The University of South Florida held its first day of classes on this date. USF was the first major state university planned, built and opened in the 20^th century. Described as a metropolitan university, the school was built on the site of Henderson Field, a WWII airfield. The school’s first president was John S. Allen Ph.D., an astronomer and former interim president of the University of Florida. Allen and his successors helped to build a modern state university from the ground up, which is now one of the state’s top schools with four campuses that enroll over 47,000 students.