A fellow graduate told me there would not be time to go to university and that I would be destroyed if I did not become a JW by 1975. I told him he would wake up in 1976 with egg all over his face.
Instead of recognizing the egg on their faces, many JWs said, "My service to Jehovah isn't tied to a date" (I remember an elder telling me that) and just dug in deeper.
Many are probably still in, denying to themselves that the organization ever said anything of consequence about 1975.