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Fire destroys Rogers Field bleachers and other athletic facilities

Fire consumed half of the wooden bleachers at Rogers Field, along with the football and track and field facility. The fire was later determined to be arson. In 1971, $1 million was raised in three months to rebuild the football stadium, which was completed and dedicated in 1972 for former governor Clarence D. Martin.

 

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Men’s basketball team achieves season for the ages

Legendary coach and athletic director J. Fred “Doc” Bohler leads the Crimson and Gray to a 25-1 record during the 1916-17 season, the best record in school history. The team features the core of Bohler’s outstanding 1915-16 squad: Roy Bohler (captain and brother of the coach), Ed Copeland, Bob Moss, Ivan Price, and Al Sorenson. The team’s accomplishment is even more remarkable considering it plays 18 of 26 games on the road.

In 1917, college basketball doesn’t yet have a formal way to determine a national champion at the end of the season. A panel of experts chosen by the Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936 in part to retroactively select national champions in football and basketball for seasons in which a formal champion wasn’t determined, didn’t forget WSC. In 1943, the foundation declares Bohler’s team 1917 national champions.

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Conner Museum named after Regent who kickstarted it

In November of 1893, Board of Regents chair Charles R. Conner persuades the state and others to donate their exhibits from the Chicago World’s Fair to the fledgling Washington Agricultural College. In 1914, the museum is officially named after Conner. As the collection evolves in the following years it focuses on vertebrate mammals. Now housed in Abelson Hall, the Conner Museum displays 700 specimens, with more than 65,000 in its research library.

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Campus dedicates Entrance Arch

The arch, located over the Opal Street entrance to campus, is a gift from the class of 1905. The arch is razed in 1955 and some of the rock is included in the Stadium Way entrance sign.  The rock is maintained through various reworkings of that sign and entrance until 2015, when it is removed entirely.

 

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The Administration Building opens

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.

 

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President Taft visits campus

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.

 

WSC President Holland, Doc Bohler, former U.S. President Taft.
WSC President Holland, Doc Bohler, former U.S. President Taft.

Glenn Terrell named seventh president of WSU

On February 24, 1967, the Board of Regents selected Glenn Terrell to serve as the seventh president of Washington State University. Terrell took office on July 1, leaving his position as the dean of faculties at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

In addition to his positive relationships with faculty, President Terrell was known as the “student’s president.” He would walk from the President’s House to his campus office, stopping to talk with students, faculty, and staff on the way. He served as president until 1985. The Terrell Library and the Glenn Terrell Friendship Mall, the area in the center of campus, are named after President Terrell.

WSU researchers receive grant to purchase a low-grade nuclear reactor

In September 1953, Dean S. Town Stephenson and a dozen science colleagues began planning to acquire a low-grade nuclear reactor for research.  They received a $300,000 grant to construct a building to hold a swimming pool type reactor. In 1957 the Atomic Energy Commission gave $105,000 to purchase the equipment. In 1961, the WSU nuclear research program completes its first chain reaction.

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Frances Penrose Owen named to the Board of Regents

Frances Penrose Owen is the first women named to the Board of Regents, she served for 18 years and was twice elected president. The Owen Science and Engineering Library is named in her honor. Owen was a life-long community volunteer, serving the boards of both the Seattle Childrens Hospital and the Seattle School Board. In 1990, Owen receives the Medal of Merit, the state’s highest award.  Frances Penrose Owen passed away on March 9, 2002 in Seattle.  She was 102.masc-ua333b82f04_undated1

Students take to the streets to protest the ultra-conservative policies at WSC

Students protesting on the lawn below President Holland's office in the Administration Building (now Thompson Hall).

In May, 1936 more than 2,500 students protested the “ultra-conservative, dictatorial administrative policies,” including policies put in place by the dean of women, Annie Fertig. After the protest, Fertig was asked to take leave without pay and was later fired by President Holland. Fertig claimed the students were protesting policies that didn’t exist, like rules against wearing red dresses or using blankets during picnics. On May 8th, the Evergreen summed up the results of the protest in an article titled “All Requests Are Granted.”

 

Student Demands - 1936 Strike
Student Demands – 1936 Strike
Students protesting on the lawn below President Holland's office in the Administration Building (now Thompson Hall).
Students protesting on the lawn below President Holland’s office in the Administration Building (now Thompson Hall).

Cougars reach Rose Bowl a second time

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.

Pacific Coast Conference champions thanks to a dominating defense, the WSC defensive line is anchored by All-American Mel Hein and Glenn “Turk” Edwards, considered two of the greatest Cougars ever.

As a psychological ploy, Washington State dresses for the game in red helmets, jerseys, pants, socks, and shoes.

Home Ec building opens

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 building covers a part of one of the university’s most significant open spaces, the original walk to Thompson Hall (former Old Administration Building) from Reaney Park. The brick building mass is symmetrically balanced, making a cross formation with the central section protruding on the east/west axis. The overall style of the building is Georgian Revival, which creates an elegant architectural statement.

 

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The cougar becomes the official mascot of WSC

On October 25, an underdog WSC football team travels to Berkeley and defeats the heavily favored California Bears, 14-0. After the game, a Bay Area sportswriter says the visitors “played like cougars!” Back in Pullman, a jubilant student body picks up on the idea, and three days later votes to select the name “Cougars” for its athletic teams.

WSC receives its first live cougar mascot in 1927, which is named “Butch” to honor star football player Herbert “Butch” Meeker.

Butch 1 ca. 1932
Butch 1 ca. 1932

WSC beats Brown, 14-0, in Rose Bowl

A crowd of 10,000 in Pasadena watches as undefeated Washington State shuts out Brown in the second Rose Bowl game ever played. Coach William “Lone Star” Dietz and his Cougar squad serve as extras in the football film “Tom Brown of Harvard” each morning and then hit the practice field in the afternoon during the two weeks leading up to the bowl game. Each player receives $100 for the 14 mornings of movie work.

Legislature okays name change to State College of Washington

The state legislature approves changing the name of Washington Agricultural College and School of Science to State College of Washington in recognition of the college’s expanding mission. President Bryan has worked tirelessly to fend off political forces that were trying to limit the college’s offering to just agriculture and science. The president believes students need to study liberal arts and science as well as professional fields to be more effective leaders. 

Winners in first varsity football game

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.

1894 team, reproduced in a 1934 40th Reunion Banquet brochure. Item held at WSU MASC, Collection WSU 31
1894 team, reproduced in a 1934 40th Reunion Banquet brochure. Item held at WSU’s MASC, Collection WSU 31
Pullman Herald, November 1894.
Pullman Herald, November 1894.

President Heston’s arrival spurs student protest

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.

From the first issue of The College Record, the predecessor to The Daily Evergreen, absolving former president Liley for any involvement in the attack on Heston
From the first issue of The College Record, the predecessor to The Daily Evergreen, absolving former-President Liley for any involvement in the attack on Heston