How a Bearcat became UC’s mascot By Chris Schaefer The University of Cincinnati didn’t have a bearcat as its athletic mascot from the get-go. In the university’s early years, the football team was called the “Varsity,” the “Cincinnati Eleven,” the “Red and Black,” and just simply the “boys,” said Greg Hand, former UC associate vice president of public relations. It was during a 1914 football game against the University of Kentucky Wildcats that UC’s cheerleaders would come up with the nickname. Kentucky held a narrow lead in the second half when UC power fullback Leonard “Teddy” Baehr got them back in the game. UC cheerleader Norman “Pat” Lyon shouted, “They may be the Wildcats, but we have a Baehr-cat on our side!” UC ultimately won, and Lyon’s chant inspired co-worker John “Paddy” Reece, a fellow editor of the university paper, to draw a cartoon depicting the Kentucky Wildcat being chased by the newly created Cincinnati Bear Cat. The Bearcat immediately created a sense of identity for UC that lives on today. “The students wanted to show the world that the Bearcat is a fighter, the type of person who will win against all odds, who will show flare and excellence in all regards,” Hand said. “I think that very spirit and that heart is exactly what the Bearcat has meant to UC over the century.”
About the publication This year, 2019, is a special one for the University of Cincinnati as it celebrates its 200-year anniversary. This Bicentennial Commemorative Edition by The News Record gives a brief history lesson for a university that has adopted the phrase, “Honor the Past, Elevate the Present, and Bend the Future.” Stories for the publication were produced by students in UCommunicate, a communication services firm housed in the UC’s Department of Communications. Writers: Chris Schaefer, Jason Greenberg Designer: Jared Thornton Adviser: Autumn Miller
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2 • THE NEWS RECORD BICENTENNIAL EDITION
An artist’s depiction of the Cincinnati College of 1819. (Provided by UC Archives)
UC highlights
50 years at a time 1819-1869: A beacon of knowledge in the new West
The University of Cincinnati was not officially founded and named until 1870, yet the college is celebrating its bicentennial this year. That would imply that UC has a much longer history, and it does. The foundation of what is modern-day UC can be traced back 51 years earlier to 1819. The pioneers and founders of early Cincinnati were looking to transform the city into a beacon of knowledge by placing emphasis on education, primarily in medicine, law, astronomy, and the arts, similar to how Athenians in ancient Greece transformed their city into a center of intellect and prosperity. The journey began with the establishment of Cincinnati College and the Medical College of Ohio in 1819 by physician and scientist Daniel Drake. Drake’s efforts effectively laid the groundwork for what would become UC. He envisioned Cincinnati as a pinnacle of medical science in the new West. In addition to the colleges, he founded a teaching hospital in which students could do clinical work. He felt that a hospital was imperative to a world-class medical education. The first day of classes was Nov. 9, 1819. Roughly 70 students attended the first semester, led by three professors. Tuition at the time cost a mere $20. In 1828, the Ohio Mechanical Institute (OMI) was created in what was a first attempt at an engineering college. OMI offered classes in mechanics, manufacturing, and the arts, all of which were very important studies in the first and second Industrial Revolution. Some 141 years later in 1969, OMI became an official UC college.
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1819-1869: A beacon of knowledge in the new West 1819-1869
Continued from Page 3 The Cincinnati Law School became the fourth law school in the U.S. when it was created in 1833. While serving as first dean of the law school, Timothy Walker wrote a textbook called “Introduction to American Law” that would serve as the basis and foundational textbook for law students across the country for decades. Like OMI, the Cincinnati Law School was so successful that it too would become a part of UC 63 years later. The Cincinnati Observatory was built in 1843 in Mount Adams, formerly known as Mount Ida. It was the first observatory in the United States and revolutionary in terms of education and science. Many were drawn to the building, including former President John Quincy Adams, who came to make what would be his last public speech when the cornerstone for the building was laid. After being used by the U.S Weather Service for daily weather reports and storm predictions, the observatory would ultimately be absorbed by the university in 1871. The foundation of UC’s Pharmacy School was created in 1850 when the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy was chartered. It would serve as its own independent, private college until it became a part of UC’s main campus 104 years later in 1954. In one of the final developments of the first 50 years, Clara Baur created the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1867. It was one of four in the country and the only one created only by a woman. Baur turned a one-room studio into a College of Music, offering a course in voice and piano that demanded excellence and dedication from its students in hopes of mirroring the prestigious European music institutions. The college would continue to grow in popularity and size until it comprised half of CCM. The other half would be founded 10 years later and would be called the College of Music of Cincinnati.
