In June 1984, astronaut Gulon Bluford, Jr. delivered a commencement address at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Twenty minutes into his speech, Bluford collapsed in front of 2,200 people, a victim, apparently, of nerves and hot lighting overhead. After a few minutes, Bluford returned to the podium. Welcomed by a standing ovation, he finished his speech, after joking that his next engineering degree would be in air conditioning.