Inspiring
Washington

Thanks to the discovery of artesian water, every home in Pullman has clean running water by 1891, according to the Pullman Herald. Well-digging has become a town spectacle. Pamphlets touting Pullman’s “ever-flowing springs of pure-abundant cold water” are distributed to lure potential residents to the area.

President Lilley is appointed to a one-year term. His previous experience includes serving as president of the Dakota Agricultural College from 1884 to 1886. Soon after his appointment, he launches construction of the first classroom building, named the “Crib”—the cradle of an infant college. The modest brick building costs $1,500 to construct.

The institution welcomes 13 collegiate and 46 preparatory students who study agriculture, mechanic arts and engineering, and sciences and arts. President Lilley teaches mathematics and elementary physics.  The Morrill Act specifies that one of the major subjects to be taught is, “veterinary art” and Charles E. Munn, a veterinarian, is among the first six faculty members.  Tuition is not charged the first year.

The State College students defeat Pullman’s Military College at baseball, in a game called after six innings due to the lopsidedness of the 26-0 score.

Charles Vancouver Piper believed he needed to classify the flora and fauna of the PNW so other scientists could better understand the uniqueness of area. He published Flora of the Palouse Region (1901), Flora of the State of Washington (1906), Insect Pests of the Garden, Farm, and Orchard (1895), and many other books, including works on hay, soybeans, and other crops.

Students pelt Heston with rotten cabbages, plucked from icy fields nearby, as well as eggs and snowballs, marring the day he is introduced as president. The president of the Board of Regents, Andrew Smith, is also pelted as he walks with Heston across campus. The new president spends more time in Olympia and Seattle than tending to campus matters, fueling accusations around the state about unruliness in Pullman.

The college inaugurates the sport by defeating the University of Idaho, 10-0. The team doesn’t employ a paid coach until 1900, but advisers in the first couple years include newspaperman William Goodyear, agriculturalist William J. Spillman, and young athlete Fred Waite.

The dedication of the Administration Building, known today as Thompson Hall, serves as a tangible sign of the college’s growth under President Bryan’s leadership. The regents describe the building as ”an excellent piece of work and one that in point of convenience, strength, and architectural beauty compares with any state building.” Built with granite quarried from Spokane and brick from clay deposits near Stevens Hall, the building’s two large contrasting towers make it one of the campus’s most distinctive landmarks.

Of the seven graduates, Orin Hector Stratton and Carl Estby become the first WSU Civil Engineering graduates.

Edward Kimmel, class of 1897, is named the first president.

This major division of the college admits its first class of three students into a three-year curriculum, and this year is considered to be the official birth of today’s College of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University.  In 1902 two of the three original class, Drs. Charles S. Philips and John W. Woods, graduate.

The squad defeats Whitman College, 5-2, in the title-deciding game, a contest played in Walla Walla that attracts 1,200 to 1,400 enthusiastic fans.

The Abelsons enroll after building a house where Fulmer Hall now stands. Olaf graduates with a degree in civil engineering in 1909. The Abelsons’ son Phillip later attends WSU and becomes an internationally recognized chemical engineer. Among his accomplishments: he devises a method for large-scale enrichment of uranium for use as power source in submarines, leading to construction of the world’s first atomic submarine.

March 11, the first state Veterinary Practice Act is signed into law granting the governor the power to appoint an examining board composed of three graduate veterinarians, one to be the state veterinarian. All graduate veterinarians in the state are required to show proof of graduation by July 1. Non-graduate veterinarians who’ve practiced in the state for not less than two years are grandfathered in. Interestingly, graduates of human medical schools can become licensed veterinarians in Washington simply by showing proof of graduation.

The Board of Regents grants the president 3 months of sick leave to recover. He returns to campus feeling refreshed from his first extended vacation since arriving in Pullman in 1893. The incident forces Bryan to realize he needs to share major administrative responsibilities, so he appoints faculty member O.L. Waller as his first vice president.

​Owing to the importance of Veterinary Science a new three story, brick veterinary science building is erected on the Pullman campus. Later known as the Administrative Annex, the structure, which sat on the western edge of the historic campus core, was torn down in 2009.

The college establishes an architecture program, one of the first on the West Coast, after the University of California at Berkeley.

The football team vanquishes the Whitman College Fighting Missionaries, 23–0.

The act links cooperative extension services to land-grant universities. The program is designed to keep citizens informed about developments in agriculture, home economics, public policy, economic development, and other subjects.

