History of abraham baldwin agricultural college

The campus newspaper, The Stallion, brought home five of the seven top awards at the annual Georgia College Press Association gathering. David Wansley is the editor, and Helen Strickland is the advisor.

ABAC sent a busload of students to Macon in 1971 to the Georgia Implement Dealers Association Tractor Pull. Virgil Barrett, a representative for the Allis Chalmers Harvester Company, was there and needed someone to drive the Allis Chalmers pulling tractor. One of the ABAC students volunteered. The tractor placed in the event and won a trophy. Because of this relationship, Barrett and Allis Chalmers later donated a tractor to the club. The tractor, named Cracker Jack, got its name from the fact that Barrett would always go to the tractor pulls eating the caramel popcorn and peanuts snack food. ABAC began hosting its own tractor pull in 1974. Cracker Jack won the title at the ABAC Nationals in 1976. In fact, ABAC staff member Jimmy Grubbs (Class of ’66) drove Cracker Jack to two national championships.

At the 1971 Homecoming celebration, the Baldwin Alumni Association selected Murl Rountree for the Distinguished Alumnus award. S. Charles Lanier, Sr., won the Master Farmer Award, and Gail McCormick Paulk won the Master Homemaker Award. Prior to Homecoming, ABAC students worked night and day to renovate a former farm house on the campus into a coffeehouse they called “The Croker Sack,” because of the burlap wall covering the interior of the building. Ellen Bowen from Blackshear won the third annual TABAC Revue before an overflow crowd in the auditorium. Home Economics Club President Norma Green accepted the Homecoming participation trophy from former Lieutenant Governor George T. Smith (Class of ’40). Phi Sigma Delta, a service group on campus, purchased a new brick campus entrance sign for the event. Coach Lowell Mulkey’s basketball team, dubbed Mulkey’s Magicians by Tifton Gazette Sports Editor John Bowman for their come-from-behind style, defeated defending state champion Dalton 97-94 in the Homecoming basketball game.

The Baldwin Players staged The Odd Couple during the winter quarter. Student Government Association concerts during the year included Archie Bell and the Drells, Leaves of Grass, Jerry “The Iceman” Butler, Dennis Yost and the Classics IV, Chairman of the Board, and Peace Corps. Dr. Gaye Elder received the Carlton Award for Faculty Excellence at Honors Day. Motivation expert David J. Schwartz was the guest speaker at the ceremony. The Baldwin Players staged Antigone, Animal Farm, and Spring for Sure in the spring quarter. ABAC student Ray Turner was named state president of the Distributive Education Clubs of America.

The Rural Development Center opened across the railroad tracks from ABAC on April 22. Governor Jimmy Carter was the featured speaker. Comer Hall captured the participation prize at Student Activities Day on May 11. According to TABAC, the events of the day included tennis, volleyball, horseshoes, broad jump, 100-yard dash, cross country race, stripper contest, tug-of-war, high jump, and croquet. Dennis Yost and the Classics IV and Chairman of the Board performed at the end of the day followed by a dance to the music of Peace Corps. Eddie Dalton was named Mr. Baldwin, and Janice Brown was named Miss Baldwin at the intermission of the concert.

Dr. Herbert Phillips, president of Lake City (Fla.) Community College, was the commencement speaker on June 5 when over 200 students received diplomas. Student Government Association President Eddie Knowlton gave the benediction. TABAC came out in late summer instead of the spring because of a fire at the Atlanta photo lab where all the pictures were developed. Janice Brown is the editor.

The ABAC golf team finished in eighth place in 1971 state tournament. The tennis team finished second in the state and second in the Alabama-Georgia regionals. The Stallions wound up 7-9 in conference play on the baseball field.

Lamar Branch received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the ABAC Alumni Association at the 1972 Homecoming awards ceremony. Stewart I. Bloodworth was named the Master Farmer Award recipient, and Dianne Hartley English received the Master Homemaker Award. Betty Claxton received the Carlton Award for Faculty Excellence at Honors Day. ABAC staff member Donna Dickson founded the Golddusters as a drill team designed to mainly perform at ABAC basketball games in 1972.

Under President Clyde Driggers’ direction, the ABAC Foundation began an annual fundraising event with Anita Bryant as the first performer on June 2, 1972. “At that time, we were trying to find a way to pay for the Chapel of All Faiths,” former Director of Public Relations Tyron Spearman said in a 2015 interview. “Dr. Driggers had a contact through Dr. George Conger down in Miami with Anita Bryant, and we hired her to come to Tifton.”

