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My strongest impressions of CSUF are from the mid 1980s. Feeling out of step with the rest of the undergraduates, I was 30 years old when I came to get a degree in history.
A decade of wrong turns and bad choices made me more determined to finish my degree. Working as a nurse in the evenings, my co-workers would ask, “What are you going to do with a bachelor’s in history? You can’t get a pay raise with that.” I didn’t have a practical answer for them. My only defense was that history fascinated me. It encompassed war, political intrigue, religious strife, economics and conquest, all riding on the tides of civilization.
Though 22 years ago, Professor Crabb’s lectures on the Middle East echo in my mind as I read and hear about the war in Iraq. Fearing death from boredom, I took a course on American foreign and domestic policies. With wit and humor, Professor Jeffrey peeled off the layers of each presidential administration to show us the immense power of our government.
In January 1989, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history. With quiet pride, I picked up my diploma at the admissions office and looked back on that first day in August 1986. Disillusioned with my calculated life, I followed my heart into the tall, bland, cement buildings that then made up CSUF, and it was here that I found the world.
I entered Fullerton in Fall 1973. There were only four buildings around the Quad. The student health center was on a floor in Langsdorf Hall (very crowded and cramped as I recall). It was a hike out to the P.E. building and they were getting underway with the new Engineering Building, way out there. As a music major I spent a lot of time on “Ptomaine Terrace,” the bridge that connected the Fine Arts and Science Building. The vending machines provided the “food” and we would sit around those metal tables and discuss everything from politics, that weekend’s episode of SNL, to that new rock-n-roll group we heard on the radio called Queen.
I was fortunate to be a member of the University Wind Ensemble and the University Orchestra. Because of these two groups I traveled to Japan, Hawaii and Europe. While in Europe the baseball team was in the College World Series – anytime someone made a phone call home the first question was “how is the team doing?” Back here at home it was fun to play in the pit for the musicals and operas, our regular concerts as well as being a member of the Pep Band. The Pep Band played at all the home basketball games, just a couple of football games and we even played for a soccer game or two.
However the highlight of this was being able to go to the NCAA tournament with the team. Greg Bunch and his teammates took us to the Sweet Sixteen. The first game was in Tempe – the university decided not to send the band as they didn't think we had a chance. The UCLA band offered to play for the team for us – a very generous offer. After they won the first game the university sent the band to Tempe. What a thrill to play “China Grove” as the team took the floor for warm-ups! They won that game so it was on to Albuquerque for the next round. That next game was great. I'll never forget the excitement of that game going down to the last seconds, the noise of the crowd, Al McGuire's “Cal State WHO,” the final shot that lost us the game. To this day whenever I hear “China Grove” I think of CSUF and the team and my time there.
