Embedded Files
Click the title to link to the article at the MSU archives; click the picture to enlarge it:
I never knew that every time I walked up the steps into the Union building that I was retracing the steps of a very famous U.S. President.
The presidential election of 1960 could be considered one of the closest and most controversial elections of all time. John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon were both on the ballot seeking the majority vote to be the 35th president of the United States of America.
Michigan State has a history of being a place for presidential election campaigns. In 2008, current President Barack Obama came to campus and addressed a crowd of thousands on Adams Field. Bill Clinton also found Michigan State to be an important place to campaign before his election in 1992. This October marks the anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s addressing students as a part of his campaign for the presidential election of 1960.
7
10
2011
On October 14, 1960, President Kennedy paid a visit to the beautiful campus of Michigan State. State was one of his many stops in the final three weeks of his campaign efforts. As he walked out onto the steps of the south entrance of the Union, the MSU Alumni Association Magazine reports “…some 12,000 greeted him with the kind of enthusiasm that later generations reserved for rock stars.” Kennedy’s campaign was well received and he would go on, as we all know, to win the election over Nixon.
Not a part of this article, above, but a matter of public record, that kid you see above, ears sticking out, obscuring a part of the lecturn, is Steve Hecker... the Lansing State Journal published a picture on the front page the day after the visit, and Hecker is in the center left, the kid with the pen and paper, trying to get an autograph. He did not get the autograph.
He did, however, get a handshake, and got another handshake from Bobby Kenney at Capital City Airport in 1968.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse