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CLASS OF 1927
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When Major General Davidson returned to West Point in 1956 as superintendent,
his reputation as the academy’s successful prewar football coach and an outstanding
soldier in both World War II and Korea preceded him. Having just spent two years leading the army’s
Command and General Staff College, he firmly believed that a changing world demanded major
changes at West Point. Politically astute and well informed, he became the academy’s most
successful academic reformer since Sylvanus Thayer.
Davidson’s foremost achievement was introducing electives to the curriculum.
No longer would all cadets follow exactly the same program. He also revitalized the honor code,
de-emphasizing football and promoting athletic participation by all cadets. Four years was not enough.
His offer to forgo a third star and stay for another term to finish what he had begun was not accepted,
but others carried on the school’s continuing transformation. Electives made it possible,
a little more than two decades later, for West Point to offer optional majors to cadets.
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