-Chris Schaefer
1869-1919: Bring on the University Much of what we know and love about UC began over these five decades. UC became an official university, there were mergers of colleges and the construction of key buildings, and the formation of teams and other aspects of the university occurred. In 1870, the City of Cincinnati officially established the University of Cincinnati. In the process of becoming a municipal university, UC absorbed Cincinnati College and the Medical College of Ohio. UC would hold classes over the first five years at Woodward High School until it relocated to the University Building north of Over-the-Rhine in 1875. The original University Building was criticized because it required a long hike up a hill and because it was shrouded in a cloud of smog from the industrial district at the bottom of the hill. The first official UC commencement ceremony took place in 1878 at Pike’s Opera House downtown with just seven graduates. Don’t tell Cincinnatians that Cincinnati isn’t a baseball city. The Cincinnati Reds were the first professional team in the United States, and UC’s first athletic team – organized in 1884 – also was a baseball team, though they really weren’t all that official. The team had no uniform, no field, and apparently not much motivation. It is said that the players weren’t aware of the rules, and that a game once ended in a 5-5 tie after three innings because players were bored.
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1869-1919
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1869-1919: Bring on the University Continnued from Page 4
1869-1919
A year later, the UC football team played its first game. Like the baseball team, it had an inauspicious start. The game was against a local, unnamed neighborhood team; the team itself was unnamed, as this was before they were known as the Cincinnati Bearcats. Two spectators, both relatives of the team captain, attended the game. A year after the inaugural game, the 130-year UC-Miami University rivalry kicked off. The teams played in heavy rain, and the game resulted in a 0-0 tie. The football team wouldn’t play on what is now known as Nippert Stadium until 1901 against Ohio University before a crowd of 1,400 people. It was largely because of the desire for flat land for sports and the pressing need for expansion that UC opened in Burnet Woods during the 1890s. The city thought that it was necessary because the university couldn’t expand any further off of the cliff that it was already perched on. In 1898, William Procter, descendent of the founder of Fortune 100 company Procter & Gamble, purchased a section of a private library in order to stock UC’s new library. The purchase was comprised of 6,792 books, covering a wide array of topics from travel to philosophy, that would serve as bones of UC’s modern library. The next year, Procter would display his generosity again by purchasing and donating Shakespearean-era books, as well as books on chemistry. These books would find their home in Van Wormer Hall, the original university library and the only 19th Century building still in use today. In 1906, UC implemented into its curriculum a program that was so revolutionary that it would spread to universities and campuses across the U.S. The idea is what is known today as the co-op, or cooperative education program. Herman Schneider, then an assistant professor at UC, initially pitched the program. Viewing it as experimental, UC’s Board of Trustees barely approved it. Schneider ultimately took 27 engineering students to Cincinnati’s mills and factories for alternating weeks of hands-on experience. The students prospered in the co-op program, ensuring its rapid growth and success. Schneider rose to become president of UC in the late 1920s and early 1930s, based largely upon the strength of the co-op program.
