The Moonmaids

Down the Corridor

The Independent Volunteer Fire Co. of the North Texas Normal College, composed of 45 males, was organized in September 1908 under the Athletic Department and the chief of the city fire department for the purpose of protecting the state’s property and the boarding houses in the vicinity of the school. The apparatus of the company consisted of a hand hose cart, about 700 feet of hose and a full equipment of nozzles and wrenches.

A low-cost train tour to the Chicago World’s Fair was $32 for a single person on a lower berth, $26 for two people on a lower berth, $27 for a single person on an upper berth and $23 for two people on an upper berth. Hotels were not necessary, as students could sleep in the train two blocks from the fair entrance in Chicago. … The WFAA Early Birds of Dallas visited campus and performed. … Ex-student David Ratliff operated a radio station program of music from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and decided on call letters WTD (Welcome to Denton) over WTC (Welcome to Teacher’s College). The only other Denton station, DNTX, had expired earlier in the year.

Geography students returned from a 24-day, 4,200-mile trip of 22 states and Canada, including a visit to a Virginia tobacco farm and to Gettysburg and Valley Forge, while biology students returned from a trip to the Gulf Coast and East Texas. … A graduate student teaching for a year in Hawaii reported that the people there desired Hawaii to become the 50th state. … The library added a seven-volume Braille version of the American Vest Pocket Dictionary after a survey showed a need for it.

Plans for campus expansion included a $12 million, 150-room hotel to be built on the golf course. … North Texas approved a degree in disaster and emergency planning through the School of Community Service. … Joe Greene (’69) and Wayne O. Stockseth were appointed UNT regents. … Larry McMurtry (’58) spoke at North Texas’ 37th annual film conference about adopting novels for motion pictures. He discussed his 1961 story, Horseman Pass By, which became the 1963 Paul Newman film Hud. … A student from Caracas, Venezuela, was presented a T-shirt by the bursar as the first to be registered as the 20,000th student during any semester in North Texas’ history.

Hot topics on campus included President Bill Clinton’s tour of China and baseball player Mark McGwire’s record-breaking 62nd home run. … Construction began on Mozart Square in 100 degree weather. … The play therapy program celebrated its 25th anniversary. … UNT began a two-year, $24 million upgrade of older buildings, including 1912’s Curry Hall and 1924’s Auditorium Building, as the campus celebrated the grand opening of the Environmental Education, Science and Technology Building. … Visual arts professor Brent Phelps took three cameras and hundreds of rolls of film to photographically retrace Lewis and Clark’s 1804 Corps of Discovery trail from the Missouri River to Nebraska and South Dakota.