by April C. Armstrong *14

In this week’s installment in our recurring series, locals consider whether an alum can “handle” Wilt Chamberlain, a spoof letter warns of land mines on campus, and more.

July 17, 1981—In an editorial for Science, McCosh Health Center physician Dr. Brian G. Zack ’72 writes that it is inappropriate to use scientific definitions of “human life” as they relate to legal rights on the part of zygotes, embryos, and fetuses.

Science must never make moral judgments; the law must. To ask science to define human life in scientific terms for use by the law in moral terms is a travesty of both honorable traditions.

July 18, 1968—Town Topics asks locals whether they think Princeton University’s former basketball coach, Butch van Breda Kolff ’46, “will be able to handle Wilt Chamberlain,” given that van Breda Kolff has recently begun coaching Chamberlain’s team, the L.A. Lakers. The general consensus is that he can.

July 19, 1990—A forged letter satirizing Dean of the Graduate School Theodore Ziolkowski’s message condemning the behavior of graduate students who walk on the grass in spite of the area being marked off circulates. The spoof decries this as “morally contemptible” and warns that “72 land mines” have been placed to discourage them from doing so.

July 21, 1787—The Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette runs a poem about George Morgan White Eyes, an indigenous student in the Class of 1789, including the lines,

And why, he cried, did I forsake

My native wood for gloomy walls,

The silver stream, the limped lake

For musty books and college halls!

For the previous installment in this series, click here.

Fact check: We always strive for accuracy, but if you believe you see an error, please contact us.