Actually, UMass didn’t drop into the toilet until the late 60s. In 1963, UMass retired undefeated (one of only ten schools to do so) on the TV show GE College Bowl, defeating U. of Arizona 360 to 35. Up to that time it was a very good state U. about to become a top one. But alas, the 60s and 70s brought-in fecal faculty, communists, screeching feminists, violent ‘oppressed people of color,’ and graduates staying on to be come tenured radicals. Today Arts and Sciences and Humanities are a national joke, but the schools of chemistry and engineering remain world class. You just have to be careful not to walk onto the wrong part of the campus.