-Chris Schaefer
1919-1969: The key to innovating a new tomorrow During this era UC made its mark through research and development, scientific discoveries and medical breakthroughs. In 1940 George Rieveschl, a chemical engineer, came back to his alma mater after earning his Ph.D. at UC. According to Ohio History Connection, while Rieveschl was focusing on research of muscle spasms, he discovered the use of medical Benadryl for reducing allergy symptoms. Benadryl was approved by the Federal Drug Administration in 1946, and Rieveschl was credited 5 percent of the sales. In 1969, the university named Rieveschl Hall in his honor for discovering the world’s first antihistamine. In 1955 Walter C. Langsam became UC president. He expanded programs and put a focus on research. The university merged with the College of Pharmacy in 1954 and 15 years later would add the Ohio College of Applied Science. Albert Sabin, a medical scientist from Poland, worked at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital during the height of the polio virus. Sabin developed the world’s first oral live virus polio vaccine. According to the Cincinnati Children’s website, with an oral medication, Sabin helped save hundreds of thousands of lives in the Cincinnati area. The University of Cincinnati Magazine wrote that Sabin’s vaccine in the 1960s was “credited with eradicating the wild poliovirus from the U.S. halting worldwide epidemics.” In Sabin’s 30 years at UC’s College of Medicine’s facilities, he researched cancer vaccinations and accumulated 46 honorary degrees, the U.S. National Medal of Science and a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.
-Jason Greenberg 6 • THE NEWS RECORD BICENTENNIAL EDITION
1919-1969
1970 to present: Becoming a state university The last 50 years have been an era of architectural changes and landscape renovation. UC constructed many academic buildings in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including Crosley Tower, Rieveschl Hall, Rhodes Hall and Zimmer Auditorium. In 1976, the citizens of Cincinnati and students of the university pushed an initiative to give UC to the state of Ohio. The City of Cincinnati Council voted on and passed the initiative, and in 1977, UC became a state university. The building expansion continued with the construction of Langsam Library in 1979. Starting in the 1990s, Hargreaves Associates, a landscape architecture and planning firm, worked with UC over a two-decade period to develop an initial master plan and two updates. According the firm’s website, the realization of those plans led to a transformation from a commuter campus to a pedestrian-oriented one with new buildings and open spaces. The plans laid out different regions, with student housing in one area, athletic centers and fields in another, and educational buildings in a zone of their own, while weaving the character of the adjacent forest, Burnet Woods, throughout. The schematics laid out by Hargreaves created what is now MainStreet, a central gathering place for students in the heart of campus. Sigma Sigma Commons’ green space at the east end of campus also was an integral part of the master plan. Many of the projects were finished in the early 2000s, but two big overhauls were yet to come. Nippert Stadium underwent a huge renovation in 2014 with the addition of 5,000 seats and a multi-purpose press box that connects into Tangeman University Center. And the past two years have seen the renovation of Fifth Third Arena. The arena is almost unrecognizable, with luxury seating and a modern design. The arena re-opened for the 2018-2019 basketball season after the basketball team spent a season playing at Northern Kentucky University’s arena. Improvements also were made in residence halls. The towers of Morgans, Scioto, and Marian Spencer Hall now stand over Sigma Sigma Commons and create a new look on the northeast side of campus. Just across the way, a new Lindner College of Business is under construction and will open in fall 2019.