Spearman said that Bryant was best known as the spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission. The talented singer was a former Miss Oklahoma and second runner-up in the 1958 Miss America contest. “She was a fun person to be around,” Spearman said. “We filled up the dining hall at $50 a plate. We brought her back in 1975 because everybody loved her so much.” The event became known as Dollars for Scholars in 1973. Profits from the first few years of the Dollars for Scholars events were used to pay off the debt on the Chapel.

During his tenure, Driggers helped to secure private funding for the Chapel of All Faiths and chronicled the tremendous effort in his 1974 book, It Took a Miracle. The Chapel is named the Driggers Lecture Hall in his honor. A dynamic leader, Driggers focused on enrollment growth during his presidency, which led to a record enrollment of 2,143 students for the 1972 fall quarter. ABAC became Georgia’s largest residential two-year college.

1973

Esteen Castagna, former director of the Tifton Nursing Home, has been named Director of Health Services at ABAC. Buses from Tifton churches pick up ABAC students at 9:45 a.m. every Sunday morning at the Business-Humanities building. Author David Wilkerson and folk singer Dallas Holm were featured at a Tifton Ministerial Association Rally in Gressette Gym on January 16 which attracted 3,000 persons, the largest crowd in the history of the facility.

Jesse Chambliss, Wright Crosby, and Marshall Guill appeared on Channel 5 and Channel 11 in Atlanta on January 20 in a special program on their new “Powder Puff Mechanics Program” and the “Fix-It” program offered by Continuing Education. Chambliss and the Ag Engineering staff plan to visit 22 high schools this year in an effort to recruit students to their program.

Adabeth Pirkle and Luther Green edited the 1973 Agriculturist. Lieutenant Governor Lester Maddox gave the keynote address at the Georgia Young Farmers Convention at ABAC on January 26-27. The Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose appeared in Gressette Gym on January 31 for the winter concert. Glenn Parkman was student chairman for the event.

State representative Chappelle Matthews from Athens said “Georgia has the finest agricultural junior college in America” during his recent visit to the campus. Self-Study Director William Wheeler met with the Self-Study Steering Committee composed of Gerald Fletcher, Vernon Yow, Mary Emma Henderson, and Dr. Loyal Norman. The nation’s only collegiate tractor pull team exists at ABAC. Nolan Gibbons is the coach. ABAC finished second in the Georgia Championship and 12^th in the National Tractor Pull in Macon on February 17. At the February meeting of the Greater Baldwin Association, the board of directors initiated action to change the name to the Greater Baldwin Foundation.

The Army Reserve and the Georgia National Guard are using the ABAC campus as a teaching station on large earth-moving equipment while saving ABAC over $100,000 in the development of the new athletic fields. Bids are now being accepted on the construction of the new ABAC tennis courts. The Baldwin Players will present J.B. on February 20-24, a modern re-telling of the Book of Job. Seven hundred high school students will be on campus on February 28 for Country and Western Day sponsored by the Division of Agriculture, Forestry, and Home Economics. Ron Jones is the chair of the committee.

Freshman Worth Hartry wound up the 1972-73 basketball season with an average of 23.1 points per game to go along with an average of 18.6 rebounds per contest. The 6-foot-5 player from Milledgeville was named All-State and All-Region for Coach Lowell Mulkey’s Stallions. ABAC wound up 18-14 overall and lost to Alexander City 78-74 in the first round of the NJCAA Region 17 tournament in Birmingham, Ala., on March 1.

The Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society was chartered at ABAC on March 2. David Kelley was the first president. Frank Kelley is the faculty advisor. The Stallion won the Georgia College Press Association General Excellence award for the third year in a row as the best two-year college paper in the state on March 3. Adabeth Pirkle is the editor, and Helen Strickland is the advisor.

At its March meeting, the Greater Baldwin Foundation adopted Dollars for Scholars as the theme for its $50 a plate fundraising dinner on May 18 featuring Eddie Arnold. He will be accompanied by the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra.

Denise Eldridge from Ocilla was crowned Miss Homecoming 1973 at the TABAC Beauty Revue on April 12. A new campus literary magazine titled Pegasus arrived on campus April 13. United States Senator Herman Talmadge was the featured speaker at the Homecoming Awards Luncheon on April 14.

