The new institution, Washingtons land-grant college, is a product of the 1862 Morrill Act signed by President Abraham Lincoln. The act gives the state 90,000 acres of federal land to support its agricultural college and 100,000 acres to support its school of science.

The Board of Regents holds its first meeting on April 22, 1890.

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.

The decision follows a lengthy and controversial site selection process lasting more than a year. Pullman’s selection is hardly based on its merits alone. Local citizens enthusiastically promote the towns advantages and warm politicians to the idea after vigorous politicking, including gifts of cash and land.

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 one story brick structure (located where the Terrell Library now sits) houses agricultural and biology laboratories and a museum. The facility is absorbed as part of a new gymnasium, later known as the Temporary Union Building, or TUB, in 1901.

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 monthly publication lasts just more than a year, to be succeeded in 1895 by The Daily Evergreen. The Record’s editor, William D. Barkhuff, is an engineering student.

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

The institution awards a bid for the construction of Ferry Hall on February 19, 1892. The college confirms plans to construct a second classroom building, the original College Hall, on May 15. The buildings are ready when school begins that fall.

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.

The Board of Regents names John William Heston as the second president of the Washington Agricultural College and School of Science after it terminates President George Lilley. Heston is serving as principal of Seattle High School at the time. The college community is incredibly unhappy about Lilley’s termination.

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 wife of incoming president Enoch Bryan plants the Lowell Elm on campus. She has brought the seedling to her new home from Elmwood, the estate of James Russell Lowell near Harvard University, where her husband had earned his master of arts degree shortly before becoming Washington State College’s first long-term president.

Bryan leaves his position as president of Vincennes University in Indiana to become the third president of the fledging institution on the Palouse, beginning a 22-year tenure as its leader.

One of the most influential of WSUs presidents, President Bryan believes that students must study liberal arts and sciences as well as basic professional skills to become better leaders. He pushs to have the college renamed the State College of Washington and to expand its academic offerings. Early in his presidency, President Bryan operates with no staff: he personally manages enrollment, record keeping, public relations, and parent relations—on top of teaching history and political economics.

In 1916, Bryan Hall is named in the presidents honor. The buildings clock tower, which glows crimson at night, is one of the most iconic landmarks on the Pullman campus.

The Board of Regents ends the tenure of the president after just eight and a half months on the job.  Charles Munn, one of the first six faculty members, also leaves in the wake of political turmoil. The position of Chair of Veterinary Science is abolished.

After an infestation of hops lice destroys crops in the Puyallup River region in 1891, the legislature decides to locate the state’s first experiment station in Puyallup instead of Pullman. The station is constructed on 40 acres of land donated by the Ross family, giving the facility its first name, Ross’s Station. Now called the Puyallup Research Extension Center, the center continues to provide valuable services and information to the local community.

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.

The Washington Legislature creates the office of State Veterinarian specifying that they also be the Professor of Veterinary Science at the college and a member of the State Board of Health. Sofus Bertelson Nelson, a native of Denmark, an Iowa State College graduate, and Spokane practitioner, is appointed to the post by the Board of Regents.  Nelson later serves as Dean of the College of Veterinary Science and in 1919 he resigns  to assume the post of Director of Agricultural Extension. In 18 years of service, records show he personally examined 149,182 animals. Cost of the services rendered is $45,000 total.  The initial curriculum consists of a series of courses intended to supplement agriculture classes and to provide initial training to students who intend to transfer to another school. The veterinary labs are housed in (old) College Hall and a shed is constructed for $60 on the south end of campus to house the operating rooms.

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.

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

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 mens 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 its relocated to the Glenn Terrell Friendship Mall, near Murrow Hall. Construction in the Murrow Yard in 2008 sparks the cupolas relocation to its present site in the new arboretum near the Lewis Alumni Center.

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

State College students participate in the first official intercollegiate debates, losing to UW in Seattle by a score of 874-878.  In their second debate, on June 9, they defeat Whitman.  Two 1898 intercollegiate club debates preceded these school debates.

The yearbook covers the school years from 1892 to 1899. By 1899, there are 481 students enrolled at the college.

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 todays 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.

