ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA: 1885: Arizona�s thirteenth legislature approves $25,000 for Tucson to build Arizona�s first university while Phoenix is gifted $100,000 to construct the state insane asylum. Arizona State University was also chartered as Arizona�s �normal school� (teacher�s college) that year. Nov. 27, 1886: Two professional gamblers, E.B. Gifford and Ben Parker, and a local saloon owner, W.S. Read, donate 40 acres of land for the construction of a university. Oct. 27, 1887: Builders broke ground for Old Main, the first building constructed for the new university. Oct. 1, 1891: 32 students apply to attend the UA as part of its inaugural freshman class, but only 6 are admitted with the other 26 sent to preparatory schools. These first freshmen attended class at Old Main. 1895: Three students, two of them women, become the first UA graduates. Thanksgiving Day, 1899: The UA competes in a football game against the Tempe Normal School (which later became ASU), beginning one of the longestrunning collegiate rivalries in the United States. Tempe Normal School won this first clash 11-2. 1900: Quintas J. Anderson, then the UA student athletics manager, is offered a set of solid blue jerseys with red trimming for a low price. The jerseys are greeted enthusiastically and prompt the school to change its colors from silver and sage green to red and blue. The UA�s current school colors are navy blue and cardinal red. 1904: �The St. Patrick�s Day Strike�: After petitioning then-university President Babcock to recognize a full holiday on St. Patrick�s Day, many students refused to attend classes and marched downtown to enjoy the holiday they had been denied. February 14, 1912: Arizona becomes the 48th state. June 2, 1914: J.F. McKale is hired as the UA�s first athletic director. November 6, 1914: Civil engineering student Albert H. Condron suggests to a professor that Sentinel Peak should be surveyed so that a large �A� could be placed on it as a show of school pride. The 70-foot wide and 160-foot long �A,� built entirely by students, was completed on March 14, 1916. Members of the incoming UA freshman class repaint the �A� to mark the beginning of each school year. November 7, 1914: After a 14-0 loss to football powerhouse Occidental College, Los Angeles correspondent Bill Henry writes that the UA football team �showed the fight of wildcats.� The wildcat would become the UA�s first sports mascot and remains so to this day. October 17, 1915: The freshman football team raises $9.91 to purchase the UA�s first mascot, a bobcat named �Rufus Arizona,� after UA President Rufus B. von KleinSmid. Rufus would later die after accidentally hanging himself while tied to a tree on April 17, 1916. January 31, 1920: The Berger Memorial Fountain, donated by Alexander Berger and dedicated to his nephew Alexander Tindolph Berger, is built in front of Old Main to honor UA students who perished in World War I. October, 1926: UA student body president and football player John �Button� Salmon is critically injured in an automobile accident. During a visit with Athletic Director McKale, he reportedly asked McKale to �tell the team to bear down.� Salmon died on October 18, 1926, and a year later the UA would paint the words �bear down� on top of the school�s gymnasium in his honor. 1929: Dugald Stanley Holsclaw, UA class of 1925, writes �Fight! Wildcats! Fight!� the UA�s first fight song. September 1942: The UA�s Old Main is refurbished to become the wartime Naval Indoctrination School. The project was funded by a grant from the Navy and cost $89,000. July 1946: Thanks in part to the efforts of UA alumnus Wilber L. Bill Bowers, the UA obtains one of the two original bells salvaged from the U.S.S. Arizona after it was sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The bell was hung in the Student Union Memorial Center clock tower and rung for the first time on November 17, 1951. The bell was moved to its current location after the construction of the new Student Union Memorial Center on Aug. 16, 2002 and, on Sept. 11 of that year, Bowers became the first person to ring the bell in its new location. 1952: Former UA band director Jack K. Lee writes the early lyrics for �Bear Down Arizona� after seeing the words inscribed on top of Bear Down Gymnasium from his airplane. The song would later become the UA�s official fight song and was first played in September of that same year. 1959: UA roommates John Paquette and Dick Heller design the costume for � Wilber Wildcat.� UA student Ed Stuckenhoff would become the first incarnation of the UA�s current mascot during that year�s homecoming football game against Texas Tech University. October 21, 1967: About 275 students march from Speedway and Country Club to Randolph Park to protest the Vietnam War. Students would later stage takeovers of Old Main and the campus R.O.T.C. office as other signs of dissent. February 1973: The McKale Center athletic arena opens. It is now the largest arena in the Pacific-10 athletic conference in terms of total capacity. November 21, 1986: After almost thirty years as a confirmed bachelor, Wilbur Wildcat decides to settle down with his wife, Wilma. The two remain happily married (outside of occasional football game wardrobe malfunctions) to this day. February 26, 2000: The McKale center floor court is renamed �Lute Olson Court.