C.C. Todd, professor of chemistry, serves as the founding dean. Although authorized in 1917, the school doesn’t get under way until 1922, after a few of the best researchers voluntarily organize themselves into a research council.

The 1920s bring the enactment of legislation that requires compulsory physical education in the high schools of many states. This leads to the development of a degree program at WSC to train students as physical and recreation directors, playground supervisors, and athletic coaches.

In June 1917, President Holland announces that the institution will reorganize into 5 colleges (Agriculture, Mechanical Arts and Engineering, Science and Arts, Veterinary Science, and Home Economics) and 4 schools (Mines, Education, Pharmacy, and Music and Applied Design), with deans as administrative heads. The College of Home Economics is to be one of the first of its kind in the nation. However, World War I interrupts these plans, delaying implementation of the new structure to the 1919-1920 school year.

Former United States President William Howard Taft speaks briefly and presents a few student awards at Rogers Field in the afternoon, then delivers a speech titled “Capital, Labor, and the Soviet” that evening in Bryan Auditorium.

The president had previously traveled to Pullman on October 7, 1911 while still in office, but he didn’t make it to campus, as he spoke from his train car at the Northern Pacific depot downtown. The visit appears to be the only time a sitting president has visited Pullman.

The new “Women’s Day” incorporates female athletics into what previously had been known as the “May Fete,” an event typically centered on artistic presentations including theater, oratory, and dance, plus a May Queen pageant. The first May Fete took place in 1910.

Henry Heald, the namesake of Heald Hall on the Pullman campus, graduates with a degree in civil engineering. He later becomes president of Illinois Tech, New York University, and the Ford Foundation.

Foster begins a 21-year tenure at the college as graduate manager and later, athletic director. He plays a pivotal role in the construction of almost every major sports facility on campus, including Bohler Gymnasium, Hollingbery Fieldhouse, and the original university golf course, and oversees enlargement of the football stadium.

Five-foot-five, 150-pound quarterback Herbert “Butch” Meeker becomes an instant Cougar legend after leading his 1-3-1 team to a stunning 17-12 win over a good USC team in Los Angeles—Washington State’s first-ever win over the Trojans. The team returns to Pullman and is treated to a hero’s welcome, with students let out of class to go to the Union Pacific depot to greet the players’ train.

Meeker repeats his football magic multiple times from 1925 to 1927, earning him the title of “the fightingest little football player ever to don a Cougar uniform.”

After Washington Governor Roland Hartley presents the college with its first live cougar mascot at halftime of a game in 1927, it is quickly named Butch in Meeker’s honor.

Orin Ercel “Babe” Hollingbery begins a 17-year stint as head coach of the Cougar football team and earns legendary status in the process. He compiles a career win-loss record of 93–53–14, the most wins by any coach in Cougar football history. Under Hollingbery, Washington State goes undefeated at home from 1926 to 1935. He guides the team to the 1931 Rose Bowl against Alabama.

Hollingbery coaches some of the greatest names in Washington State history, including Turk Edwards, Mel Hein, Mel Dressel, Dale Gentry, Ed Goddard, Harold Ahlskog, Elmer Schwartz, Bob Kennedy, Nick Suseoff, Bill Sewell, John Bley, and Herbert “Butch” Meeker.

Hollingbery remains at WSC until World War II, when WSC temporarily ceases playing football.

Hollingbery Fieldhouse, built in 1929, and is renamed for the coach in 1963. In 1979, the College Football Hall of Fame selects him for membership.

The building opens with “all the latest in equipment.” Later it’s renamed White Hall in honor of Mary Elmina White, who served  33 years as a WSC cooperative extension leader. In 2000, White Hall is remodeled to include a 117-student, 67-room dormitory area for Honors Program students. White Hall is renamed Honors Hall in fall semester 2001.

The previously undefeated Cougars fall to Alabama, 24-0, a game attended by an estimated 60,000 fans on a drizzly New Year’s Day in Pasadena.

As the Great Depression deepens, the college is forced to reduce the salaries of faculty and staff by an average of 25 percent in order to meet reduced state appropriations. The budget granted to WSC for 1933-1935 through the legislature’s “barefoot schoolboy” measures represents a cut of 36.5 percent over previous budgets.

Roberts goes on to be the first licensed female veterinarian in California and is among only 12 in the nation at the time.

After coming to WSC in 1934 on a horticulture fellowship, Walter Clore joined the WSU Irrigation Branch Experiment Station in 1937. He started out working with tree fruits and small fruits, but eventually became transfixed by Washington’s potential for wine grape production. Clore went on to encourage Washington farmers to grow vinifera grapes and worked as a winery consultant after his retirement in 1976. Clore passed away in January of 2003.