Talmadge was also present for the groundbreaking for the Chapel of All Faiths at 1:30 p.m. on April 14 on the proposed site of the Chapel where the former President’s Home was standing. President Driggers described the groundbreaking in his book about the Chapel, It Took a Miracle. “Tyron Spearman came out with a one-horse turning plow with enough plow lines so that everybody could have a hand. George Sosebee held the plow, and since he was an old plow-boy from way back, he knew he could keep everybody slowed down to his pace by sinking the plow deeper and deeper! He did not have to sink it too deep because the front lawn of the President’s old home was mighty well packed from thousands of feet trampling over it through the years. This was a joyful day indeed for all who had a part in helping the Chapel become a reality.”

In his book, Driggers said Hilda Goodman, an ABAC house director, received the bid to move the President’s Home from its site so the Chapel could be constructed. “She had the house removed to her farm near Brookfield and brick veneered so that now it has the appearance of a new structure. Surely, it was appropriate that it stay in the ABAC Family.”

Bobby Rowan was selected as the Distinguished Alumnus award winner at Homecoming. Other award recipients were Sandra Matthews, Master Homemaker; J.R. Rigsby, Master Farmer, and Armond Morris, Master Young Farmer. This is the first year of the Master Young Farmer Award presented by the alumni. The Lettermen sang at the Homecoming Concert in Gressette Gym on April 14. The Fifth Annual World Championship Rodeo during Homecoming was also a great success.

ABAC Distinguished Professor of Humanities Stellanova Osborn was honored April 21 during the annual Boy Scouts of America meeting at Camp Osborn. She is the widow of former Michigan Governor Chase Osborn. Governor Osborn hired Stellanova Brunt as his researcher and secretary in 1924. In 1931, Osborn and his wife, Lillian, legally adopted Stellanova. After Lillian died, the adoption of Stellanova was annulled. At the age of 89, Governor Osborn married Stellanova, 54, on April 9, 1949 at his residence at Possum Poke in nearby Poulan in Worth County. Governor Osborn died two days later. The ABAC Foundation later received the Possum Poke property from Stellanova Osborn.

ABAC began its presentation of the Carlton Award for Staff Excellence and the Carlton Award for Administrative Excellence at Honors Day on May 9. Cecile K. Bailey was the first recipient of the staff award, and J. Dale Sherman was the first recipient of the administrative award. Vernon Yow won the Carlton Award for Faculty Excellence, an award which began in 1965. The awards were funded by ABAC benefactor O.D. Carlton, II, who runs the Caterpillar dealership in Albany. Each recipient received a plaque and a check for $1,000.

Tommy Rhodes from Leesburg has been elected president of the student body. Baldwin Players’ Director Sonny Burt said Carousel will be produced in the main auditorium on May 9-12 with help from the ABAC Chorus and the ABAC Band. Holly Donaldson, wife of president emeritus George P. Donaldson, passed away on May 10. The flag at ABAC will be lowered to half-staff in her memory.

Vince Vance and The Valiants performed for the Student Activities Day Concert at the new gym on May 15. Mark Newman and Martha Sue Spence won the Kissing Contest at Student Activities Day with a time of 86 minutes. New Men’s Dorm stuffed 28 boys in one Volkswagen for first place in that event. Paul Baldwin from Ashburn and Diane Bass from Cochran were named Mr. and Miss Baldwin. Henry “Bo” Miller won the SGA Impact Award. Pacesetter awards were presented to Beth McDuffie, Luther Green, Dick Byne, Bonne Davis, Richard Bass, Merle Baker, Wayne Cooper, Bob Ragsdale, Talmadge Webb, and Mrs. J. Clyde Driggers.

Coach Wayne Cooper’s golf team won the 1973 state title, finished second in the southeastern region, and wound up 11^th in the nation. Cooper was named Coach of the Year in the state after his team compiled a 13-0 conference record. ABAC golfer Paul Staples was named to the All-America team, and Joe Corry was named to the All-State team. Coach Norman “Red” Hill’s men’s tennis team won the state title and finished fifth in the nation. Steve Pierre from Panama was named the top player in Georgia for the second straight year after compiling a record of 34-0. Edwardo Marulanda was an All-America selection for the Stallions at the national tennis tournament.

The Greater Baldwin Foundation reports that 486 tickets were sold for the Eddy Arnold performance at Dollars for Scholars on May 25. “Eddy was a people person who visited back in the kitchen with all the dining hall staff,” former Director of Public Relations Tyron Spearman said in a 2015 interview. “He loved George and Aliene Graul’s cooking. He said it was the best meal he ever had.” Friends and alumni presented Tillie Howard with the keys to a new car during the show in honor of her retirement. T.W. Tift was inducted into the President’s Club after contributing over $20,000 to the Chapel of All Faiths project.

