Collegiate Times

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Forty years ago, Virginia Tech was experiencing its second largest period of growth, trailing only the new millennium. Five 1969 grads have come back to - or never left - their alma mater, including President Charles Steger, head football coach Frank Beamer, Vice President of Alumni Relations Tom Tillar, Chief Operating Officer and Treasurer of the Virginia Tech Foundation Ray Smoot and Corporate Research Center President Joe Meredith.

Related: Class of 1969 talk about the '60s

This past weekend, the official class of '69 reunion brought in more than 240 alumni, but these five didn't have to travel so far.

And it's a good thing they've graduated because they all agree on one thing: Tech would never accept them now.

"A lot of us joke around, and we're only half joking," Smoot said. "They don't let people like (us) into Tech anymore."

A 'SPECIAL' TIME UNDER PRESIDENT HAHN

The five began their freshman year at Tech in 1965 at the beginning of then-President Marshall Hahn's period in office.

"The university was just exploding," Steger said of Hahn's presidency. "You didn't know quite what was happening but you knew something special was happening."

Tech was adding thousands to its enrollment, including more females. Students had only recently in 1964 been able to enroll as civilians outside of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets, and physically the campus was adding buildings on both the residential and academic sides.

By 1970, the university was officially named Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, creating more state recognition of Tech as a university.

"Hahn had a vision and he was able to persuade the state to support his vision," Meredith said.

Steger, an architecture major, and Tillar, a biology major, were hallmates in Vawter Hall as freshmen. Meredith was an aeronautical engineering major, Smoot an English major, and Beamer studied distributive education, which combines classroom and on-the-job instruction.

Beamer's years were spent with the football team, and the other four only knew of him through his on-the-field performances as a cornerback. He recalled the team being very close back then, and the athletes achieving the sort of celebrity status seen today.

"I think probably anytime you have an athlete at a major university you do things that are unique," he said.

The football team made it to the Liberty Bowl twice in Beamer's time, with both berths resulting in losses: to Miami in 1966 and to Mississippi in 1968.

The others' interests were spread across the campus. Steger focused on architecture and spent most of his time with classmates.

"Sometimes I stayed up for two or three days without sleep, so that kind of created a certain bonding experience," Steger said.

Meredith was the same way as an engineer.

"At least the people that I hung out with were pretty focused on our educations," Meredith said. "There weren't many as many ways to get in trouble then."

Smoot and Tillar worked together on SGA, with Smoot as the president and Tillar as the class treasurer their senior year. Tillar also worked with the Student Union, now the Virginia Tech Union, and Smoot sang in the Glee Club, a musical group.

The five and their classmates were in a unique position because most were first-generation college students.

"Hardly anyone's parents had been to college," Smoot said. "There was an expectation as a result of going to college that you were going to go out into the world and make a better living, financially, than your parents had."

The average annual tuition for a public school was less than $600, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Hokies went to school for quarters, not semesters, and classes were six days a week.

"Admission was not difficult but there was a series of courses that were very difficult and the weeding-out process occurred when you got here," Steger said, recalling a very early calculus class on Saturday mornings.

The six-day week was changed to five days in 1971.

The lack of modern technology made class work and problem solving a lot more difficult, especially for architecture and engineering students.

"I don't necessarily think that the man hours that we had to put in, in a lot of respects, were productive but it nevertheless (included) things you had to do," Meredith said. "Did that add to the learning experience? Probably not. But it took time."

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