Inside Iowa State

Jan. 26, 2007

A taste of history

by Diana Pounds

A tale of two Don Smiths

Two famous Don Smiths walked the campus in the late 1960s. Don Smith, the 6-foot-8-inch Cyclone post player from Brooklyn, N.Y., was one of the first two Big Eight Conference basketball players to twice score more than 600 points in a season. (Wilt Chamberlain was the other.) Later known as Zaid Abdul-Aziz, he went on to a 10-year NBA career.

Don Smith, the bearded activist, was elected president of the student body government in 1967 on a platform advocating total student freedom outside of class, legalization of marijuana and elimination of marriage. The mechanical engineering student attracted much attention from national news media and wrath from Iowa lawmakers who threatened to reduce university funding. He withdrew from office and Iowa State when some students began efforts to impeach him.

Home, Sweet Quonset

After World War II, servicemen, anxious to take advantage of the GI Bill, flooded campuses. Student enrollment at Iowa State skyrocketed from 3,407 in 1945 to 9,216 the following year. To help with housing needs, the university put trailers and military surplus Quonset huts in a neighborhood that would later become known as Pammel Court.

'Lord, have mercy'

In his last convocation speech, President James H. Hilton, after duly noting campus improvements and high enrollments, lamented the parking problem. "Lord have mercy on our souls!" he said. "What a problem this is! No matter how many additional parking spaces are provided, each year they are filled and there is a clamor for more."

Cold War pranksters

In 1959, Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev visited Iowa State as part of a national tour. As his motorcade rolled down Osborn Drive, four trench-coated students with fedoras, dark glasses and violin cases purposefully marched toward the Soviet leader's car. Security men quickly shoved the students back into the crowd. The incident was later characterized as a prank by "fun-loving college students."

New history book chronicles life and times of Iowa State