President Emeritus George P. Donaldson was the guest speaker at the commencement ceremony on June 9. He spoke on Challenge of Change. Adabeth Pirkle from Hoschton won the Donaldson Award. She was the editor of The Stallion and The Abraham Baldwin Agriculturist. ABAC hosted the 12^th annual Natural Resources Conservation Workshop on June 10-15. In its June meeting, the Greater Baldwin Foundation changed its name to the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Foundation.

Retirees honored at the end of the spring quarter were Virginia Lindskog, Rebecca Miller, and Assistant Registrar Tillie Howard. Dr. Worth Bridges, Dean of Student Personnel Services, has announced that Dianne Cowart has been hired as Dean of Women and Emory Johnson (Class of ’70) has been hired as the Director of the ABAC Student Center. Johnson is a former Mr. Baldwin and vice president of the ABAC student body. Dr. William Wheeler has been appointed as the Director of the Center of Developmental Studies, and Ray Walker has been named Procurement Officer, effective July 1.

Sonny Burt was the guest conductor for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra when it performed at an Independence Day Rally in front of Tift Hall on July 7. “My knees were literally shaking when I stepped up on that little box to direct the national anthem,” Burt said in a 2016 interview. “It wasn’t like I really had to direct anything. They knew what they were doing.”

America’s only two-year college agricultural magazine, The Abraham Baldwin Agriculturist, received second place in the nation for the second consecutive year. Ohio State University won the competition. The University of Georgia and Iowa State tied for third. Advisor Helen Strickland, Editor Adabeth Pirkle, and Editor-Elect Roger Byrd accepted the award in Guelph, Canada. Pirkle was elected the national president of the Agricultural College Editors at the meeting.

At the July meeting of the Baldwin Alumni Association Board of Directors, President Jimmy Hodge Timmons said the board endorses the resolution to support an agricultural museum in Tifton. Director of Development Bob Ragsdale said the ABAC Foundation will be named the trustee of a $22,000 gift from the Cloudman Educational Fund. A new WATTS phone line has been installed in Tift Hall, primarily for the purpose of recruitment. Lavon Donaldson and Ed Byers will begin a three-week Police Academy for area law enforcement officers on August 6.

Comptroller J. Talmadge Webb said student meal tickets will increase in price for the fall quarter. Individual meals will increase from $1.25 to $1.50. Five-day and seven-day plans will remain the same at a cost of 70 cents per meal.

Wasdon Graydon, Jr., (Class of ’70) was hired as the director of student support services on September 1. He went on to have a 37-year career at the institution and served as the commencement speaker in the final event of ABAC’s 100^th birthday celebration in 2008.

The 1973 fall quarter enrollment was 2,074 students. A total of 56 percent of the students enrolled in college transfer programs, and 44 percent enrolled in career programs. One of those students is Cynthia Morris from Lake Placid, Fla., who was named Grandbaby of the Year at the 1957 ABAC Homecoming. ABAC employs 116 full and part-time faculty members and 92 staff members.

Two former students of ABAC, Mary Jane Bassett and Ronnie Wheeler, got married on the proposed site of the Chapel of All Faiths on September 1. A reception was held in the Home Economics Department.

On September 6, the Chapel of All Faiths committee of the Baldwin Alumni Association rejected all bids on the Chapel of All Faiths project. The projected cost of the project was $190,000. The low bid was from Decker Construction of Tifton for $298,543. Over $165,000 plus some materials has been donated for the project. Baldwin Alumni Association Executive Secretary and ABAC Director of Public Relations Tyron Spearman said the project will be delayed until a time when the additional funds can be secured.

“We all cried about it for a while,” Spearman said in a 2016 interview. “The students, the faculty, the staff, and everyone else had worked so hard to raise the money.” In It Took a Miracle, President Clyde Driggers wrote “In our many contacts and acquaintances, I did not know anyone who would be willing or able to give that much money in such a short time. I did not know which way to turn. All I could do was pray.”

“Channel 10 (WALB-TV) carried a story where they interviewed me and Dr. Driggers about us coming up short,” Spearman said. “Then an anonymous donor called the public relations office, and said, ‘I understand you don’t have the money to finish your Chapel.’ We explained the situation, and then he said, ‘can one of you be here on Monday?’ I told him Dr. Driggers and I would be there. When we got there, he wrote us a check for $150,000. His only requirement was that it be anonymous.” In his book, Driggers wrote, “Surely a miracle had happened—a marvelous and wonderful example—an anonymous donor had made it possible to complete a Temple of God on the ABAC campus. Praise God!” Construction should begin in October.

