1943
War action in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy brought about the surrender of Italy. Broadway
produced
Oklahoma.
Rationing extended to shoes, cheese, meats, and fats. The pay-as-you-go
income tax law was signed. The president froze prices, wages, and salaries to control inflation.
Upton Sinclair won the Pulitzer prize. Race riots in Detroit killed 29 people. "Count Fleet"
became the fifth Triple Crown winner in horse racing. The Yankees defeated the St. Louis
Cardinals to win the World Series. Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill met in Teheran to
determine post-war control of the defeated Axis nations. The "Big Inch," the world's longest oil
pipeline, was opened. Streptomycin was discovered. Edward Doisy won the Nobel Prize in
medicine for his work on vitamin K. Readers were enjoying Tregaskis' war novel,
Guadalcanal
Diary
, and Betty Smith's
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
, as moviegoers became enthralled with
Bogart and Bergman in
Casablanca.
• Schedule • Normal Name
• ASTP • Pushball
• Basketball • Soph Hats
• Sit-up Record • Baseball
• Hockey • New Alma Mater?
• Tuition and Other Fees • War and the Faculty
• Pete Dwyer
Schedule.
Clarkson went on a three-term-a-year schedule during the war with classes entering
in February, June, and October, each term of about 16 weeks each. With this schedule, a student
could complete a full college degree in two and two-thirds years instead of the usual four.
Because many of the high schools in New York state held graduations in January as
well as June, those graduating in January were admitted to Clarkson in February, allowing them
to complete seven or eight months of college before reaching draft age. In other words, this
allowed the younger graduates to finish their freshman year in September, the date when they
normally would be entering college. Those June graduates entering college immediately earned
three months of college work before September.
ASTP.
In June, the first of three contingents was assigned to Clarkson by the War Department
for its Army Specialized Training Program, popularly known by its acronym, ASTP. To care
for these trainees, Clarkson appointed mechanical engineering professor Edward McHugh to
lease property and contract for meals. He arranged for all fraternity houses, the Potsdam Civic
Center, and rooms in a large number of private homes to serve as living quarters; food was
served downstairs of the Civic Center itself and in the basement of the Methodist Church on
Main Street. This program was discontinued in 1944.
Basketball.
Clarkson's hoopsters earned a good season record by winning 14 of 15 games.
Losing only to St. John's University 34-68, Clarkson's five defeated Albany State (twice),
Plattsburgh State, St. Michael's (twice), Wagner, Pine Camp (twice), Oswego, Cortland State,
