You can do that today. But there was a no episode in history where that would have bene the norm or more likely than it is today. Anecdotes are just that.
The only place I can think of giving pensions at that age anymore is the military. And you aren’t getting a fat pension without being an officer which requires a degree
All of my grandparents retired in their 50s with fat pensions and then lived into their late 80s without having ever stepped foot on a college campus.