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Inspiring Professors & Courses
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Gymnastics with Coach Primrose
Coach Primrose in the early 1950's was in very poor health. I think Mac had a Physical Education major. The Phys. Ed majors needed to know some basic things about gymnastics so they could teach it. I did the demonstrations and Coach Primrose would explain how they should teach the gymnastic skills.
Many of the students clearly did not have the physique for gymnastics. Primrose was teaching a mount at the end of the parallel bars called a double leg cut. With your hands on the ends of the parallel bars you jumped up bringing your legs on the outside of the bars, swinging your legs over and into the center of the bars.
The athletes were less than confident about their ability to do this. Coach Primrose became so frustrated, that instead of me demonstrating the trick, he jumped up on the parallel bars and did the double leg cut. He performed the mount as though he was 18 years old. He spoke to the students and said with feeling, "I'm 90 years old, have emphysema, a bad heart, and double hernias, Now get your fat asses up on those bars." I think most of them did.
Russell Goodman
Learning Middle English from Professor Ward
F. Earl Ward, my advisor, who chuckled appreciatively through the ribald parts of Shakespeare’s plays and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. There were only four students in that Chaucer class, so I really learned how to pronounce Middle English. Where else could you get such a small student/teacher ratio and comfortably get to know your teacher?
Carol Smythe McClellan
Avoiding the ‘hard’ sciences
Dr. Glock made an impression on me too. I took two semesters of Geology because frankly, I was avoiding the ‘hard’ science classes. His subject intrigued me and made me aware of the world around us; how it was formed and what its ancient history was as revealed through the rocks and fossils, if one bothered to really look.
Carol Smythe McClellan
Cramming into ‘Wild’ Bill’s exams
The most unusual character among my teachers was ‘Wild’ Bill Thompson, from whom I took several classes. The chairs were so close together in his crowded office that he used to pass out different versions of each test so that one would not be tempted to glance at one’s neighbor’s paper. These classes were part literature, part art and music appreciation, all woven together to give a picture of the era we were studying. Fascinating. So was his inimitable teaching style, which ranged from coaxing to harangue. I can still see him striding across the campus, briefcase in hand, looking unapproachable.
Carol Smythe McClellan
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