S C T E CHN I CA L CO L L E G E S Y S T EM ’ S
F I R S T 5 0 Y EAR S
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The 1970s
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M O D E L F O R T H E N A T I O N E M E R G E S
ineteen-seventy made for an eventful start to an eventful decade. Across South Carolina and
across the nation, technology was advancing. IBM gave us the floppy disk. The LCD debuted
followed quickly by the microprocessor and the word processor. The first video game, Pong, mesmerized
Americans, and ink-jet printers, magnetic resonance imaging, and something called a cell phone arrived.
Rapid-fire cultural change came too. The NFL and AFL merged into the National Football League. Jimi
Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Bertrand Russell, and accidental filmmaker Abraham Zapruder died. The Beatles
disbanded. The Ohio National Guard killed four protestors at Kent State. The Apollo 13 mission to the
moon averted disaster. The Concorde made its first supersonic flight. Pet rocks debuted, and that fashion
disaster, the leisure suit, came and fortunately departed.
By the mid-1970s, the disco wave hit, propelled around the world by Saturday Night Fever. South Caro-
linians had reason to dance. Tourism, education, and medical care grew rapidly, and advanced industries
flocked to the Palmetto State. An Old South Carolina was giving way to a New South Carolina. Driving
that transformation was the state’s technical training system. Much of the system’s success came about in
the 1970s, and within the system were characters and storylines worthy of a novel. A great leader died; a
new leader was toppled; tumultuous turf wars cropped up; an inebriated governor flew to South Carolina
and took a nap; a Confederate flag relayed secret messages to legislators; and the fat lady sang in the State
House.
Legislation, logistics, and leaders came together, and by the time the seventies would end, technical
centers were up-and-coming colleges. Never before would so many have such great opportunities to
learn. Never before would a state have such a powerful way to change its destiny. If it sounds easy, it was
not. Old habits die hard. Behind the scenes, people were doing their level best to move the technical train-
ing system, and thus the state, forward. Their tools were diplomacy, determination, humor, leadership,
and hard work. The 1970s make for a damn fine chapter in South Carolina’s drive to transform itself.
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