He arrived at Yale a legacy, the grandson of a Senator, the son of a member of Congress. But throughout his four years in New Haven, George W. Bush managed to hang onto his Lone Star State roots.

It wasn't just the cowboy boots, either.

Yale was the kind of school where ambition wasn't rare. These were the days when Bill Clinton was already plotting his political career. But the future Texas governor stayed out of the fray, concentrating on athletics and a social life--Texas-style pleasures--instead of grand plans for the future.

"I vividly remember sitting with him for a few hours on a fence in a courtyard his senior year and he really didn't know what he wanted to do with himself," says former Dean of Yale College Henry Chauncey.

He nonetheless impressed his colleagues in the Class of 1968 with his gregarious personality and smooth Southern charm--the same elements that are helping him to the top of the Republican presidential field.

Deke House and Beyond

When Bush entered Yale in 1964, the college--the only one he applied to besides the University of Texas--was still a sedate place.

Campus life centered around a few staples: the football game, the prom, fraternities. New Haven was not then dangerous, just boring.