He ran against me, that’s right. Basically during that time they emphasized spirit because it was following the war. Everybody was in a peaceful, glorious happy time. It wasn’t political like it always was and has been since. Frankly I had never lead a yell in my entire life, but my fraternity brother coaxed me into trying out for it when they had one opening in Sherill Luke’s rein as head yell leader. I lucked out, got aboard. No girls. No flip-flops. You organized leading of yells by swinging your arms to spell out letters. They had a card section [in the football stadium stands] then there would be the yell leaders. We did everything in unison. I think maybe the next year was when they brought girls in [as cheerleaders]. Spirit was the basic attitude of the university and I got into it because I was able to swing my arms. I was a yell leader for two years and the third year I ran for head yell leader and lost.

I did some idiotic thing on campus to market myself. One of the things, I jumped off the Royce Hall Tower. Between classes the fraternities and sororities, they’d collect around the base of that tower. Yeah, I was in the Navy and I found a dummy, dressed it up in my Navy togs and got up there on the first level. And some of my boys were prepared and spotted me up there and said, “Look, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman! No, it’s Fred Thornley!” Then I bent down and pushed the dummy off and the boys came running up with a stretcher and off they ran.

I put on a coat and tie [for the presidential election] and I was a model businessman I guess you call it. But because of my gaining notoriety – they designated me assistant head yell leader — and because I put on that routine, I gained some popularity. Those were wonderful days. He was a very nice guy. We had fun competing against each other. It was a time of traditional spirit because of the just conclusion of the war, everybody in the world was happy, totally contrary to what’s happening now. You know, it was a “you” society rather than an “I” society.

Fred Thornley,
Former UCLA student body president who became executive vice president of the company that makes Armor- All