� It was renamed �Lute and Bobbi Olson Court� the next January in honor of Lute Olson�s late wife, Bobbi. ARTICLES FORM 1944: 1,747 Students Register For Fall Semester; Now 3 Girls For Every Man - A total enrollment of 1,747 students was announced by C. Zaner Lesher, registrar. Of the 1,747 students, 1,279 are women and 468 men. The ratio of women to men is approximately 3 to 1. Although official registration is over for freshman and old students, Lesher expects the additional enrollment of at least 400 students. This would bring the total number of students to over 1,800 for the fifty-third autumn semester. Statistics show that this would be a decided increase of about 400 students above the enrollment at this time last year. This considerable increase over last year�s enrollment was due to several reasons, Lesher stated. INCREASED INTEREST High wages paid in defense jobs and general pay increases have enlarges incomes and enabled many students for whom it would have otherwise have been impossible, to enroll in the University of Arizona. He also cited an increased general interest in college as a possible reason for the enlarged enrollment. Another part of this increase is due to the enrollment of the 100 veterans of World War II. Fifty of the 100 men are enrolled under the government program outlines in the GI bill of rights. Another 25 are are registered under the veterans rehabilitation program, and the remaining 25 are discharged veterans entering on their own initiative. V-Day Plans Made By University Whistle Blast, Dismissal of Classes Await Allied Victory - On the University of Arizona capus plans for V-day celebrations were being made yesterday. According to Dr. Alfred Atkinson, president, the shop whistle of the university will blast heartily and steadily as soon as an author many is received from Allied headquarters. Classes will be dismissed immediately, and if word comes before 11:30 a.m. students will convene with the faculty and staff members in theh auditorium at once for assembly. If the news of Germany�s defeat is received is received after 11:30 a.m., classes will be dismissed for the remainder of the next morning at 9:10. In the event Germany is beaten over the week-end, the assembly will be held the following Monday morning. Principal speaker at the assembly will be Dr. Chester H. Smith of the law faculty. It will be conducted with respect to the fact that the war is not ended. Further plans for the program will be made by Dr. Emil Larson of the college of education, chairman of the special occasions committee, and Professor Rollin Pease, Dr. Smith and Dr. Napoleon Tremblay. Bell From U.S.S. Arizona To Be Placed In Old Main After Warh By: Margie Houseman October 6, 1944 - The ship�s bell from the U.S.S. Arizona has been promised the University of Arizona at the close of hostilities, according to word received recently by Gov. Sidney P. Osborn. The huge bronze bell, was retrieved from the battleship Arizona which was sunk in Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941. An alumnus of this university, Capt. Wilbur Bowers, �27, is credited by A. L. Slonaker, graduate manager, as instigator of the plan to solicit possession of the bell. The plan was referred to Gov. Osborn who sent a request to Rear Admiral R. M. Griffin, commandant of the Puget Sound Naval Yard, Bremerton, Wash., where the bell is now located. The commandant expressed approval of the request that the bell of the U.S.S. Arizona be sent to Arizona, but suggested that it remain at the navy yard as an inspiration to service men until the war is over. OSBORN ASSURED Secretary of Navy Forrestal assured Gov. Osborn this September that the bel will be presented to the state at the close of hostilities. � Since the possession by the state of Arizona of the bell of the U.S.S. Arizona would be greatly appreciated by the people of the state for reasons of sentiment and patriotism, the navy department is glad to give its consent to the proposed transfer to be made at the close of the war,� Forrestal advised Gov. Osborn. He added that the bell is a center of attraction at the navy yard, a grim reminder of the job ahead, and is rung daily.