Fundraising campaigns to support UC are nothing new, as demonstrated here during a weeklong "Operation Telephone" on campus in 1967. Solicitations were made on more than 100 telephones in the Armory Fieldhouse Lobby by alumni, faculty and students, and prizes were awarded to participants who brought in top donations toward the fundraising goal of more than $35,000. Nightly and weekly prizes included dinners for two at "fine" downtown restaurants, a Sony radio from the UC Bookstore, portable TVs and transistor radios.

The campaign reached out to about 16,000 UC graduates living in the Cincinnati area, which, according to a 1967 article in the News Record, made it one of the largest university telephone campaigns in the United States at the time.

Link:
On Campus Yesterday archive