New York University at University Heights in the Bronx in January 1926 was not a very impressive sight. There had been a mixture of snow, sleet, and rain, turning the paths into mud puddles that were traversed only by walking atop wooden walkways built of slats of lumber. The buildings were modest. The students appeared businesslike as they hurried from one class to another. The faculty was kindly as well as scholarly. I soon found that the atmosphere was extremely competitive, especially among the premedical students who seemed greatly preoccupied by their grade standing. I was only fifteen years old when I enrolled. Most of the students were eighteen.

Since I lived at home and commuted each day to classes, there was very little semblance of any college life or social activity for me. The greatest excitement in those days centered on NYU's great football team under the renowned coach, Chick Meehan. This team had achieved national eminence at its pinnacle until Al Lassman, tackle and captain and a potential heavyweight boxing champion, had the grave misfortune to suffer a skull fracture in the game with the formidable Carnegie Tech team, resulting in permanent brain injury and hemiplegia. From this point on it was all downhill for NYU and major football. Al Lassman was one of our great heroes and I still recall how sadly we watched this magnificent human being reduced to the life of a permanent cripple. We thought it was an awful price to pay for supremacy in a sport. Still, if it had not happened then, and had he gone on to become a professional boxer, sooner or later brain injury may or may not have occurred. Who would ever forget the scene at Ohio Field, our home ground, when Frank X. Briante almost singlehandedly in our backfield was trying to defend against the overpowering offensive of a virtually unheard of Davis and Elkins squad from West Virginia whose brawn made the NYU team seem almost midgets. Basketball at NYU under Howard Cann was a great sport in those days while running for track coach Von Elling was well worth the effort.

The faculty was competent and some of it was outstanding. The science courses were well taught and demanding. Unfortunately, there were too many didactic lectures and masses of data that required memorization.