The Campus Mall at La Crosse State was taking shape…47 years ago

In 1970, the university publicized plans to develop green space on campus between 16th Street and the football stadium.  The proposed pedestrian mall would pass by the Murphy Library and the Cowley Science building, and it would feature concrete benches, planters, and sculptures.  The mall would be developed later in the 70’s.  It’s now the site of the Hoeschler Clock Tower at UW-L.

A campus demonstration against the Vietnam War turned deadly at Kent State in Ohio that spring, when four young people were killed and others wounded by National Guard troops assigned to break up the protest.  That summer, a violent explosion killed a researcher at the Army Math Research Center on the UW-Madison campus.  The FBI searched for four suspects in the Sterling Hall bombing.  Three of them were captured within the next few years.  The fourth man has never been found.

On TV in the summer of 1970, you could see variety shows starring singer Engelbert Humperdinck, and stand-up comic Robert Klein, and a new Smothers Brothers show on ABC featuring dancer Sally Struthers, who would become a star on “All in the Family” a year later.  Struthers and the Smothers, 47 years ago, Yesterday in La Crosse.