Catherine Matthews Friel is born in Colfax, Washington, in 1901 to Pullman attorney and one-time mayor John W. Matthews and his wife, Serena. Growing up in Pullman, she is dedicates much of her next 101 years to the institution, forming close connections to six presidents, starting with Enoch A. Bryan, and their families.

Friel enrolls at Washington State in 1919 and joins Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. She holds several house offices and is inducted into the Mortar Board and Phi Kappa Phi scholastic honoraries. She also serves as president of the Army ROTC Women’s Auxiliary or “Sponsors.” During her freshman year, she meets Jack Friel, future famed Cougar men’s basketball coach, who at the time aspires to be a teacher.

The Friels’ three eldest children are WSU graduates: Charlotte (’51 Speech), a former CBS administrator; Wallis (’53 Polit. Sci.), retired Whitman County Superior Court judge; and internationally known artist John (’62 Fine Arts). Catherine Friel receives numerous awards and honors during her lifetime, including the WSU Foundation’s 1999 Outstanding Service Award, and she is credited for saving Stevens Hall from demolition due to her personal activism. Stevens was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

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.

Lawrence earns a master of science in botany.

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. 

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.

The first annual Vet-Pharmic football game is played. The event becomes a major campus attraction until 1957 when concerns for student safety saw the contest end. The Pharmics are said to have won only three to four games over the years. For a time basketball games take the place of the football game but lack of interest causes them to disappear in the 1960s. The annual football game is followed each year by the Hobo Dance. For the dance, male students and faculty grow their beards out in honor of the vagrant namesake of the dance. Dancing, drink, and merriment often flow into the following morning. It too, is done away with in 1957 after a particularly raucous occasion also raises concerns for student safety.

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 whove 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 coursework is introduced with the arrival of Alfred A. Cleveland, assistant professor of psychology. The 1909-1911 course catalog describes the purpose of the education program as training physical science teachers who will further the application of science to industrial pursuits.

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.

Van Doren Hall is built to house the domestic economy department. The building name honors Nancy Van Doren, an English instructor and the campus librarian.

​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.

In 1909, a two-story brick building is constructed at 225 Indiana Avenue in Spokane and established as a satellite teaching hospital.  This teaching hospital closes in 1923 and all teaching is transferred back to Pullman.

In 1911, Dean Nelson recommends a schedule of fees to the Board of Regents for the Veterinary Hospital: For the hospital at Pullman, 60 cents per day for feed and care. For floating horses teeth, 50 cents. All other treatment in the hospital, free. The first dog ambulance is purchased for $300.

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.

Powwow (or Pow Wow) is the journal of/for the alumni of Washington State College/Washington State University. Its published through 1969. The journal is renamed numerous times, but always retains the word Powwow (or Pow Wow) in the title except for the years 1924-1935, when it is known simply as the Alumnus.

Weaver designed Carpenter, Wilson, Community, McCroskey, and Stimson halls, as well as the president’s residence. He also designed what is now the Lewis Alumni Center.

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

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.

Students and faculty replace wooden walkways with paved sidewalks during the first Campus Day event. On this day each spring for about 20 years, classes are canceled and the entire student body forms work parties to improve the physical appearance of campus.

The house is built for a total cost of $25,000.

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

In November of 1893, Board of Regents chair Charles R. Conner persuades the state and others to donate their exhibits from the Chicago Worlds 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.

The Associated Students vote to invest $2,000 in a co-op bookstore on campus which will sell books, supplies, and, as an Evergreen ad from that year notes, “hot chocolate, milk shakes, ice cream, soft drinks, and sandwiches.” The Students’ Book Corporation (SBC) becomes an instant hit for students who save 10 percent on all supplies.

The original Bookie operates in a small wood-frame building on the present site of Wilmer Hall until 1923, when a new brick building is constructed next to the music conservatory. A larger two-level red brick bookstore rises in the same location in 1954. The Bookie remains there until 2008, when it moves into its present location in the remodeled Compton Union Building.

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.

Two cars of cattle en route from Wisconsin to Roy, Wash. arrive in Spokane. Animal health officials were previously warned that the animals were exposed to foot-and-mouth disease in a St. Paul, Minn. stockyard. Quick action on the part of veterinarians, state agricultural officials, and a cooperative owner, stopped a potential outbreak before it could happen. The positive diagnosis was made on Nov. 16 and by Nov. 21 all the cattle were destroyed and cremated and all temporary holding pens, litter, etc.were burned.

