Since it is the OFF Season, I thought I’d see if anyone knows how the TECH student center became the TONK. It seems that many of the students today don’tknow why it is called the TONK.
When I started TECH in the Summer of 1966 I asked why the student center was called the TONK. I was told the following: the police (unknown if local or Sheriff) closed down a Honky Tonk. I wasn’t told why…or when, I just assumed it was because they were selling alcoholic beverages. It could have been in the 1920s, 30s, or40s. Lincoln Parish was dry the entire time I was at TECH and was probably dry for many years before that. Anyway, the police did not destroy the building as they sometimes did back in those days. They gave the building to TECH. Since TECH did not have a student center building…the Honky Tonk building became TECH’s student center. The students began to call it the TONK and have done so ever since.
So, does anyone know the entire story?? I would like to know the rest of the story…asPaul Harvey would say.