The economic downturn that began in the United States in 2008 has influenced higher education in similar ways to retrenchment in the early 1970s. Institutional budget constraints have expedited long-term declines in the number of full-time, tenure track faculty positions available in many academic disciplines, especially the humanities. This qualitative study examined the careers of humanities faculty who were trained at prestigious research institutions before entering a tight academic labor market as newly-minted PhDs in the period from 1972-1982. The discrepancies between future faculty preparation and unanticipated career options in the 1970s had long-lasting repercussions for the study participants, and underscores the differences between elite PhD-granting research universities and employing Master's I/Comprehensive universities. (Contains 2 tables.)