Jim Murphy
BSEE, 1953

In the late 1940s I had an electrical engineering course under Dr. Spann. The classroom was located on the second floor of the old Broun Hall. Dr. Spann was a stickler for his students knowing the previous night's assignment.  He would call a student by name, ask him to stand and then ask him a question relating to that assignment. If the student didn't know the answer he would have him open one of the windows and then throw a piece of chalk out the window.

This went on for several days until one day when we walked into the class and on the chalk board someone had drawn a picture of a bird dog. Under the dog in large letters was written "Chalk Retriever". To say the least everyone including Dr. Spann fell into a fit of laughter and not much was discussed in the class except who was the culprit.

To this day I do not know which student drew the bird dog on the chalkboard.