Throw Back Thursday By: Gretchen Cobble

For this week’s Throwback Thursday and in honor of last week’s Mr. HSU Pageant, we look back on one of Hardin-Simmons University’s annual beauty pageants beginning in the 1930s. The University used to hold an annual “Beauty, Beast Contest,” where girl and boy students were nominated by their peers, and one girl and boy were later chosen as University Beauty and Beast.

The H-U Brand, Vol. 35, No. 17, Ed. 1, from Saturday, Feb. 3, 1951, announced the Beauty, Beast Contest had been set for that Saturday. The nominees included 13 girls and 11 boys and the winners were announced that following week at an all-university Valentine party. Winners were published in the The H-SU Brand (Abilene), Vol. 35, No. 18, Ed. 1, Saturday, February 10, 1951. Tomi Williams, a senior music major at the time from Levelland and president of the Cowgirl band, won “Campus Beauty.” For “Beastliest Beast,” the winner was Bubba Wilson, a senior P.E. major at the time from Dallas. Wilson had played right guard for the H-SU Cowboys for two years and had planned on entering the Army after graduation. Pageants are an HSU tradition, even though the process and contestants may have changed some over the years.