As someone who witnessed much of that transformation, I have tried to remember what UCF was like when I arrived on campus in the early 鈥�70s. Although memory is notoriously unreliable, I will do my best.

UCF opened its doors for classes in the fall of 1968 as Florida Technological 海角直播, a name that led many to believe that it was a technical college rather than a four-year university.

When I arrived on campus in the fall of 1972, FTU was a small, sleepy campus with something less than 8,000 students. Today it is听the nation鈥檚 second-largest university with almost 60,000 students.

Located on the outer fringes of Orlando and Orange County, its existence seemed to be a well-kept secret in the city. On countless occasions when I told Orlando residents that I was a professor at the university, they indicated they had no idea there was a university in Orlando.

Having come here from Florida State 海角直播, I was amazed at the quiet that reigned over the campus, as well as the look of the students. As a commuter campus whose students mostly worked in the city, the average FTU student was well dressed, smartly groomed, and politically diffident. At times I felt that I had walked through a time warp back into my undergraduate days in the 1950s.

In class, students were eager to learn, willing to work as hard as their schedules allowed, and calm in demeanor. Whereas at Florida State I was regard as politically mainstream, at FTU I was perceived as a radical leftist.

Physically, the campus was large but most of the land was undeveloped. Tall slash pines surrounded the core cluster of buildings.

The Administration building, known at first as the 鈥渕irrored-glass building鈥� (and today as Millican Hall), and the Library, which was about half the size of the current building, stood facing each other across the Reflecting Pond.

To the east was the Engineering building and a few dorms. Farther northeast was the small Computer Science building, Chemistry lecture hall, and Chemistry building.

To the west was Phillips Hall.

That was about it.

The History Department was in the 鈥渕irrored-glass building鈥� along with classrooms, the college office, the administrative and business offices, and a few other department offices. I shared an office with another faculty member on the second floor of the Library, where a significant number of faculty offices were located.

The athletic facilities were mostly off campus. The Education building with the gymnasium had not yet been built.

FTU was a member of Division II in men鈥檚 athletics and a member of the AIAW in women鈥檚 athletics. The various teams in the athletic department played their games off-campus, mostly at high schools in the area. Under these conditions there was very little campus excitement over athletics. Nonetheless, FTU very quickly built a powerful program that competed successfully and won national championships.

The area around the campus could be described as 鈥渃ountry.鈥� There were few buildings along Alafaya Trail, which certainly resembled a trail in both directions. FTU Boulevard, today known as 海角直播 Boulevard, was a two-lane road lined with orange groves and woods. State Road 436 (Semoran Boulevard) for the most part marked the eastern edge of the city of Orlando.

There was one gasoline station on the corner of Alafaya Trail and Florida Tech Boulevard, and not much else adjacent to the campus. The nearest restaurant was more than a mile away on East Colonial Drive (State Road 50).

On campus, food service was minimal. The bookstore was small and stocked mostly with just textbooks for classes.

FTU was so small and so quiet that in the middle of the controversies over the Nixon Administration, Watergate and the Vietnam War, it was evaluated as one of only two campuses in the United States that would be ideal for President Nixon to give a commencement address. And so he did in June 1973. (Check out UCF Archives for the president’s听.)

What has become one of those events of note in the early history of the university passed with almost no protest, although this faculty member was appalled and chose not to participate in this news-making event.

Much has changed since those early days and most of it has represented an improvement, but in retrospect the early 1970s鈥� campus did have its charms.

I had the good fortune of spending the last five months of 2011 in London, while teaching in the FSU London Program, where I was able to witness these various reactions firsthand.听

The legacy of the London Games is a subject being discussed and debated in the media and by public officials. Members of the London Organizing Committee stress the event’s听鈥渓egacy鈥� as a way of reassuring the public that the extravagant cost of staging the games is a wise investment for the people of England听鈥� and not a public burden, as has been the case in Greece and China.

The budget has reached 15 billion English pounds (about $23.7 billion), a significant increase from the original projected budget of less than 6 billion pounds (about $9.5 billion). In the past few months the budget for the opening and closing ceremonies was doubled, and at the insistence of the United States, the security budget was also doubled.

This is a tough sell given the fact that unemployment is at a 17-year high, and an austerity budget has been implemented by the English government with a call for sacrifice by the English people. Undaunted by the task, Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson continue to trumpet the benefits of the games, preferring to discuss the finances in terms of 鈥渋nvestment鈥� rather than 鈥渃ost overrun.鈥�

The promised legacy is multifaceted. First, is the opportunity to present the best of Britain to the massive global television audience as well as to visitors. Of more long-term significance is the makeover of East London. Abandoned lands and urban blight have been replaced by the Olympic Park and the Westfield Mall in Stratford.

New public transport for East London includes a massive hub through which nearly every visitor will pass. Affordable housing is another part of the legacy with a projected 11,000 new housing units. The Olympic Village, or at least part of its 3,000 units, is included in that number.

The removal of residents from some East London neighborhoods, the increase in rents, and rising costs of housing in the area, offer a different legacy. Promises that 30 percent of jobs and construction contracts would go to locals were quietly abandoned shortly after the games were awarded to London.

Growing concerns in Britain over obesity are being addressed as part of the Olympic legacy. It was anticipated that the excitement generated by the games could be translated into an increase in public fitness and exercise programs. Sport England, the organization charged with achieving this part of the legacy, projected involvement of more than a million people in their programs. At the end of 2011 they had achieved about 11 percent of their goal.

So will there be any positive legacy at all for the Games?

Certainly the Westfield Mall at Stratford will do plenty of business during the games. The hotel and restaurant proprietors will do well, not so much by an increase in business, as by an increase in prices. The Olympic Park itself will be a positive addition to the neighborhood, while the new sports venues could make a significant contribution to the Stratford area.

Whether the profits and the long-term legacy of these venues can be sustained is the great unknown.

Some cities have successfully used the Olympics to transform themselves. Barcelona is generally cited as one of the best in this regard, as blighted areas were transformed, the city was opened to the sea by the construction of the Olympic Village and port, and the infrastructure was modernized.

At the other end of the spectrum, Athens and Beijing now feature underused, locked and rusting Olympic venues, many of which are still being paid for.

The Olympic Stadium in Montreal with its massive cost overruns was not completed until 1987 鈥� 11 years after the games 鈥� and it took 30 years to pay off the debt. The current collapse of the Greek economy is attributed at least in part to massive debt incurred for the 2004 Olympics.

So what will be the legacy of London 2012?

At this stage it is difficult to offer a definitive answer. What we do know is that NBC will offer American television viewers an upbeat portrait of the games and its legacy. London 2012 officials will be quoted in all available media about the wondrous things happening to London and England as a result of the games.

The sporting events will be exciting as elite athletes from around the globe compete for their glory and our entertainment. The personal stories of the athletes will be inspiring. The pageantry of the opening and closing ceremonies will be breathtaking.

We will all get swept up in the 鈥淥lympic Spirit.鈥�

None of听this is legacy. The determination of that will come later.

What history tells us, however, 听is the chance of a positive legacy is somewhat less than 50-50.

UCF Forum columnist Dick Crepeau is a history professor at the 海角直播 and can be reached at Richard.Crepeau@ucf.edu.听听