On the air, the West Coast radio broadcast highlights the 45th Founder’s Day. The Alumni Association sponsored the occasion.

Construction begins on the Women’s Gym, now known as Smith Gym, and on Davis and Wilmer residence halls.

The football stadium at Rogers Field gets a complete renovation. The new horseshoe-shaped structure is named for former Washington State Governor, John R. Rogers. The wood bleachers supported by concrete pilings seat 23,500 fans.

Following a series of discussions between J. E. Schillinger, superintendent of disease control for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Dean E. E. Wegner of the College of Veterinary Medicine at WSC, a cooperative agreement was signed whereby the U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey and the college embark on research work into the diseases of fur bearing animals. Frank McKenney is the first veterinarian employed to start the work. The relationship now under the administration of the USDA continues today.

Weldon B. “Hoot” Gibson graduates with a B.A. in Economics. Gibson attended WSC with the help of his Uncle, Arthur “Buck” Bailey, and was a member of the football team and the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. After graduating from WSC, Gibson studied at the Stanford Graduate School of Business receiving an MBA in 1940 and a Ph.D. in 1950. Gibson was a long-time executive at the Stanford Research Institute from 1947 until 1988. He earned the Legion of Merit in 1946, Commander of the British Empire in 1947, and the Washington State University Distinguished Alumni Award for his role in creating the Washington State University Foundation.

In 1938, President Holland created the Friends of the Library, a fundraising program that directly supports the purchase of collection pieces and equipment for the WSU libraries. This program was the first such organization in the west. With the help of this program, Holland purchased facsimiles of a portrait of Lincoln and his Gettysburg Address and sent them to 204 banks in Washington as well as purchased all 28 volumes of Frederick Hill Meserve’s Historical Portraits. 

The School of Business Administration is created, separating it from the College of Science and Arts.

After several years of trying to get state funding, the Board of Regents establishes WSC’s first retirement system, to begin on October 1st of 1941.

Soon after Pearl Harbor is attacked, the college began training soldiers to meet the challenges of World War II. Aviation, Japanese language, signal corps, radio, and gunnery are taught under government contract.

Arthur Drucker, Dean of the School of Mines and Geology, donates the Minnie Barstow Drucker Oriental Art Collection, valued then at $50,000. The gift is presented in the memory of his late wife. Eight years earlier, the Druckers donated a collection of over two hundred rare books on Asia to the WSC library. Arthur Drucker came to Pullman in 1926 and was heavily involved in mining research during his tenure at WSC, retiring in 1945.

Kemble Stout moved to Pullman in 1945, beginning his 34-year association with the WSU music department. After briefly returning to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York to finish his Ph.D. in 1951, he was elected the department chair at WSU and served in the role for 16 years. Stout wrote 50 musical compositions and arrangements, performed in two piano duos and other faculty ensembles, and for two decades directed the Greystone Presbyterian Church choir.

The Regents approve the establishment of Washington State College’s Institute of Technology. In a 1986 oral history, Eugene Greenfield, who directed the Institute’s Division of Industrial Research starting in 1958, explained that the purpose of the institute was to “find technological means for inducing a larger industrial output in the State of Washington.’’

“At the end of [World War II], industry was flopped right straight on its back,’’ said Greenfield. “There was nothing doing, and it looked as though it would be many years before industry would be picking up.’’

The legislature would provide $500,000 a year to fund a division “whose sole purpose would be to improve the industrial character of the state through engineering innovations and research.’’

Timothy Leary, a troubled psychologist and popular counterculture figure of the 1960s, who coined the phrase “think for yourself and question authority” and was once called “the most dangerous man in America” by Richard Nixon, graduates with a master’s of science in psychology from WSC.  Leary only attends WSC for about a year, moving to Pullman in early 1946, gaining admittance in March of that year, and graduating in June of 1947.  He and his wife Marianne lived in a house at the corner of C Street and Alpha Road, enjoying what one biographer would later call “the only uneventful period of their life together.”

President Wilson Compton and his wife Helen use their own money to purchase a 52 acre mostly-undeveloped “resort” on Priest Lake’s Beaver Creek, for the use of WSC faculty and staff.  Over the next few years Helen, with aid from her housekeeper Mary Warner, puts a significant amount of time and effort into renovating it.  Individual lots are sold to WSC faculty and staff, and the resort is organized as the Beaver Creek Camp Association.  As generations pass the BCCA’s ties to WSU have faded, but the Beaver Creek Camp Association still exists today on upper Priest Lake.

