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 first group of WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) medical program students began classes at a new site, WSU Spokane, in 2008. WSU Pullman first had WWAMI students in 1972.
A solar home constructed on campus in Pullman by WSU engineering and architecture students was part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition in Washington, D.C. The home was later moved to a permanent exhibit at Shoreline Community College.
During the summer, WSU student Danielle Fisher, age 20, became the youngest person in history to conquer the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. She was the youngest American to stand atop Mount Everest.
Early in 2005, students, faculty, and staff participated in relief efforts for Asian countries struck by a tsunami. Later, efforts took place for victims of two hurricanes which hit the U.S. Gulf Coast. WSU admitted some students displaced by the hurricanes and more than 7,000 Backpacks for Hope, filled with school supplies, were collected for school students in the affected areas.
Julia Pomerenk is named as the new WSU registrar, succeeding Dave Guzman after his retirement. Previously WSU assistant registrar, she returned to the University after serving as registrar of Pacific Lutheran University.
The first WSU student regent is Jannelle Milodragovich, who serves in 1998-1999. She is followed in order by Bernadett Buchanan, Matthew Moore, Darren Eastman (2001-2002) of Renton, and many more.
WSU had a record fall enrollment with total student numbers increasing from 21,248 to 21,794. The freshmen class on the Pullman campus was the second largest in history and the most diverse ever.This university-wide total includes students at WSU campuses in Pullman, Spokane, the Tri-Cities, Vancouver, and in Distance Degree Programs.
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.
Steve Wymer became the first person in WSU history to serve three terms as president of the Associated Students of WSU. He initially became president in 1998-1999, upon succession while serving as ASWSU vice president. He was elected ASWSU president for 1999-2000 and re-elected for 2000-2001.
Enrollment on the WSU Pullman campus in the fall of 1998 reaches 17,912. System-wide WSU registration totaled 20,998. The 2,877 new freshmen comprised the largest incoming class since 2,970 enrolled in 1980.
Built by the Works Progress Administration in 1937 with a knotty pine interior, it was operated as a cooperative house, independent of the university’s housing system. In 1963, fire safety concerns brought an end to its use as a dormitory. WSU purchased it and renovated it into headquarters for an internationally recognized anthropology program, the Center for Northwest Archeology.
Washington Gov. Gary Locke participates in a dialogue on race and bigotry in the Compton Union Building with students, faculty, and staff. In an address he said, “The gift of cultural pluralism is grounded in mutual respect and democracy.”
The new $3.1 million Phi Kappa Theta fraternity house opened. High-tech in every respect, it reflected the “wired world” commitment of WSU alumnus and fraternity member Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder. He funded the building, and equipped each of the other Greek houses at WSU with fiber-optic connections.
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.
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.
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.
Eggart scores 16 against Portland State, bringing her to 1,906 points in her career, passing men’s basketballer Steve Puidokas’ record of 1,894. She would finish her career with 1,967.
Henry Rono sets multiple world records while running for the Cougars. Rono won the NCAA Cross Country Championship three times, in 1976, 1977, and 1979, as well as the NCAA Steeplechase in 1978 and 1979, and the NCAA Indoor champion in the 3000 meters in 1977.
The high point of Rono’s running career was in 1978. In the span of 81 days, he broke four world records in the 10,000 meters, 5,000 meters, 3000 meter steeplechase, and 3,000 meters. Rono would never go on to the Olympics because Kenya, his country, boycotted the games in 1976 and 1980.
The facility, a five-story brick-and-wood building vilified by President Bryan for its lack of looks and efficiency, burns after a kitchen fire spreads out of control.
In 1900, the new Ferry residence hall opens. A four-story brick structure topped with a four-sided cupola, it houses between 100 and 180 students. Ferry serves as the only men’s residence hall on campus for three decades. The hall also houses the first campus fraternity, which starts as a club before moving off campus.
Despite an effort by alumni, students, and staff to preserve it, Ferry is demolished in the late-1960s—but not before the cupola was saved. In 1975 it’s relocated to the Glenn Terrell Friendship Mall, near Murrow Hall. Construction in the Murrow Yard in 2008 sparks the cupola’s relocation to its present site in the new arboretum near the Lewis Alumni Center.
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.
The group inaugurates an annual song, yell, and skit competition in 1914. J. DeForest Cline writes “Washington, My Washington” for the initial contest. The piece is chosen as the WSC alma mater in 1919.
Jessie Hungate takes second place at a regional intercollegiate oratorical contest in Walla Walla, the first such appearance by a State College student in what becomes an annual competition. These involve speeches and singing rather than debating.
Early on the morning of Sunday, May 3rd, approximately 200 students rioted, clashing with police on Greek Row in the College Hill neighborhood of Pullman. The riot, possibly provoked by a WSU ban on on-campus drinking, injured twenty-three police officers and about twelve party-goers.
Initially, two police officers were called at midnight to investigate a car-pedestrian accident at the intersection of Colorado and A streets. When police arrived at the scene, rioters pelted them with rocks, beer cans, and construction materials. They also overturned portable toilets and lit bonfires on the street. The officers retreated and called for backup, “giving the party a chance to cool down,” according to Pullman Police Chief Tim Weatherly.
Seeing no reduction in the rioting by 2 a.m., a combined force of ninety-three officers and troopers from Pullman and Moscow tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas, smoke, and water. This only diverted the crowd around the police, and rioters continued to attack law enforcement for two more hours. The riot was finally dispersed at 5:30 a.m. with property damage listed at $15,000. In the next year and a half, twenty-two felony charges were filed against the students involved. Many of them were plea-bargained down to misdemeanors, resulting in nineteen convictions.
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 athletes win three gold medals and one silver medal, in Los Angeles at the 1984 Olympic Games. Julius Korir wins the gold in steeplechase, while Paul Enquist and Kristi Norelius both win in rowing -Paul in the men’s double sculls and Kristi in the women’s coxed eights. In track, Gabriel Tiacoh finishes with the 400m silver.
