Addie Echols
Picture this: the year is 1974. Harding College has around 2,300 students enrolled. Tuition was $37.50 per hour. The Benson Auditorium had yet to be built. Two chapel services were held in the Administration Auditorium -– one before lunch and one after lunch. In 1979, a time capsule was buried on campus to commemorate the conversion of Harding College to Harding University and was to be opened on the 100th anniversary of Harding.
“Part of the criteria at that point is that even though it was put in the ground in ‘79, it would be on the 100th anniversary. So that’s why it doesn’t fit, it’s not been there 100 years, it’s not been there 50 years,” Harding alumnus and 1974 Student Body President Michael Justus said.
In August1979, there was a celebration for becoming a University, which led to the time capsule being buried in October. Some items in this capsule included: Dr. Joe Pryor’s bowtie; a lock of hair from Dr. Jimmy Carr; signatures from students, faculty and staff; and various photos and letters. When this capsule was buried, Harding President CliffGanus poured concrete over the box.
“The story goes that Dr. Ganus was concerned that students, as a prank, might dig the time capsule up,” archives and special collections librarian Hannah Wood said. “So he always said he had three tons of concrete poured over it to ensure that it didn’t get dug up.”
The time capsule was dug up by Physical Resources the first week of September and was opened during chapel on Founders Day. When brainstorming ideas for items to put in the new time capsule, the Student Government Association decided to replicate some of the items in the past capsule for the upcoming one. They replaced Dr. Pryor’s bow tie with Aramark employee Miss Norma’s nametag and cut the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Dana Steil’s hair to replace Dr. Carr’s.
“Our role as executive leadership was coming up with ideas of what to put in the time capsule,” SGA treasurer Grayson Hume said. “It was the leadership and the entire SGA that really came up with whose hair and all that stuff and getting Miss Norma’s name tag, and so stuff like that we all played a role in, and I think it went a lot better than any of us were expecting.”
On Founders Day, the new time capsule was placed in the same burial spot, marking the start of Harding’s second century.
