*This paper is part of my over-arching study of TAMUC's history, and was presented at the fall 2019 East Texas Historical Association conference.
Dr. Samuel Henry Whitley, a distinguished graduate of Trinity and Southern Methodist Universities, was named the third president of East Texas State Teacher’s College on November 20, 1924. Previously a high school principal in Corsicana, the first assistant state superintendent for public schools, and dean of the faculty at East Texas, Dr. Whitley was a favorable choice for the high-ranking administrative role. The educator understood that he would be filling big shoes since his predecessors had been William Mayo, the founder of East Texas’s largest college, and Ralph Binnion, a principal who continued to tirelessly expand upon Professor Mayo’s intuition and navigate the academy during its early years as a state school. Despite being admired by many individuals, often chatting to passerbys while walking campus and traveling to various athletic competitions with the band as a vocal cheerleader, President Whitley did generate a pocket of foes. The southern gentleman exerted much conservative influence on campus; he approved of curfews, conventional grooming, and prolonged study sessions. He disapproved of smoking, pre-marital sex, drinking liquor, and dancing (a couple of students were expelled after they were caught dancing in a classroom). Moreover, the president stressed ‘proper behavior’ among his faculty, refusing to hire married women and scolding those who traveled to ‘more liberal’ places than Commerce. President Whitley’s genuine character, yet uncompromising beliefs propelled the teacher’s college to thrive and prosper in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, even in its darkest times.
Upon undertaking the top office at the college, Sam Whitley acknowledged that the institution’s primary goal was to train public school teachers in the context of a strong liberal arts foundation. And the president desired to have the best scholars teach in the classrooms. Hence, he implemented an unbending policy of hiring and retaining teachers with advanced degrees and some experience teaching under their belts. Dr. Albert Blankenship was hired as the first faculty member with a Ph.D. in 1925. Eight years later, 8 faculty members had doctoral degrees and 72 possessed master degrees, a stark contrast to ten years prior when 80% of the faculty solely had a bachelors degree or no degree at all. The faculty were committed in assisting the new president to inaugurate a rigorous curriculum that focused on building well-rounded individuals. Mr. John Hart’s senior-level journalism students were exposed to a functioning linotype machine at the Commerce Journal office in the downtown square. Meanwhile, the Department of Education established a training laboratory for aspiring teachers. The highly-successful, hands-on program allowed a goal-oriented student to engage with younger pupils from the local school district while receiving an equivalent of today’s associate of arts degree and a teaching certification. A home economics degree was created in the early 1930s to prepare young women for duties of motherhood. Furthermore, Librarian Opal Williams designed the college’s master degree in library science, which comprised of library processes and cataloguing courses.
The college’s student body significantly increased in size during the late-1920s, which in turn triggered the need for larger classrooms and more dormitory beds. President Whitley frequently drove to the state capital, persistently bugging the congressmen to give the college the necessary funds to construct much-needed facilities; he would note that his administration “Had a time fighting the matter out with them [the state legislative].” The Education Building, dedicated on January 16, 1926, ushered in a new construction era on the campus in Commerce. The multi-story facility was the first addition to be funded by the state and housed 35 classrooms for the humanities students and a 2,500-seat auditorium. Following a 1934 fire that razed the old gym from the 1910s, students broke sweat and labored on the weekends to build a 10,000-seat gymnasium in 1938; the student body later elected to name the facility the ‘Whitley Gymnasium’. A library which could hold up to 125,000 volumes was built in 1930. Residential facilities were also erected during President Whitley’s tenure; the administrator surprisingly received a $106,000 federal grant from the Public Works Administration in 1934 to construct a 70-bed dormitory on the east side of campus; Mayo Hall, named in honor of the college’s founder housed a cafeteria.
Despite the shortage of money during the Great Depression, student activities flourished at East Texas in the 1930s due to the growth of intertwining passions. The Fine Arts Club, headed by Irva Reynolds, attracted young women who had an admiration for the natural beauty of campus. After long-winded planning sessions in Industrial Hall, the organization brought colorful exhibits and local artists to campus. Following the creation of the master of arts degree in 1936—which required such candidates to grasp a foreign language—membership numbers in the Spanish Club bolstered to a significant degree. Under the direction of Ms. Mary Nelson, an instructor of Spanish, the group’s weekly meetings consisted of roundtable discussions outside of the Administration Building (nicknamed ‘Old Main’) where dialogue of culture was entirely in Spanish.
In accordance with America’s interest in world occurrences, the college’s World Affairs Club was established in 1929 and sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace under the Division of Intercourse and Education. The group’s mission was providing students a better understanding of racism, international concerns and policies, and other geographic environments. Pockets of male students with similar interests and hobbies initiated their own clubs, foreshadowing the creation of social fraternities on campus. The Friars Club, founded in 1930, was a brotherhood of older gentlemen who partook in collective events—not religious events as the name might suggest—after school. The organization was one of the few male clubs on campus to survive World War II as many of East Texas’s boys left school to fight on the front lines. The Friars decisively partnered with another male cohort named the Vanguards in the spring of 1959 and created a chartered fraternity named Delta Sigma Phi.
