Governor's Day Records

Governor's Day was an annual occasion for honoring ROTC cadets. In 1970, the event was scheduled the same week that American troops went into Cambodia and four unarmed student protestors were killed by National Guard troops at Kent State University in Ohio. University of Nevada students who opposed the war in Vietnam held a peace rally the same day as Governor's Day, distributing flyers and posters on campus announcing the rally and opposition to the Governor's Day observances. The rally was also called a student strike against the war of Vietnam and Cambodia. The rally became a march toward the stadium where the ROTC military review was being held. The students marched into the stadium and filed into the bleachers shouting anti-war slogans, and some went onto the field and threatened to disrupt the cadet drill. N. Edd Miller, University President, asked for calm and courtesy. Some faculty members and students joined the rank of the protestors, urging restraint. The episode ended without violence. On May 7, however, the ROTC building on campus was fire-bombed. On May 12, the Hobbit Hole, a student residence and meeting place for anti-war activists, was fire-bombed.