1970-Now
-Jason Greenberg
University of Cincinnati Presidents Rev. Elijah Slack 1819-1822 1823-1836 Bishop Philander Chase 1822-1823 Rev. William Holmes McGuffey 1836-1839 Thomas J. Biggs 1839-1845 Rufus King 1860-1869 Robert Buchanan 1867-1869 George H. Harper 1873 Henry Turner Eddy 1874-1875 1884 1889-1891 Thomas Vickers 1877-1884 Jacob Dolson Cox 1885-1889 Wayland R. Benedict 1891 1894 Edward Wyllys Hyde 1892-1893 1894-1895 1896-1898
William Oliver Sproul 1893-1894 Phillip Van Ness Myers 1895-1896 Howard Ayers 1899-1904 Joseph E. Harry 1904 Charles W. Dabney 1904-1920 Frederick C Hicks 1920-1928 Herman Schneider 1928-1929 1929-1932 Raymond Walters 1932-1955 Walter C. Langsam 1955-1971 Warren G. Bennis 1971-1977 Henry R. Winkler 1977-1984 Joseph A. Steger 1984-2003 Nancy L. Zimpher 2003-2009 Monica Rimai 2009 Gregory H. Williams 2009-2012 Santa J. Ono 2012-2016 Neville G. Pinto 2017-present THE NEWS RECORD BICENTENNIAL EDITION • 7
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Great achievements in UC sports
The 1897 football team finished 7-1-1 in the regular season and won two postseason football games. (Photo provided by UC Archives)
By Jason Greenberg The 2009 football season was one for the University of Cincinnati history books. The Bearcats finished the regular season 12-0, a school record. With 33 seconds remaining in the final game of the season against Pitt, quarterback Tony Pike found wide receiver Armon Binns for a touchdown and a 45-44 victory. The touchdown is widely regarded as the single most important play in the university’s football history and one of the top moments in UC athletics in the past 200 years. The Bearcats finished No. 3 in the final Bowl Championship standings, their highest ranking ever, but went on to lose to Florida in the Sugar Bowl. Here’s a look at other classic moments in the university’s athletic history: The Bearcats’ winning season and postseason: The 1897 football season was one of the best in school history. The Bearcats finished the regular season 7-1-1 and received an invitation from the Southern Athletic Club to play in New Orleans on New Year’s Day. Cincinnati won 16-0. LSU then challenged the Bearcats, and UC won again, 28-0, the next day. Oscar Robertson is all-time greatness: The Big O only played three seasons (1957-1960) for the Bearcats, but he made the most of those years, winning the National Player of the Year all three seasons. Robertson still holds UC’s all-time scoring records. In perhaps his greatest game, against Seton Hall at Madison Square Garden in 1958, Robertson scored 56 points, outscoring the entire Pirates team. In the NBA, he was the first player to average a triple-double – at least 10 points, 10 assists, 10 steals or blocks – for an entire season. Bearcats take back-to-back in NCAA basketball titles: The years 1961 and 1962 were magical for UC, as the Bearcats took down Ohio State in two straight title games to bring the NCAA basketball championship home to Armory Fieldhouse. UC quarterback Greg Cook set more than a dozen school passing records: In 1968, Cook led the NCAA in total offense and was second in the country in passing, throwing for 3,272 yards and 25 touchdowns. Cook was the fifth overall selection by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 1969 AFL draft. He won Rookie of the Year honors, but his NFL career was cut short because of a shoulder injury. Kenyon Martin wins National Player of the Year: In 2000, Martin led the Bearcats to the nation’s No. 1 ranking. He was picked first overall in the 2000 NBA draft by the New Jersey Nets and went on to play 15 seasons in the NBA. Josh Schneider takes home an individual national title: In 2010, Schneider swam a record 18.93 in the 50 freestyle to take home UC’s fourth national swimming championship in school history, and the first for the program since 1946. Sources: GoBearcats website, Bleacher Report. THE NEWS RECORD BICENTENNIAL EDITION • 9
Key people who made UC what it is By Chris Shaefer & Jason Greenberg Daniel Drake was a physician who helped found the Cincinnati College and the Medical College of Ohio. Both were later merged with the University of Cincinnati. Cincinnati College opened for classes in November 1819, and the Medical College of Ohio in 1820. Charles McMicken arrived in Cincinnati in 1803 and built a fortune in flour, cotton, sugar, indigo and real estate. He endowed the bulk of his estate, worth about $800,000 to $900,000, to the City of Cincinnati to found a university that eventually became UC. Cleveland Abbe began work at UC that led to the creation of the United States National Weather Service in 1870. In addition to meteorology, he contributed to the adoption of standard time zones to coordinate weather reports. William H. Parham, first African-American graduate of UC in 1874, was superintendent of the Colored Schools from 1866 to 1876. He was one of the first black notary publics in Ohio and one of the first blacks to be nominated for the state legislature.
