In fall 1926 the student newspaper, the Orange and White, announced it would sponsor a coed popularity contest. The military department had also been planning to pick “the most popular coed on The Hill” but joined instead with the Orange and White, voting to make the winner of that contest an honorary cadet colonel of the University of Tennessee ROTC unit. In January, Jean Humphreys of Memphis, was announced the winner. She received a specially made cadet colonel’s uniform and took part in the spring dress parades wearing it.
Since this was the first time an American ROTC unit had named a female honorary cadet colonel, she (and UT) received considerable national attention. Her picture was broadcast over the country by the NEA and World Wide News Services. On January 26, 1927, her picture appeared in the midweek Rotogravure section of the New York Times, with the caption “Colonel Jean Humphreys, most popular co-ed at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the first American girl to wear the title of Honorary Cadet Colonel.”
In 1927 Evelyn Hoskins was elected by the student body to the honor and received the honorary cadet colonel title. Her picture appeared in a nationally distributed booklet issued by the Committee on Militarism in Education, the purpose of which was to show that the military was being popularized by flashy uniforms, snappy officers, and coeds. In 1928 the coed honorary cadet colonel was elected solely by the military department, and the “most popular co-ed” was separately selected.