On Mother’s Day 2025, Solé Blanks ’25 (CLAS), ’26 MA, draped in blue regalia, stepped across the floor of Gampel Pavilion when her name was called, continuing a family legacy as the fourth generation to graduate from UConn.
Only yards away and 65 years, 10 months, and 27 days prior, Blanks’ great-granduncle Otis “Sonny” Wade ’59 (CLAS) donned a black cap and gown for his commencement at the old Memorial Stadium on June 14, 1959. That year, the University held a single ceremony — compared with 16 today. Albert Nels Jorgensen, known now for his namesake on-campus theater, was the University president and conferred the degrees.
Wade was among just dozens of Black students enrolled at the University at the time. He’d transferred to UConn after starting his college career at Morgan State, a historically Black college. He was homesick, according to family lore, and his older sister traveled to Maryland to bring him back.
Now 92, Wade struggles with his memory, but lights up when asked about his UConn days. He joined the Beta Sigma Gamma fraternity, one of only two on campus at the time that accepted non-white students. Wade lived in on-campus fraternity housing and played stand-up bass in a trio hired for dances and social gatherings on campus and around Connecticut and Massachusetts.
“Those were some days,” he says, quick to shake his head when asked if they got up to any mischief. All good clean fun, it seems.