Dietz arrives on campus to take over the reins of a football program that hasnt compiled a winning record in five seasons. He transforms the squad into a juggernaut that finishes 7-0 and holds opponents to a total of 10 points for the season. The historic year culminates with a WSC blanking of Brown, 14-0, in the 1916 Rose Bowl.

Dietz comes west after attending and then serving as assistant coach at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he was a teammate of the immortal Jim Thorpe and was coached by Glenn Pop Warner, considered one of the games greatest coaches and innovators.

Dietz guides WSCs gridiron fortunes for 3 years. His teams post a 17-2-1 record with 15 shutouts. After leaving Pullman, Dietz goes on to a successful coaching career at Mare Island, Purdue, Louisiana Tech, Wyoming, Stanford, Haskell, the NFLs Boston Redskins, Temple, and Albright College. Also an accomplished artist, he contributes sketches for the Walt Disney film Bambi.

The National Football Foundation selects Dietz for the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012.

The station, near Lind, Washington, promotes and improves dryland farming in an area of eastern Washington that typically receives 8 to 12 inches of rain a year. Wheat breeding, variety adaptation, weed and disease control, soil fertility, erosion control, and residue management are the main research priorities.

The new president is 41, a former instructor in the English department at Indiana University who is serving as superintendent of schools in Louisville, Kentucky, when he is hired by the college.

Holland goes on to become the longest serving of WSUs presidents. He reorganizes the administrative structure of the institution, establishing five colleges and four schools, a key step in the colleges pursuit of university status. He also encourages the recruitment of national fraternities and sororities to Pullman and signs an agreement with students to ease conservative social rules.

Holland serves as president until 1945. Holland Library is named in his honor after its construction in 1950.

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.

Though originally dedicated on June 9, 1909, a 1916 naming ceremony honors the presidential contributions of E.A. Bryan, who led the college from 1893 to 1915. Designed by respected Spokane architect J. K. Dow and built in 1908 and 1909, the highly eclectic building was is not dominated by a single architectural style. The broad bracketed eaves and the round arched windows link it with the Italianate Style. The tall clock tower is related to the Italian Campanile. The elaborate bracketing under the eaves may have resulted from an oriental inspiration.

The program is sponsored by the college and assisted by the fledgling state association and northwest veterinarians.

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 Bohlers outstanding 1915-16 squad: Roy Bohler (captain and brother of the coach), Ed Copeland, Bob Moss, Ivan Price, and Al Sorenson. The teams accomplishment is even more remarkable considering it plays 18 of 26 games on the road.

In 1917, college basketball doesnt 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 wasnt determined, didnt forget WSC. In 1943, the foundation declares Bohlers team 1917 national champions.

Two-thirds of the student body has disappeared from campus following the countrys entry into World War I in April 1917. More than 700 students and alumni are in the military or naval service or working to produce food and war materials for American military forces, allies, and the home front.

The federal government and the college sign a contract in May which converts considerable portions of the campus and educational facilities to military instruction. The Army begins sending units of 300 recruits to the campus  for training every 2 months, beginning June 15. Shortly after the Armistice ending the war is signed on November 11, the Army cancels the contract.

C.C. Todd, professor of chemistry, serves as the founding dean. Although authorized in 1917, the school doesnt get under way until 1922, after a few of the best researchers voluntarily organize themselves into a research council.

Zella Melcher writes the lyrics and Phyllis Sayles pens the music to the well-loved song, which receives a ringing endorsement from the Evergreen when its sung for the first time February 20 at a school assembly.

Fight, fight, fight for Washington State! Win the victory!
Win the day for Crimson and Gray! Best in the West, we know youll all do your
best, so
On, on, on, on! Fight to the end! Honor and Glory you must win! So
Fight, fight, fight for Washington State and victory!

W-A-S-H-I-N-G-T-O-N-S-T-A-T-E-C-O-U-G-S! GO COUGS!!

The song appears in the 1985 film Volunteers, sung by John Candys character Tommy Tuttle.

The February 26 issue of the Evergreen gives front page coverage to the first performance of the new fight song.