�Its presence and tone convey inspiration to the thousands of men working here or passing through on their way to combat ships of our fleet,� Griffin declared. There has been scattered journalistic agitation throughout the state that the bell should be placed in a more public site. However, as the situation now stands it will be placed on campus. ARTICLES FROM 1965: Enrollment Predicted at 18,000 Sept. 11, 1964 Approximately 18,000 students are expected to enroll for the fall semester, according to David L. Windsor, University registrar and director of admissions. Returning students begin registering today and will continue tomorrow and Monday. New student will register tomorrow and Monday. Students in the College of Law registered Sept 8 and 9. The expected on-campus enrollment will exceed the 1963 fall semester enrollment by approximately 800, said Windsor. The figures do not include about 2,000 students who take continuing education courses in several places in southern Arizona and student who are enrolled in correspondence courses. ZBT �Kidnaps� Housemothers - Members of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity �kidnapped� sorority housemothers last Tuesday and held them until the sororities paid the �ransom.� The housemothers of every campus sorority were invited to a tea Tuesday for the ZBT�s new housemother, Mrs. Ray Fontaine. The ZBT�s informed the housemothers that they would be prisoners of the fraternity until at least 50 members of each sorority ransomed them by serenading the ZBTs. The ZBTs �kidnapped� a student representative of sororities who housemothers were not present at the tea. No Dinner - As the sororities members were getting ready for dinner, they realized the absence of the housemothers. A phone call from the ZBT house told the girls �to serenade the ZBT house or to miss dinner and lose their housemother.�It was nearly sunset when the sorority girls arrived in front of the ZBT house, where their housemothers were seated on chairs out on the lawn and heavily guarded by the fraternity�s men. After the sororities serenaded the men, the housemothers were released and peace reigned again in sororities. Final Exams Reduced To 2 Hours Nov. 13, 2010 - All final examination periods have been cut from three hours to two hours this semester at the request for the Faculty Senate, according to David L. Winsor registrar. This is one of four major revisions in the examination schedule issued recently by Windsor�s office. Many professors feel that a two-hour examination period is sufficient to determine what a student has learned,� Windsor said. �Also, we want to retain the original eight-day examination period. To do this, the hour reduction is necessary because of the other revisions.�The other revisions are: students in certain sectioned courses will be given the same examination; continuing education (late afternoon and evening) tests will be given in the regular examination period, and no examinations will be held during the noon hour. The important change is the giving of common ecams in certain sectioned courses,� Windsor said. �Many faculty feel it is difficult to grade students fairly if they aren�t given the same examination.�Coeds Ask for Permission To Visit Men�s Apartments March 11, 1965 - Permission for women students to visit men�s unchaperoned apartments is one of two suggested changes in the rules in Kitten Klues, Associated Women Students (AWS) handbook, which has been submitted to the Dean of Women�s office for approval. The other change is in regard to Tucson signouts. The approval of the suggestions by Karen Carlson, dean of women, and University officials will allow women students to visit men�s apartments, or stay overnight in Tucson with a relative or a woman town student, providing they have permission letters in the Dean of Women�s office. Charlotte Cleveland, AWS president, said that through these changes the individual will assume responsibility and The University will be relieved of pressure. These suggestions were unanimously approved by women living in the residence halls and sorority houses. If the Dean of Women approves the changes, she will present them to the Advisory Council of University officials for final approval some time this week. The suggested changes resulted from a special AWS committee formed to investigate the men�s apartment ruling in other schools throughout the nation. ARTICLES FROM 1985: Friday, November 9, 1984 Five Homecoming Queen hopefuls honored to be part of UA tradition By Christine Donnelly - Continuing a tradition that began in 1947, the University of Arizona will crown its 37th Homecoming Queen tonight at a party at the Ramada Inn, 404 N. Freeway. The Homecoming Queen and Kind and their court will also be presented at tomorrow night�s UA football game. The wildcats will host the Stanford University Cardinal. Five senior women are being considered for the title, which is sponsored by Bobcats, a senior men�s honorary at the UA. The women were told they were finalists on Oct. 29. Since then, they have visited local civic organizations, appeared on local television and attended rallies on the UA Mall. The nominating process began several weeks ago. After being nominated by a UA group or organization, the women filled
PRESENTS
B2 Presidents of administrations past B4 The changing look of campus
INSIDE
B6 Memorable UA athletic icons B10 - B11 125 years of UA history
B13 What does the future bring for the UA? B16 Style changes with campus culture