In 1948, Bill Tomaras was hired as the wrestling coach at Washington State College. At the time only ten high schools offered wrestling and he soon realized the need for a feeder program if wrestling was to succeed at WSC. With that in mind, he organized the first state high school wrestling tournament in 1953 using funds donated by Cougr wrestlers and free room and board from fraternities. Tomaras would also load his own wrestlers into cars during spring break and drive across the state to put on exhibitions and talk up the benefits of wrestling programs at high schools.

Eventually, more schools added the sport and the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association agreed to underwrite the state meet. In 1972, Tomaras was recognized as “The Father of Washington State High School Wresting” at his induction into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.

It is a lighthearted series of skits and musical presentations which lampoon the authority figures connected with veterinary education in Washington.

Plant pathologist Frederick Heald donates his personal library to WSC, including 300 volumes and 10,000 reprints in plant pathology.

J.W. Kalkus, superintendent of the college’s Puyallup Research Center, reported that “one new berry plant developed at the station has added $15 million to the state’s wealth during the last 10 years.”

Vishnu N. Bhatia served as a teacher, administrator, innovator, and ambassador at WSU for 47 years. His chosen field was pharmacy, but he also served as the head of the Honors Program from 1964 to 1993 and as the director of International Education from 1973 to 1990.

In 1952 the Washington State College ski team placed first in the Northern Division, the Pacific Coast Conference, and the North American International Intercollegiate Tournament in Banff, Alberta.

The animal clinic and classroom-laboratory buildings (both constructed in the early 1940s) are named after J. E. McCoy and E. E. Wegner, respectively. Each had served as dean of the veterinary college during their careers.  In 1972 a two-story addition is built on McCoy Hall. The space is used primarily for faculty offices and research

Modern, powerful equipment is installed including a GE Maximar 250 III with medical x-ray head, mounted on an electrically operated jib crane. A diagnostic unit manufactured by Standard X-ray Co. is mounted from the ceiling. Upon completion, the WSC veterinary x-ray facility is the best in the country and perhaps the world.

Keith Jackson, president of Crimson Circle, outstanding senior student, and chief announcer at KWSC (now KWSU), graduated from WSU and began a world-class career as a sportscaster.

WSC ties San Jose, 13-13, in a football game played in subzero temperatures in Pullman. Exactly one game ticket was sold at the gate.

Nutritionist Leo Jensen and geneticist Igor Kosin refine the hatch process for turkeys, which dramatically increases the survivability of turkey eggs and returns an estimated $9 million in annual savings to turkey producers.

WSC graduate Pete Rademacher wins the Olympic heavyweight boxing title, knocking out the Russian finalist in the first round in Melbourne, Australia.

In the 1950s Congress approved the building of four dams on the lower Snake River in Washington. Archaeologists surveyed the area for sites that would be destroyed by the new reservoir and found eleven habitation sites, including the Marmes rock shelter where the Marmes Man would later be found.

History professor Herbert Wood gives the first WSC faculty member-led “Invited Address,” known today as the Distinguished Faculty Address.

Washington State College officially becomes Washington State University.

I-joists make up 30 percent of the floor supports in single-family homes in the U.S. today.

The Regents adopted a Ph.D. in American Studies, an interdisciplinary degree within the Departments of History and English, for the 1961-1962 school year. It was the first doctoral program in American Studies in the Pacific Northwest and by 1975 it was only one of six programs west of the Mississippi.

The Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award honored the first three recipients: Phillip H. Abelson, Henry T. Heald, and Edward R. Murrow.

WSU joined the Athletic Association of Western Universities in 1962, the precursor of today’s Pac-12.

J. Clifford Folger, Nixon’s 1960 campaign finance chairman and member of the board of directors of IBM, and C. Glenn King, one of the two biochemists to isolate vitamin C, are selected for the fourth and fifth Regents Distinguished Alumnus Awards. Folger receives his award on June 3, 1963; King on April 11, 1964.

Hugh Campbell, WSU record-breaking football pass receiver, is voted MVP of the East-West Shrine game after setting a new record after catching 10 passes. The East-West Shrine game, sponsored by the Shriners, has been played annually since 1925 and teams are drawn from the two geographic regions east and west, including Canada. Campbell played wide receiver from 1958 to 1962 and during that time he appeared in the Hula Bowl, the College All-Star game, the Coaches All-America game and the aforementioned Shrine Bowl, and while at WSU he was awarded the 1961 W. J. Voit Memorial Trophy as the outstanding football player on the Pacific Coast. After playing for WSU, Campbell went on to play for the Saskatchewan Rough Riders and coach several Canadian and US college and professional football teams.

