The U.S.-Soviet Union space race more than 60 years ago helped give birth to the UToledo Phonathon fundraisers in the 1960s.
With the launch of the U.S.S.R. Sputnik satellite on Oct. 4, 1957, Congress responded by passing the National Defense Education Act the following year. Designed to foster a larger college-educated workforce for the national defense, the act, among other things, granted colleges $9 for scholarships for every dollar raised locally. And thus, The University of Toledo Alumni Foundation was created that same year to help in fundraising, leading to annual fundraisers such as the Phonathon.
