OXFORD — Excitement was an often repeated emotion on the campus of the University of Mississippi Friday night.

For those who saw the debate up close and personal, it was a place in history for the state’s flagship university.

“I was honored to be in there to see this moment in the history of our nation,” said Ole Miss senior Laura Blackledge, a Vicksburg native who was among 150 students chosen in various leadership-based lotteries to attend the 90-minute debate.

The experience left Colin Reid, another Ole Miss student and Vicksburg native who won tickets to the debate, in complete awe.

“Everyone was just electrified,” said Reid, a junior international studies major and Spanish minor. “I mean, there’s Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams, Katie Couric. They were having their makeup done. Then I looked up and saw Howard Dean, John Kerry.”

Ongoing talks in Congress concerning the global financial crisis led off the debate between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, which slowly led into the planned format of national security and foreign policy.

With polls sure to move in the coming days based partly on how millions of television viewers judged each candidate, evaluations varied for the two local student leaders.

“It did get interesting at times, with the whole economy the big topic,” said Blackledge , a dietetics and nutrition major and the daughter of David and Jan Blackledge. “I thought both did well.”

Reid, the son of Bruce and Lisa Reid said, “Neither shocked me with what they said,” adding that he was impressed with McCain’s control and delivery and said Obama, an early leader in some broadcast polls, had “several openings” he did not exploit.

Both Reid and Blackledge are St. Aloysius High School graduates.

Subsequent presidential debates are set for Oct. 7 at Belmont University in Nashville — a town hall-style format — and Oct. 15 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. A debate between the nominees for vice president is set for Thursday at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Commission on Presidential Debates has sponsored and produced each presidential debate since 1988. Its chairmen are former heads of the Democratic and Republican parties. Invites to the debates are chosen based on ballot access in a majority of states in the Electoral College and at least a 15 percent draw in five selected national opinion polls.