The first “skyscraper dorms,” Orton Hall and Rogers Hall, are built to accommodate the Baby Boom generation.

Cougar baseball coaching legend A.B. “Buck” Bailey and Mrs. Bailey are killed in auto accident in New Mexico.

Howard B. Bowen, president of the University of Iowa, delivers commencement address and receives the sixth Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award. Bowen received his bachelors of arts in 1929 and masters of arts in 1933 from then-WSC. He served as chancellor of Claremont University, as well as president of the University of Iowa, Grinnell College and the American Association of Higher Education. He researched and wrote extensively on the economics of higher education, and was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to chair his National Commission on Technology, Automation and Economic Progress.

Life magazine features WSU animal science reproduction research. S.E. Hafez, animal physiologist as WSU, is the primary researcher in planet colonization.

Professor Harriett B. Rigas joins Washington State University, eventually becoming full professor and chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering school.  A pioneer in her field, she received one of the earliest national awards from the Society of Women Engineers and was later named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

President French announced his retirement on his 65th birthday, October 24, 1966, but had actually notified the Regents in the spring of 1965. The Regents officially accepted his resignation in their May 31,1965 meeting. French stayed to provide stability while he selected his successor.

Following President French’s retirement near the end of 1966, Wallis Beasley served as acting president for a period of eight months until President Terrell officially came aboard in 1967.  While Beasley officially left office at the end of June, President Terrell did not arrive and so Beasley remained unofficially in charge. He took care to sign no official university documents during those last weeks.

President Emeritus Wilson Compton dies in Ohio.

George Nethercutt, elected to Congress in 1994 by unseating then-Speaker of the House Tom Foley, graduated from WSU in 1967 with a B.A. in English. Nethercutt would serve five terms in the House of Representatives and then run unsuccessfully for the Senate against fellow Coug Patty Murray.

WSU dedicates the French Administration Building in honor of former President C. Clement French.

Geologist Roald Fryxell examines lunar rocks in Houston after all six manned moon landings. Fryxell was initially asked simply  to present to the lunar teams on core-sample analysis, but so impressed NASA that he was asked to join the analysis team.  A leader in the field of geoarchaeology, Fryxell was the co-principal investigator with Dr. Richard Daugherty of the Marmes Rockshelter site and designed the apparatus used for collecting the lunar rocks. A lunar crater is named Fryxell in his honor.

Carlton Lewis, the first African-American student body president at WSU, was elected in both 1970 and 1971, serving two consecutive terms before graduating in 1972. During his terms, the United States’ was actively involved in Vietnam and the draft lottery system was in place, a system that impacted many young men enrolled at WSU. Issues related to the rights of racial minorities also dominated the Pullman campus. Many students and faculty members were pressuring WSU administration to increase recruitment of minority students and create new academic programs, like Black Studies.

Paul Allen, philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft, attended WSU and became a member of Phi Kappa Theta fraternity. He dropped out of school to work for Honeywell in Boston a couple years after enrolling.  In 1975 Allen co-founds Microsoft with childhood friend Bill Gates in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

WSU names Thompson Hall for Albert Wilder Thompson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at WSU from 1953-64.  It had formerly just been known as the Administration Building, but those functions had moved to French Hall in 1967-1968.

Growing up on the Yakama Indian Reservation, Kiutus “Ki” Tecumseh Jr. told his high school counselor that he wanted to go to college and was told, “You will fail. You are good with your hands. You can be either a baker or a bricklayer.” Tecumseh applied for admission to Washington State University and was accepted. While earning a degree (’72 Comm.), he served as an ASWSU senator and was an assistant instructor in a contemporary American Indian Studies class. Many remembered him best as founder and first president of the Native American Students Association.  “Indian people don’t consider themselves to be a minority people. They have their own religion, own culture, own life and land,” says Tecumseh, a member of the Winnebago Indians of Nebraska. During his student days, he and his Native American peers pushed the University to recruit more Indian students from the state and provide the support services they needed to be successful.  He believes that traditional fishing rights, shoreline and mineral issues, and treaty rights transcend the reservation and are important to all people living in the Northwest.  Ki is now retired in New Mexico, where he formerly chaired the advisory council on Indian education to the state board of education.

