A parking battle on campus, 46 years ago

In the fall of 1971, the state university…soon to be known as UW-La Crosse…made an offer to lease three city parking lots for $800 a year, to provide extra spaces for students and faculty.  The idea was turned down by a university affairs committee.  The school was preparing to put up a new fine arts building and the classroom building which would become Wimberly Hall.  Performing arts students were scattered all over campus.  The Marching Chiefs band rehearsed in the basement of Main Hall.  University Theatre productions were on the main stage of the Campus School, now Morris Hall.  The theatre box office and the costume shop were in the basement of a former dorm on Main Street, near the Grandview Building.

The major TV networks used to start prime time shows at 6:30 Central time, instead of 7 p.m., until fall 1971.  That’s when the FCC turned over that half-hour to local TV stations to develop innovative new programs.  Many stations filled the time with reruns, or new syndicated shows like “Rolling Down the River,” starring Kenny Rogers and the First Edition.  Channel 8 launched “High Quiz Bowl” on Sunday nights that fall, emceed by former local news anchor Howard Fredricks and sponsored by Viterbo College.  After about 20 years, the show got a new format and was renamed “High School Challenge,” with St. Mary’s University of Winona as sponsor.  High Quiz Bowl got its start in 1971, 46 years ago, yesterday in La Crosse.