With a low bid of $1,217,700, Alcon Associates of Albany will build the new Student Center beginning in October. ABAC hosted the annual meeting of the Georgia Association of Junior Colleges on October 18-19. The Golddusters performed at the national peanut festival in Dothan, Ala., on October 20. Described as the “best group yet” by advisor Donna Cannington, the Golddusters are scheduled to perform at the Sweet Potato Festival in Ocilla, the Christmas parade in Griffin, the Christmas parade in Dublin, the Peach Bowl parade in Atlanta, and the Rose Festival in Thomasville. In existence for almost four years, the Golddusters are a drill team that practices on Tuesday and Thursday each week.

Student publications director Helen Strickland received the Distinguished Advisors Award for two-year college yearbooks from the National Council of College Publications at its annual meeting in Chicago. She is the first Georgian to win the award. The award honored her for “outstanding service to student publications at ABAC and the nation’s student press.” Strickland has been the advisor for The Stallion and TABAC for six years. She has been the advisor for The Agriculturist for three years and was a founding advisor for Pegasus.

Coach Ron Evans’ ABAC men’s soccer team ended its season with 2-5-1 record after a 4-0 loss to Dekalb in the first round of the state tournament. Baseball Coach Tom Moody said the Stallions have been hampered in preseason practice in 1973 because the baseball field has yet to be completed. Foundation Board member Jordan Short donated $10,000 worth of sporting goods equipment, and camping and wildlife equipment to the ABAC Foundation after Short and Paulk closed its sporting goods department. George T. Smith (Class of ’40) has donated a 24-foot Champion Mobile Recruiting Van to ABAC through the ABAC Alumni Association to help admissions director Bill Massengale with the recruitment of students.

President Clyde Driggers called on students, faculty and staff to make use of energy conservation measures including lowering thermostats to 65 to 68 degrees, turning off all heat in buildings not used on weekends, and hosting all night classes on the campus in one building. Employees traveling in ABAC vehicles are not to exceed 50 miles an hour. Melita Easters, editor of The Stallion, echoed Driggers’ comments by urging the campus community to institute a program of paper recycling in an editorial.

The Grass Roots appeared in a concert on November 8. The Stallions opened their basketball season on November 8 in Milledgeville with a 92-54 victory over Georgia Military. Sophomore Worth Hartry returned to his hometown to score 36 points and pull down 20 rebounds for Coach Lowell Mulkey’s team. Freshman Joseph “Pogo” Burns from Tifton had 13 points.

The Baldwin Players presented No Time for Sergeants on November 14-17. The best-selling novel was written by Cordele native Mac Hyman. Directing the production was Mitzi Hyman, the late novelist’s sister who is an assistant professor of speech and drama at ABAC. Brad Howell and Bill Andrews headed the play’s very large cast.

The new 12-court tennis complex at ABAC will open sometime in November as soon as the Board of Regents approve the finished product, according to Athletics Director Norman “Red” Hill. Eva Mae “Tillie” Howard passed away on November 27. She contributed 37 of her 67 years to ABAC as a housemother, secretary, registrar, and assistant to alumni affairs.

WABR-FM went on the air on December 1 as the first radio station on the campus of a two-year college in the state of Georgia. Station Manager Bowie “Doc” Blackburn said the station will be on the air from 6 p.m. until midnight during the week. The station will be at 90.5 on your FM radio dial. At the present time, the station’s studio is located at the Rural Development Center. It will move to the campus when the new student center is completed. Dr. Lew Akin is the advisor.

Ted Williams directed the ABAC Band and ABAC Chorus in its annual Christmas program at the Rural Development Center on December 4. Emory Giles was a soloist, and Andrea Savage was the accompanist. The ABAC Foundation launched a $25,000 fund drive on December 5 with all Tifton businesses as the target. John Hunt of Hunt Chrysler-Plymouth will lead the effort and will be supported by George P. Donaldson, president of the ABAC Foundation. Tyron Spearman and Bob Ragsdale will assist from the public relations office.

Terri Jo Langford from Oxford, Fla., has been selected as Miss Rodeo USA. She will spend the next year traveling to rodeos around the country. She was sponsored by the ABAC Rodeo Club and the ABAC Foundation. Her coaches for the event were Tyron Spearman and Mary Owens.