The English classics were at the core of the Umuahian mindscape; a source of instruction, entertainment and intellectual elevation. Fueled by the Textbook Act and the literary demands and habits of the school's English masters, Government College students became voracious readers. The authors of the books they devoured were remote and unattainable Englishmen, and it simply did not occur to the students to write for anything but academic reasons. This was not to last. Before long, the boys ‘experienced a first rate creative writer in action, sampled and cherished his creative output’.

In early 1948 or thereabouts, the school invited a group of girls from the nearby Women's Training College, Ogbanelu, to a netball game at the college. The match proved disastrous for the home team, who lost in their eagerness of ‘catching breasts instead of catching the ball’, as an incensed Mr. Jumbo recriminated after the match. Shortly afterwards, an Old Boy of the school, newly admitted to the University College, Ibadan, wrote to inform the principal of an awkward experience with a member of the opposite sex. When a classmate visited his rooms to borrow a set of mathematical tables, the bewildered alumnus had obliged her request and fled the room. Would Mr Simpson please instill in his students the pertinent habits of comportment to avoid future embarrassment? The principal found the suggestion a good idea, and rallied Mr. Bisiriyu and other masters to the cause.