The recently constructed Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum opened for hosting the 1973 commencement ceremonies. In previous years, commencement ceremonies had been held either in Bohler Gym or, weather permitting, at Rogers Field (now Martin Stadium).

WSU created a major exhibit featuring Albrook Hydraulic Laboratory work, titled “Waterworld,” for the Spokane World’s Fair/Expo ’74.

WSU signs a pact with the Kingdom of Jordan to provide educational services. A team of twelve staff members (all but one from Pullman) traveled to Jordan to assist the creation of animal science, plant pathology, irrigation, agricultural marketing, and other programs, working with Jordanian students and faculty.

Kate Webster and Edith William become the second and third women appointed to the Board of Regents.

The band Heart played to a packed studio audience on campus during KWSU’s show Second Ending. At the time, Heart was a young band whose internationally-renowned album, Dreamboat Annie, hadn’t been released yet.

A $1,000,000 Kellogg Foundation grant creates the Partnership for Rural Improvement (PRI). The PRI project includes community planning/organizing, economic development, organizational development for NGOs, leadership education, distance education access, and rural policy development.

Dolph Lundgren, best known for his action roles in Rocky IV (as Ivan Drago) and The Expendables, spent the 1976-1977 school year at WSU as an exchange student, working on a chemical engineering degree. He was also a member of the Cougar Marching Band. Contrary to some reports, he did not actually graduate from WSU. Instead, he finished his coursework at Sweden’s Royal Academy and the University of Sydney in Australia.

The Crimson Company student show choir first performs for Dad’s Weekend in 1977 and goes on to be one of WSU’s most popular public relations vehicles. In almost 23 years, they do over 650 shows for over 350,000 audience members. They last perform in May of 2000, after the WSU Alumni Association could no longer afford to sponsor them.

The track is completed in early summer of 1980, and named that year after horse industry activists Maurice and Kathleen Hitchcock, who donated about one quarter of the construction costs.

WSU introduces the Athletic Hall of Fame, which will grow to over 150 members by 2010.

The WSU Foundation is created as a “separate foundation of a charitable and educational nature, organized exclusively to serve the needs of WSU and manage the private support given it.”  By 2015, the Foundation will have raised over 1.3 billion dollars.

In 1972 Title IX, a federal law mandating gender equity for any education program or activity that received federal financial support, passed. Like many institutions, WSU was slow to improve the experience for women athletes so in 1979 the students, along with their coaches, sued the university.

The Washington State University Foundation is created to “promote, accept, and maximize private support for programs, initiatives, and properties of Washington State University and its regional campuses” as well as manage, invest and steward the assets entrusted to it by WSU and alumni, friends, and donors.

Alumni/Foundation Leadership Awards begin under the leadership of Alumni Association President, Richard Gustafson.

The home of WSU Baseball, Bailey Field, opens after relocating. The field was previously at the site of today’s Mooberry Field. In 1984, the field was one of the first NCAA fields to be lit for night games. In 2013, WSU installed an artificial turf mound, the only such mound among west coast schools.

From student to philanthropic leader, Connie Kravas (’74), doctoral graduate in education administration and supervision, becomes director of development. In 1980, she was named executive director of development and WSU Foundation president. She became University Advancement vice president in 1997, after leading the highly successful Campaign WSU, the university’s first comprehensive fund-raising effort. Over a seven-year period, ending in 1997, Campaign WSU raised more than $275 million. It increased the university’s scholarship endowment, established endowed professorships to attract and retain top faculty, and provided modern equipment for teaching and research.

Robert Redford Institute for Resource Management announced at WSU and University of Idaho. Named for the famous actor, the IRM opened in fall of 1982 and brought together environmentalists and industrialists to resolve conflicts and promote sustainable development.

Coach Jim Walden leads WSU Cougar football against Brigham Young University in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. In the WSU Cougars first bowl game in 51 years, they narrowly lose with a score of 36-38.

The WSU men’s bowling team brought home a national title. They accomplished this by outlasting Michigan State with a score of 192-168. This was their second appearance in the national tournament finals, having finished in second place two years earlier.

The Regents 16th, 17th, and 18th Distinguished Alumnus Awards are respectively awarded to Mel Hein, the “greatest all-around player the game of football has seen;” Robert Stevenson, the former head of Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co.; and world-renowned chemist Jacob Bigeleisen.