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.

Chambers is a 1913 graduate and WSC instructor in economics. One of the first priorities of his new job: formation of a council tasked with bringing the college and alumni “into a closer union, that each might serve the other and with the two working in harmony might give more efficient service to the state,” according to the Evergreen.

Chambers later serves as registrar, graduate manager, and faculty adviser for the interfraternity council during his WSC career.

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.

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.

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 didnt 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.

Jordan was a transfer student from the then soon-to-close San Francisco Veterinary College.

The new Womens 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.

Ehmer, a 1918 WSC graduate, goes on to a distinguished career in the development and advancement of veterinary orthopedics. Today his original Seattle Dog and Cat Hospital is known as the Seattle Emergency Hospital.

The radio station begins broadcasting from the Mechanic Arts Building, thanks to financial support from the Agricultural Extension Service, the Associated Students, and the Pullman Chamber of Commerce.

Known today as KWSU, the stations founding goals remain in place:

The station is one of the oldest and largest university-owned radio stations in the country.

Mortar Board, a national womens honorary, grants a charter to WSCs Gamma Tau organization. Gamma Tau  is founded in May 1913 as a WSC womens senior honorary.

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.

Smith replaced Weaver as Campus Architect, and as such worked as professor, architect, and construction manager for many projects on and off-campus.  These included Commons, completion of Troy Hall (begun by architect Julius Zittel), rebuilding the barn now called Lewis Alumni Center, (following destruction by fire), Duncan Dunn Hall, Bohler Gym, Memorial Hospital, White Hall, Hollingberry Field House, Stock Judging Pavilion, Waller Hall, Steam Plant, Pine Manor, Wilmer-Davis Hall, and Smith Gym.  Smith also prepared preliminary architectural work for several buildings on which the main architectural work was done by commissioned architectural firms.

Also in 1923 Fred G. Rounds joined the architecture department, serving as assistant professor and assistant designer to Smith in the campus architects office.  Rounds joined Smith in the architectural firm Smith Rounds, and the partnership designed many residences on Pullmans College Hill, including the present-day Casa Latina and Native American Cultural House, and several other houses in the College Hill Historic District (on the National Register of Historic Places) and on the Pullman Register of Historic Places.

Well-known portraiturist Worth D. Griffin steps off the train in Pullman to teach design and creative composition and help build WSCs art program, which is barely four years old and staffed by just one other full-time faculty member.

During the next 34 years on campus, Griffin teaches painting and drawing, serves as chairman of the art department, pushes for establishment of a masters program in fine arts, and co-founds a summer art colony. He expands the course offerings to include sculpture, pottery, jewelry design, interior design, aesthetics, etching and lithography, mural painting, and art history and art appreciation.

In the mid-1930s, President Holland and the Board of Regents provide Griffin with a leave of absence with salary and expenses to travel and paint 50 portraits of well-known eastern Washington people, including newspaper publishers and business leaders. Griffins pieces and the pieces from Hollands collection form the foundation of the WSU Museum of Arts permanent collection.

Portrait of Cleveland Kamiakin by Griffin. Courtesy WSU Museum of Art

The librarys volumes total 104,000, up from 17,000 in 1909, under the guidance of W.W. Foote. By 1935 the library holds 275,000 volumes, and by 1936 it is considered the fourth-largest educational library on the Pacific Coast.

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.

Known as Froggy because of his drooping upper eyelids, Foster also hires (with Doc Bohler) the famous coaches who make up WSCs Golden Age of athletics: Babe Hollingbery, Buck Bailey, Jack Friel, and others. He also helps pioneer sports broadcasting on KWSU, and introduces Dads Day to the WSU calendar of annual activities.

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 States first-ever win over the Trojans. The team returns to Pullman and is treated to a heros 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 Meekers honor.

The decision ends a program implemented not long after WSCs founding to offer high school-level coursework to teenagers in the era before high schools became commonplace in Washington. The primary non-college program began as the Preparatory School, was retitled the Elementary School in 1905, and later became the Department of Elementary Science. Several other programs offering pre-college level coursework existed side-by-side with their college-level counterparts, including ones in agriculture, artisanship, and business.

