125 Years
125 Stories
1970s 90 1970s at a Glance Presidents Pr Nixon, Ford, and Carter . . . Watergate . . . average salary $7,564 . . . mandatory busing, desegregation, and affirmative action . . . mood rings, lava lamps, pet rocks, and Rubik’s Cubes . . . bellbottoms, earth shoes, and leisure suits . . . floppy discs and Atari . . . All in the Family, Roots, Happy Days, The Brady Bunch . . . Joe Namath and Pete Rose . . . first test tube baby . . . Vietnam War ends . . . Roe v. Wade . . . energy crisis . . . Jonestown mass suicide . . . Jackson Five, Aerosmith, the BeeGees, the Eagles . . . Star Wars, Rocky, The Godfather, Jaws, Grease . . . Martin Luther Preparatory School opens in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School opens in New Ulm, removing all high school students from college campus . . .
1968 Gary Wille dressed as a hippie for Halloween.
91 H Hurray for Hollywood “Brain Lane” was the 1950s nickname for Waldheim Drive, where the Waldheim house and five brick residences housed the professors and their families. The 1970s nickname for Hollywood Avenue, just west of campus, was a bit more colorful. It started when Milwaukee Lutheran Teachers College, a junior college opened in 1960 as a feeder for DMLC, closed in 1970 and much of the faculty and student body moved to New Ulm. Fifteen new houses—averaging $23,000 apiece—were built on Hollywood Avenue to house professors. “There must have been about 60 children on that street,” one professor recalled. “They could go outside at any time and find someone to play with.” The old adage “New house, new baby” took effect as well, and many of those families had another child or two, resulting in the nickname of their street: Hollywood Hatchery.
1975 Little Peter, son of John and Connie Micheel, enjoys the snow in front of his Hollywood Avenue house.
92 Super Bowl Blizzard of ’75 The Th snowing and blowing hit the Friday before the VikingsSteelers Super Bowl, January 12, 1975. Snow piled higher than the library ramp, and students had to walk from dorm to dining hall on top of the snow, creating icy footpaths. Clarence Dauer, the boiler man, stayed on campus all weekend—getting home to Garden Street was impossible—and in true Laura Ingalls fashion, the maintenance staff tied a rope from the boiler room to Summit Hall, looping a tree in between, so that Dauer could find his way in the blizzard and do his boiler checks. The college pickup with the snow plow broke down. The fire hydrant near 19 Waldheim Drive ruptured, spilling water that quickly turned to glare ice all the way down the back drive to Summit Avenue. Fifty-eight people in the Midwest died. And the Vikings lost 16-6.
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
49