the most hellacious fighting the planet has ever seen.

More than 80 people attended this year’s ASTP Reunion in March, including Jack Boyd and Nolan Williams at right. Some came from as far away as Arizona and North Dakota, and one daughter from Illinois was called into service to drive her parents in from Oklahoma. One was there with four of the five people who stood up with him at his wedding, the group’s only MIA from that day being the minister. Below, Bill Thomas is pictured looking at the special plate the University commissioned for ASTP Alumni on the occasion of their 60th anniversary. The plate design is pictured at left. The three sons of ASTP Alumnus Bill Wilson, who died earlier this year, came to the reuinion on behalf of their father and accepted his plate.

During World War II, the Army tested and identified a few select soldiers for specialized training to be doctors, scientists and engineers. Some of those lucky men were sent here for training that began with military exercises in the pre-dawn hours, college classes by day, more military drilling by evening, and studying by night. Somehow, though, a surprising number of them managed to socialize enough to meet, make his suit, and eventually marry a lovely campus coed. Many of those Alumna join the men at their annual reunion here on campus.
They arrived here in 1943, before the war got so bad the Army decided the men they had considered overqualified for officer training had to be sent into Europe’s bloody trenches. There, a number of our ASTP Alumni would die, many in the Battle of the Bulge.
Of those who survived, most carry scars from the wounds they endured as frontline fighters and prisoners of war. Fifteen years ago, a faithful few dozen men began their pilgrimmage back to A&M-Commerce. But they brought more than their scars. They brought their stories, their families, and their generosity, opening their wallets up for a scholarship at a campus they remembered as having opened its arms to them.

This year’s two ASTP scholarship recipients are senior Cristina Caollette, left, and junior Rhonda Bell. Rhonda and Cristina worked with the campus Veteran’s Vigil the last two years. And during last year’s Vigil, Cristina carried on an ASTP tradition: She met her fiancee, a member of the Air Force, whom she will marry this summer.

Hey, this group is special. Their experience here all those years ago was apparently so gratifying that they still want to get together. Not only that, but they established a scholarship for our students. They are so loyal—loyal to their country, their alma maters, and to this institution, and we are very thankful for them. —former Alumni Director Sam McCord, at the reunion dinner