Charles McMicken, UC benefactor
Winona Lee Hawthorne graduated in 1878, the first official commencement of the university, and was UC’s first woman graduate. The Cincinnati Enquirer described her as “a talented and highly cultured young lady.” Herbert Couper Wilson, studying astronomy, was the first to PhD graduate of the university. He was in charge of the Cincinnati Observatory until 1884. Alice May Easton was the first African-American woman to graduate from UC. She earned a bachelor of science degree in mathematics in 1897. Known as “a math whiz,” she later taught at the Harriet Beecher Stowe School. Asa Van Wormer gained success as a Cincinnati merchant selling butter, milk, and eggs to markets in New Orleans. He provided a gift to help build a university library in memory of his late wife. Dedicated in 1903, the Van Wormer Library served the university until a new library – now known as Blegen Library – opened in 1930.
Annie Laws, champion of education
Annie Laws was a champion of education for women in the early 20th Century. At age 24 she founded a Cincinnati Kindergarten Society to reform the education of children. She served on the Cincinnati Board of Education and the university’s College of Nursing and Health. She also founded what would become the College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services. The west wing of the Teachers College building was named in her honor. Herman Schneider is considered the father of the co-op program. He became first dean of UC’s College of Engineering in 1906, and his perseverance helped engineering and mechanics students gain factory experience while taking classes.
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William Howard Taft is the only U.S. president to also serve as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He graduated from the Cincinnati College Law School in 1880. When UC established a law department in 1896 he was named its first dean. Taft was elected U.S. president in 1908, and in 1921 he was appointed chief justice. Alphonso Taft, the father of William Howard Taft, was the attorney general and secretary of war for the 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant. The elder Taft became a member of the university’s Board of Trustees and served on the Cincinnati City Council. Annette Braun, in 1911, became the first woman to earn a doctoral degree at UC, just five years after the founding of UC’s graduate school and nine years before women in America gained the right to vote. Her younger sister, Lucy, was the second woman in science to earn the college’s highest degree and just the third woman to do so overall. Both sisters had a passion for botany and nature. The Department of Agriculture relied heavily on Annette’s work, and Lucy helped build UC’s botany department.
William H. Taft, second from left, graduated from Cincinnati Law School in 1880.
Ada Hart Arlitt was a prominent figure in early childhood education. She was known as a preschool pioneer in the early 20th Century and produced research in both child and adolescent psychology. Arlitt gave roughly $250,000 to UC for the preschool program, now called the Arlitt Child and Family Research and Education Center.
Donald and Marian Spencer devoted decades to the cause of desegregation in Cincinnati. Donald became the first African-American to be admitted to the Real Estate Brokers Association. Marian worked to desegregate Coney Island and the YWCA. She was elected to city council and appointed to UC’s Board of Trustees. Darwin T. Turner was the youngest person to graduate from UC, earning his bachelor’s degree with honors in 1947 at the age of 16. He went on to earn his master’s at UC and his doctorate at the University of Chicago. For years he headed the African-American World Studies Program at the University of Iowa. The Darwin T. Turner Scholars Program was established in 1976 in his honor. Carl Blegen, a UC faculty member from 1927 to 1957, was a renowned archeological researcher who directed excavations at Troy in the 1930’s. In 1965, he became the first recipient of the Archaeological Institute of America’s Gold Medal for archaeological achievement. In 1983, the university renamed a library building in his honor. Carl H. Lindner was an internationally recognized businessman whose family’s generosity to UC is unparalleled. In 2011, UC’s College of Business was renamed in his honor. The college is housed in Carl H. Lindner Hall, and in 1985 the college established the Carl H. Lindner Award for Outstanding Business Achievement. Lindner, along with his wife and family, gave the largest donation in the history of the university with a $30 million gift to create the Craig and Frances Lindner Center of Hope. In 2003, Lindner and his two brothers, Richard and Robert, donated $10 million to create the Richard E. Lindner Varsity Village and the Richard E. Lindner Athletic Center.
Lucy Braun helped build UC’s botany department.
Sources: CECH website, The News Record, UC Twitter feed, UC website.
THE NEWS RECORD BICENTENNIAL EDITION • 11
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