Col. John Fabian (’62) becomes the first Cougar astronaut aboard the Challenger II space shuttle. Fabian made two trips to space and logged over 316 hours, and was the first person to deploy and retrieve a free-flying satellite. Fabian graduated from Pullman High School and then enrolled at WSU, receiving a bachelors of science in mechanical engineering. He later received the 19th Regent Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories incorporates in 1982, but marks their official beginning from their first microprocessor relay shipment, in 1984. Today, SEL is the largest private employer in Pullman.  Schweitzer, class of 1977, would receive the Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2014.

For the first time in the university’s history, WSU uses an early-start semester academic calendar. Although implemented in August 1984, the WSU Faculty Senate approved the calendar change in 1980.

Dan Lynch, WSU offensive lineman, appears on the Bob Hope Christmas Special with the AP All-American team. Lynch played for WSU from 1980-1984 and started all four years for the Cougars.

Ground is broken on the WSU Research and Technology Park.

John Candy immortalizes the WSU fight song in the movie Volunteers. Candy plays a WSU graduate, “Tom Tuttle from Tacoma,” who is assigned to build a bridge for local villagers in Thailand with fellow costars Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. The WSU fight song is sung by Tom Tuttle while he is under the capture of communist forces.

Agricultural Science Phase II Building, built in 1971, is dedicated to former Regent, Skagit County farmer, and 50-year advocate of state agriculture and WSU, James H. Hulbert.

Students celebrate the first commencement that had individual college-level ceremonies on Saturday, May 10. Following a shorter main ceremony, students now participate in college graduations held all around campus.

170 incoming students in total will be named as the first Glenn Terrell Presidential Scholars and Distinguished Presidential Scholars in advance of the 1987-1988 school year.

Washington Mutual Bank donates a former Union Pacific train depot in downtown Pullman to WSU. As the Cougar Depot, it opens on July 13, 1988 as home to the athletic ticket office, visitor center, and community meeting facility. In 2014, the Brelsford Visitor Center opens and the Cougar Depot is sold to Umpqua Bank.

Leo K. Bustad, Dean Emeritus of College of Veterinary Medicine and internationally recognized speaker, humanist, and founder of People & Pet Therapy programs, receives the 20th Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award.

A new monument constructed at the walkway entrance of Bailey Field welcomes fans who come to watch the Cougs play ball.

In early 1988, WSU Library archivists revealed that more than 357 books and 2,500 manuscripts, worth $500,000 total, were missing from the rare artifacts collection. Two years later, the FBI arrested the book thief, Stephen Blumberg, at his home in Iowa and discovered a cache of 16,000 rare books and manuscripts he had stolen from universities all over the country. Officials estimated the value at the time to be between $25 and $35 million. The book thief spent four and a half years in prison and was released on parole despite a WSU librarian and police officer arguing Blumberg would reoffend if released.

Neva Martin Abelson receives the Regents 23rd Distinguished Alumnus Award. She is the wife of famed-chemist Phillip Ableson, and co-founder of the global test for Rh blood factor which has saved millions of babies’ lives.  Neva was one of the first women to earn a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University, and the first woman to be in charge of the hospital’s nurseries there. Later she was a professor of pediatrics and pathology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work in pediatrics piqued her interest in the Rhesus factor and its relation to blood disease in tiny infants, which at the time was a likely cause of death or mental retardation.

Peter Koech (’86) wins the silver medal in 3,000-meter steeplechase at Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. In 1989, Peter Koech breaks the world record in steeplechase with a time of 8 minutes, 5.35 seconds.

The WSU Cougars defeat the University of Houston Cougars, 24-22, at the Eagle Aloha Bowl in Honolulu. The game was the second bowl appearance in the 1980s and the first bowl victory for WSU since the 1916 Rose Bowl.

WSU introduces the first elective alternative laboratory course on basic surgical techniques which uses cadavers of animals euthanized for humane reasons to avoid use of surplus animals for that purpose.

Howard Nemerov, Pulitzer-prize winning poet and poetry consultant to the Library of Congress, receives an honorary doctoral degree.

WSU dedicates McEachern Hall in honor of former Regent Robert and his wife Margaret McEachern, both long-time benefactors and alumni. McEachern Hall was originally known as the Graduate Residence Center and was built in the early 1970s.

Jason Hanson, field goal kicker, is the first team academic athletic All-American.  He’d go on to play 21 years for the NFL’s Detroit Lions.

He would win the title again in 1991 as well.

Morty the Moose, a WSU research animal, was featured in the opening credits of television’s “Northern Exposure.” In 1994, Morty died of an illness linked to a mineral deficiency.

