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I missed this story when it came out last week but read about it in yesterday's (10/30/10) Watertown Public Opinion where the top page 1 story was headlined "SDSU names residence hall after Abbott". See the October 22 Brookings Register Story: LINK or the similar story on the SDSU Alumni Association website here.
The three halls in the Jackrabbit Village are now officially known as Cleveland Abbot Hall; Velva Lu Spencer Hall; and Josef Thorne Hall, named after three outstanding SDSU grads.
The Watertown newspaper picked up on Abbott because he was a 1912 WHS grad where he was an outstanding student and multi-sport athlete. Abbott was SDSU's first black athlete, starring in football, basketball, track and baseball, winning 14 letters at SDSU. From SDSU, Abbott had quite an impressive life as a coach and educator, primarily at Tuskeegee Institute. See this Wikipedia Article here.
Thorne was one of the all-time great SDSU football stars. He was drafted to play pro football with the Packers but went into the Army. He was a helicopter pilot and was the first South Dakotan to die in Vietnam when his helicopter went down due to enemy fire. See this SD Vietnam Vet Memorial link here.
Spencer is a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribe and a noted scholar on Native American education. She served as SDSU's Native American adviser from 1998-2003 and is given credit for greatly increasing Native American student retention and graduation rates at SDSU. An internet search reveals a lot of links to her work, publications, studies etc.
The three halls in the Jackrabbit Village are now officially known as Cleveland Abbot Hall; Velva Lu Spencer Hall; and Josef Thorne Hall, named after three outstanding SDSU grads.
The Watertown newspaper picked up on Abbott because he was a 1912 WHS grad where he was an outstanding student and multi-sport athlete. Abbott was SDSU's first black athlete, starring in football, basketball, track and baseball, winning 14 letters at SDSU. From SDSU, Abbott had quite an impressive life as a coach and educator, primarily at Tuskeegee Institute. See this Wikipedia Article here.
Thorne was one of the all-time great SDSU football stars. He was drafted to play pro football with the Packers but went into the Army. He was a helicopter pilot and was the first South Dakotan to die in Vietnam when his helicopter went down due to enemy fire. See this SD Vietnam Vet Memorial link here.
Spencer is a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribe and a noted scholar on Native American education. She served as SDSU's Native American adviser from 1998-2003 and is given credit for greatly increasing Native American student retention and graduation rates at SDSU. An internet search reveals a lot of links to her work, publications, studies etc.
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