Long Beach State: A Brief History

by Barbara Kingsley-Wilson, Lee Brown (Foreword by)

Overview

Long Beach State grew up right along with the sprawling Southern California suburbs. Born in 1949, it swelled to accommodate the post-world war enthusiasm for education and land. The rapid expansion brought its share of growing pains. Students took classes in a cramped converted apartment with no books and playing ring-around-the-rosie for physical education. Money was scarce, and faculty at times feuded with the administration. But the new college's "let's put on a show" spirit produced a scrappiness that endures today. Read about the personalities that grew the college from Fred Bixby's bean fields into one of the largest universities in California.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625851260
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	08/24/2015
Series:	Brief History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Barbara Kingsley-Wilson has been a full-time lecturer and adviser for the Daily 49er since 2004 at California State University, Long Beach. A journalist for twenty years, she covered courts, crime, education and sports for the Orange County Register, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Rochester (NY) Times-Union. She has won awards from the Orange County Press Club and contributed articles to a Register project that won the Pulitzer Prize. She lives with her family in Long Beach.

Table of Contents

Foreword Lee Brown 9

Preface 13

Acknowledgments 17

Introduction 19

1 No Buildings, No Books: "My God, What Have I Gotten Into?" 21

2 The Story of Long Beach State: "I Can Tear Out Partitions as Easily as I Can Put Them In" 27

3 P. Victor Peterson: "He Was a Builder" 33

4 Parking: "Spanish Broom and Mustard Grass and Ford Falcons" 41

5 The Campus: Join the Peach Corps and Other Missions 45

6 Seventeen Years with Stephen Horn: "They Thought He Was Nuts" 59

7 Campus Life Is a-Changin': "Those Were Goofy Times" 67

8 The Tarkanian Years and the Gold Mine Gym: "Hotter Than Hot, Louder Than Loud" 77

9 Play Days: "They Were Forceful Women" 83

10 That Championship Season: "No Instant of Negative Thought" 89

11 Robert Maxson: "He Woke Up" 95

12 The Pyramid: A Cheap Icon 101

13 Puvungna: The Land Is Sacred 107

14 Football, Greek Housing and Historic Preservation: Big Ideas that Didn't Quite Make It 113

15 The Famous: "Pointy Birds, oh Pointy, Pointy" 121

Appendix 1 List of Presidents 127

Appendix 2 University Buildings and Dates Built 129

Appendix 3 Coaches and Team Records 135

Bibliography 147

Index 155

About the Author 159