Allen C. Wilson receives the Regents 25th Distinguished Alumnus Award for his work in molecular evolutionism. Wilson received an M.A. in Zoology in 1957, studying under bird physiologist Donald S. Farner. Wilson came to WSU from his birthplace in New Zealand. During his career, his work was recognized with many prestigious awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship.

According to intramural program supervisor Mary Ann Steele, the University “has the largest intramural program West of the Mississippi” based on the number of participants compared to total enrollment The participation rate ranks WSU’s program among the top 25 in the nation.

The $5.6 million expansion to renovate Todd Hall, home of the Hotel and Restaurant Administration, establishes the Todd Hall Addition.

Queen Magrethe II of Denmark appoints Vishnu Bhatia a Knight of the Dannebrog Order for the decades he devoted to building bridges between the Scandinavian nation and WSU.  Bhatia served WSU for 47 years (1951-1998) and counted among his greatest accomplishments heading the Honors Program (1964-1993) and  directing the Office of International Education at WSU (1973-1990).  The WSU Honors Program, now the Honors College, counts several thousand alumni and is considered one of the best Honors programs in the United States.

The Center for the Study of Animal Well-Being at Washington State University is a cooperative effort between the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Department of Animal Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Home Economics. Its goal is to produce and distribute the best possible information on what factors of animal care and use controlled by humans are truly in the animals’ best interest.

Josephat Kapkory claimed the 3,000-meter title at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1994, Kapkory captured the 10,000-meter title at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.

The remodeled Carpenter Hall opens as home to the School of Architecture, now the School of Design and Construction. The cost of renovation was $9 million.

The space shuttle Columbia carries WSU science experiments into space. The first from WSU physicist Philip Martson and the second from WSU plant scientists.

In the ’91-’92 fiscal year, donors gifted WSU with a then-record $33 million in grants and gifts.  This is up from the previous year’s record of $26 million, and it would in turn be topped the following year when that year’s gifts tallied $45 million.

Patty L. Murray, class of 1972, was elected for the first time to represent Washington in the U.S. Senate. She was the first WSU graduate to serve in the Senate.

The WSU women’s volleyball team won the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (volleyball’s equivalent of basketball’s NIT) by beating Bowling Green University in three straight sets. The team did not lose a single game throughout the tournament.

The WSU Board of Regents approved reorganization of the College of Arts and Sciences into two separate academic units: the College of Sciences and the College of Liberal Arts.

R. James Cook, USDA plant pathologist and WSU professor, was elected into membership in the National Academy of Sciences.

Floyd Smith and Mariel Fulmer Doty, WSU’s oldest known alumni, both die at age 103.

Sherman Alexie, a Native American writer, poet, and filmmaker who grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation, graduated from WSU cum laude with a B.A. in American studies. Some of his best known works are the book of short stories The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven and the film Smoke Signals, for which he wrote the screenplay. In 2003, Alexie received the WSU Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 2007, Alexie received the National Book Award for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.  

Coach Lisa Gozley and the WSU women’s soccer team made their first NCAA Tournament appearance. The Cougs were ranked 19th by “Soccer America,” the oldest magazine devoted to American soccer.

“Money” magazine ranked WSU among the top eight of the 436 honors programs at American public universities.

Coach Kevin Eastman took WSU men’s basketball to the post-season NIT Tournament.

The Golden Grads of 1945 donated a grand piano to WSU as a class gift. It was dedicated during a concert in the Rotunda of the Terrell Library.

Thrifty PayLess contributed more than $100,000 for computer equipment, software, and student scholarships for the College of Pharmacy.

Thomas “Les” Purce, former senior administrator at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, was selected as Vice President for Extended University Affairs at WSU.

Butch T. Cougar and Mickey Mouse spent the day in Disneyland at a pre-game rally for the WSU vs. USC football game.

WSU officially dedicated the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service. It is named for the former speaker of the house and State of Washington Congress member.

WSU opened its new $38 million Veterinary Teaching Hospital. In 2007, the Veterinary Medical Sciences program was ranked among the top three nationally for scholarly productivity, according to Scholarly Productivity Index.  On Sept. 9 the hospital made history when an 80-year-old woman became the first human patient to use the hospital’s magnetic resonance imaging unit. Under a cooperative agreement, the vet hospital provides imaging services for human patients.

WSU began construction of the $17 million Student Services building, named for benefactors Phil and June Lighty, in 1994.  The Lightys established one of WSU’s largest scholarship endowments for students with demonstrated leadership potential.

WSU names Gretchen Bataille Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, effective July 1. She had been provost of the College of Letters and Science at the University of California at Santa Barbara.