Emporia State's 100 Years

     The Kansas State Teachers College of Emporia is celebrating its 100th anniversary and the state can be proud of its record. As Dr. George R. R. Pflaum of the Emporia State faculty notes, the history of the school Is unique. It was established in 1863 to educate teachers for Kansas schools. This is still the mission of the college today.
     Dr. Pflaum, chairman of the 106th anniversary committee, says the anniversary is of interest to the entire state, and he is right. Almost everyone who has attended school in Kansas has been taught at some time by a teacher from the Emporia school.
     Today Emporia State is growing apace and has an enrollment of 4,920 college level resident students from 103 Kansas counties. The "boom" in education and the demand for teachers in the growing school systems have brought about a phenomenal growth of the Emporia school.
    But even back in the 19209 when enrollment was about 1,000, the college played a major role in Emporia's economy and, as William Allen White liked to point out in The Gazette, it was an institution of extreme cultural worth.
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     "THE NORMAL," as the school was known until 1923, was not just a place where students assembled to learn. It was a focal point of those who loved the theater and good music. The late Frank Beach inspired a fine musical program which invited high school musicians to compete as individuals and in orchestral groups. The old Victorian brick residence on the campus, which was razed to make way for the present Beach Music Hall, resounded with notes of the piano, and string and wind instruments. Emporia children, as well as college students, learned about music there.
     In Albert Taylor Hall, in the main building of the school. an Emporia youngster could munch on a chocolate bar and see an excellent performance of the opera "Aida." Or a thrilling mystery play such as "The Bat." Or Walter Hampden playing Cyrano de Bergerac.
     The school, besides its arts and sciences and teacher training, was one with a proud athletic history, too. In the years following World War I, the town turned out for the annual Thanksgiving Day football battle a between the Normal and the College (College of Emporia). Schoolboys were either "for" the Normal or the College and many a fight resulted over the issue of which was the best. Gwinn Henry's fine teams of C. of E. and Bill Hargiss' Normal squad hooked up in some great battles. There had been a famed high school passing combination at Emporia High. "Carle-to-Campbell" was often seen on the sports pages. "Click" Carle and "Slim" Campbell later played for Hargiss and there are some football fans who believe that Campbell may have been the greatest player Kansas has ever produced. He went on to play for the professional New York Giants.
     Summer school, then as now, meant that rooms in private homes filled up with the influx of teachers returning for more study. Students worked at any jobs they could get and went back to school in the fall. A few minutes in Art Cole's restaurant just off the campus on Commercial Street would bring one up to date on the latest campus news.
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     EMPORIA HAD A varied economy in the 1920s. There was the Santa Fe railroad's shops and offices and the cattle business grew in the nearby pastures of the Flint Hills. Family farms were numerous and farmers and the owners of the big ranches came to Emporia to trade. But among the community assets so important to the town were the two colleges, of which Emporia State was much the largest.
     Occasionally an Emporian sitting on the broad veranda of Emporia Country Club might eye the Teachers College buildings to the east and say maybe some of his fellow citizens didn't realize how important the school was. In effect, he was saying that a town with an outstanding college had something better than a dinner-pail factory.
     Today Emporia State, after 100 years, has no trouble being appreciated by Emporians. What was once known as "The Normal" is still a focal point for the city. New buildings dot the campus as the cause of education is served. The young men and women who leave Emporia to teach are now being paid more nearly what they are worth than were previous generations of dedicated teachers. That is progress. The future beckons more and more educators as Emporia State begins another century that is bound to be productive.