50 years of OLYMPIC MOMENTS

CMU has hosted the Michigan summer games since 1972

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the founder of the Special Olympics, saw “little justice in the way people with intellectual disabilities were treated.” She believed people with disabilities could achieve far more than most people thought possible, and she put her ideas into action in 1962 when she invited young people with intellectual disabilities to a summer day camp hosted in her backyard. The small idea rapidly turned into an international movement, and the first International Special Olympics Games were held in Chicago July 19-20, 1968.

In the U.S., each state and territory has a region-specific Special Olympics program. In Michigan, CMU was selected in October 1972 to become the home of Special Olympics Michigan. The CMU community immediately embraced the opportunities presented by hosting the state games in Mount Pleasant. For the first games held at CMU in June 1973, 1,600 athletes participated and more than 200 people volunteered, many of them CMU students.

Soon after this inaugural statewide effort, CMU was invited to enter a bid for hosting the world games — the only university invited to do so for these games. Shortly after the 1974 state games in June, CMU was named as the site of the 1975 International Specials Olympics.

Mount Pleasant and CMU took center stage when the fourth International Special Olympics Summer Games came to town Aug. 13-18, 1975, bringing 3,200 athletes from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and nine other countries.

To this day, since the first competition in 1973, thousands of Michigan athletes with disabilities make their way to Mount Pleasant to participate in the Special Olympic state games. And over the years, thousands of CMU students, faculty and staff have volunteered. •

1981