One of my history department predecessors, Dr. Donald Reynolds dubbed the 1930s as the ‘golden age’ for East Texas athletics. Since East Texas had joined the Lone Star Conference in 1931—vying against formidable athletic powerhouses such as North Texas State, Southwest Texas State, San Houston State, and Stephen F. Austin Colleges—President Whitley, a football fanatic himself, encouraged the athletic department to devote more money and resources towards the head-butting sport. Additionally, the students and community were encouraged to attend the football games at home, where they were first led through a series of chants by rowdy, letter jacket-clad members of the ‘T’ Association in lively downtown pep rallies before dynamically running to their seats in Lion Stadium.
During the slower moments of the game, the audience was entertained by the yell leaders, drum majors, college bands, and flag twirlers, who each played a key role in raising the crowd to their feet as the jubilant victors quelled the enemy in thundering roars. The enthusiastic support from the home crowds and the resolute guidance from Head Coach John Wesley Rollins propelled the Lions to easily topple their opponents in 1934. The football team went undefeated, untied, and very nearly unscored (a last minute touchdown by rival Southwest Texas State during the final conference game trumped the Lion’s winning streak). The Lions won the conference title six more times over a ten-year period, while several players, including Darrell Tully and Gene Hodge exceeded expectations and received the first Little All-American honors in the program’s history during the 1930s. And, might I add that the football team still has that spirit—2017 NCAA champs!
Passionate school spirit was further stoked by the successes of the Lions on the baseball field. East Texas’s baseball team was one of the strongest teams in the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association, winning key victories against Texas and Oklahoma schools between 1927 and 1931. Those students who elected to not partake in athletics had the opportunity to play ‘friendlier’ intramural sports, which were sponsored by the newly-created Department of Physical Education. Basketball in the Whitley Gymnasium proved to be the most popular IM sport; a soon-to-be ruthless basketball tournament was played in 1939 where 169 male students, grouped into 14 teams, played roughly to claim the ultimate IM basketball title while a large crowd screamed on the top of their lungs. Fortunately, although some of the players were bitter, the results were accepted, and the teams shared a harmonious lunch of chicken salad, hot chili, and hamburgers at the bustling student eatery on campus, L.C. Spears’s Sandwich Shop.
While the male students were amusing themselves on the fields and courts, female students at the college, who were excluded from intramurals, demonstrated their interest in athletics by organizing the Women’s Athletic Association. Coeds in this group participated in recreational activities such as hiking, tumbling, and archery. Despite that fact that male and female students at the college had sporting clubs to join, it is worth noting that while President Whitley’s administration spent over $47,000 on male athletic programs in 1940, the college only disbursed $56.80 on female athletic program. The considerable difference between the two budgets did not change much until the successful passage of the Title IX law in 1972, when male and female Lions received the same treatment and resources to mentally and physically better themselves, secure victories on the podium, and leave lasting athletic legacies.
Alongside the growth of student activities and the athletic program, student life on campus thrived. President Whitley’s vision of a close-knit community came into fruition as more and more students began to occupy the residential beds on campus. After his predecessor had vetoed the idea of giving the students a voice in administrative affairs, President Whitley endorsed the creation of a student welfare council in 1930, and encouraged Student Council President Roy Johnson and the legion of elected leaders to speak out and serve the needs of every pupil at East Texas. While not occupied by club meetings or classes, weary students would return to the dormitories after a long day and instead of succumbing to sleep (like they once did under the watchful eye of their parents), they would embark on an exciting, yet dicey journey that began with a card game of chance and bluff before quietly sneaking out past curfew and dancing the night away at one of the several Mardi-Gras-themed parties off campus.
East Texas students in the 1920s and 1930s tested the boundaries of human performance and consumption, and delightfully engaged in the various stages of inebriation and undress. While their male peers would drive the country roads intoxicated and disturb local farmers, female students often met up at Arthur’s Pharmacy in downtown Commerce to defy President Whitley’s rules and test the taboo against smoking. The president’s daughter, Mary Lou Whitley smoked tobacco, unbeknownst to her strict father, and recalled a similar drug-related gathering near Sulphur Springs: “One girl squatted in the back of the car and lighted a cigarette at a time and held it to the rest of us. We have lemon juice and other things to try to deodorize our breath. We really did have fun in slipping around doing this.” The pharmacy was also a popular place for couples to begin a romantic evening, which regularly included a twenty-five cents soda before catching a movie at Palace Theater and concluding the night with some ‘petting’ and ‘necking’ in the bushes behind the Education Building. Young love was naturally in the air. And Sam Whitley’s stern attitudes towards unruly activities did not slow or cease the sexual or lawless pursuits of a rebellious generation of students.
Following a period of substantial growth and prosperity in the 1920s, the college, like many other institutions of higher learning in the United States, struggled to operate during the Great Depression. Enrollment significantly decreased beginning at the height of the depression in 1934, shrinking from 1,953 students to less than 1,000 students at the start of the fall semester in 1940. The East Texas students who resided on campus in the early 1930s were unable to find work and desperately sought help from the administration as they needed money to pay their tuition fees. One young man wrote to the president in 1932: “I will do anything to get to go to school, mow grass, grub, wash dishes, milk cows, wait on tables, just anything you can find for me to do.”
The Whitley administration was relieved when United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the National Youth Administration in 1935, a government agency that provided many East Texas students academic funding and part-time employment opportunities in the library, cafeteria, and on the campus grounds raking leaves. Faculty morale was also low in this spell; succeeding the Wall Street crash, many of the college’s faculty lost life savings in failed banks—President Whitley’s life savings of $3,000 vanished overnight in 1929—and found their paychecks slashed by 25% in 1931. An additional 25% reduction in faculty salaries was affirmed in 1935. Since the faculty were overworking and earning a meager wage, the mood in the classrooms was dull and glum.
The suffering from the 1930s preceded World War II, a conflict that threatened the campus tranquility. After the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Whitley gravely reproved the student body: “Keep your head with calmness and deliberation. Implicitly follow your government. Go straight ahead attending to your business of getting an education until duty calls to something else.” Large numbers of faculty and students soon answered Uncle Sam’s pleas and volunteered to fight on the front lines; by the spring semester of 1942, the male student population virtually ceased to exist, and total enrollment sharply dropped to 633 students in the fall of 1944.
However, the silence was short-lived as the college was one of 200 colleges nationwide selected by the United States Army to host and help train servicemen and servicewomen. Between March and August 1943, a contingent of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps practiced drills in front of the Education Building. Moreover, 150 male volunteers in the Army Specialized Training Program arrived on campus on September 11, 1943, where they were provided instruction on engineering, history, and military science from professors at the college. The specialized training program ended its activities at the college in March 1944 and the cadets were transferred to Camp Maxey in Paris. Since many students missed their friends and loved ones, President Whitley and Dr. Jesse Franklin, professor of education, co-chaired the College Civilian Morale Service Committee and tirelessly labored to maintain positive morale among the students and college’s employees. The atrocities of warfare concluded in August 1945 and the citizens of commerce took to the streets to celebrate; the college students ‘took over’ the town’s fire truck during a parade). To commemorate the 63 students who died in the bloody war, a new athletic stadium was designed by Mr. Noble Arthur, an East Texas alumnus and local pharmacist, and built in 1950.
Behind every great man, we must never forget there is a woman who is able to rotate the neck of their partner and frequently sways the man to make a different choice than the one he was originally planning. Lucie Braden Love Whitley was the president’s wife and happily exerted much influence on her husband during his tenure at East Texas. The daughter of a Confederate veteran, Lucie was exposed to competition and the idea of rapidly moving towards success at a young age since she had nine siblings. These traits were similar to those employed by Sam Whitley, which clearly explains the couple’s robust marriage upon tying the knot in 1904.
Lucie played an instrumental role in persuading her husband to demand funds from the state legislative to construct an on-campus residence for the school’s chief administrator. This was after she found out that Whitley’s predecessors, Mayo and Binnion, had been forced to relocate several times during their terms to find adequate living needs for their families. State congressmen approved an appropriation of $15,000 in 1927, which was used to construct a two-story, colonial brick house located south of the college’s Education Building. The Heritage House, which stands today as the official residence of the university’s president, became a lively hub that was imbued with warmth and chitchat. The Whitley’s were the first presidential couple to invite students to their on-campus house to talk about post-college goals over dinner. She devoted her later life to genealogy, an interest stemmed from her membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. Lucie also convinced her husband to expand the college’s connections with distinguished celebrities from academia, including Ruth Pennybacker, a driving force in the creation of the University of Houston’s creative writing program and a frequent guest to the Whitley home. Lucie committed her time and heart to the college until her death in 1973.
After 22 years at the helm, President Whitley died of a heart attack during a hunting trip at Caddo Lake on October 2, 1946. The unexpected passing of a beloved teacher sent the campus into mourning while the successor, Dr. Arthur Ferguson gradually picked up the pieces. Buried and recollected as a distant memory, the man’s legacy exists in this day. The campus had notably expanded from 41 acres to 191 acres, doubling the number of buildings with its physical plant value totaling $1.1 million. Samuel Henry Whitley’s vision for a world-class university, built upon dedicative values, an exhaustive building agenda, and a fearless spirit became reality and lay the groundwork for the institution we know of today as Texas A&M University-Commerce. And so concludes my praise for an energetic leader, a first-class administrator, and an inspiring educator; I am aware that Dr. Whitley would approve of my positive conviction as his presidential portrait hangs behind my office desk at work, observing my every move. Thank you.
Archival
Documents & Mr. Whitley Photographs: Samuel H. Whitley Papers, Special Collections, Waters Library-TAMUC
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