Program enrollment slowly decreased as the number of high schools in the state grew (when WSC opened the only high schools that existed were in Seattle, Tacoma, and Spokane). Following a brief increase in enrollment following WW I, enrollment decreased steadily until the program was discontinued after the 1925-26 academic year.

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.

N.J. Aiken, head of the WSC vocational school and professor of business administration, launches the placement service. During the Great Depression, N.J. is commonly known as No Job Aiken.

A fondly remembered place on campus, Silver Lake, also known as Lake de Puddle, was drained in summer of 1927. This made way for Hollingbery Fieldhouse and Mooberry Track. The manmade lake became part of the college in 1899, and shortly after the creation of the 1.6-acre lake, Professor Balmer from the School of Forestry directed the transplanting to the site of some 6,000 trees and shrubs to create The Tanglewood, a dense thicket offering a private retreat for students.

Phi Beta Kappa, the nations oldest and most prestigious academic honors organization, grants a charter to WSC. The chapter is one of the first founded at a land-grant university.

Only about 15 percent of the institutions of higher education in the United States have programs sufficiently strong in the sciences and liberal arts to warrant Phi Beta Kappa chapters.

The building opens with all the latest in equipment. Later its 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.

La Verne Almon Barnes of Opportunity, Washington, receives WSCs first Ph.D. He writes a  dissertation titled Studies in Local Immunity and receives his doctorate was in bacteriology. Barnes earned his bachelors and masters, also in bacteriology, at Washington State.

Research Studies of the State College of Washington provides an avenue to publication for faculty and graduate students. The journal publishes a few issues before funding is cut due to the Great Depression. It is revived in 1935 and eventually becomes the WSU Press.

He earns a degree in degree in speech while immersing himself in the campus culture during his four years in Pullman. Among his activities: president of the student body, actor in school plays, four-year participant in ROTC, debate team leader, member of Kappa Sigma fraternity, and president of the National Student Federation.

After college, Murrow works as a journalist in Europe during WW II, helps pioneer television news, and produces a series of reports that help lead to a censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Murrow was highly respected by journalists of his generation and praised for his honesty and integrity in delivering the news.

Murrow and his Kappa Sigma brothers at Washington State College.

Mel Hein and Glen Turk Edwards receive the honor after anchoring the Cougar defensive line and leading the team to a 9-0 regular season record and a spot in the 1931 Rose Bowl against Alabama.

Hein goes on to play 15 seasons for the New York Giants (1931-45) and never misses a down due to injury. He is the first player and only offensive lineman to win the NFL MVP award (1938), and he helps the Giants win the championship that season.

In 1963, Hein is selected as part of the inaugural class for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

After college, Edwards plays 9 seasons in the NFL for the Braves/Redskins beginning in 1932, winning All-NFL honors from major media outlets every year of his career except his last one. Following the end of his playing career, he continues with the Redskins as an assistant coach from 1941 to 1945 and then as the head coach from 1946 to 1948. After 17 consecutive seasons with the Redskins, Edwards then retires from professional football. He is selected for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1969.

Mel Hein

The previously undefeated Cougars fall to Alabama, 24-0, a game attended by an estimated 60,000 fans on a drizzly New Years 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.

The American Veterinary Medical Association begins accreditation of veterinary colleges.  WSCs College of Veterinary Medicine is immediately accredited and has maintained uninterrupted accreditation ever since.

Cougs have a long history of figuring out ways to save money while attending school during tight economic times. In the winter of 1932, during the Great Depression, WSC President  E.O. Holland organizes an essay contest for students titled “How I Economized Last Semester.” Peter E. Kragt, a freshman from Lynden, Washington, wins the contest with his story about building a cabin on Route 1 right before the beginning of classes.

The program begins with the goal of “training men in hotel operations and women in dietetics.” As the program grows and expands during the next 83 years, it evolves into one of the top hospitality programs in the nation, preparing students for leadership roles in the hospitality industry around the world.

“Possibly no single action involving curricular expansion ever brought [WSC President] Holland more praise from the College’s constituency than did this one, as compliments continued to reach him from year to year,” according to the book E.O. Holland and the State College of Washington.

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 legislatures barefoot schoolboy measures represents a cut of 36.5 percent over previous budgets.

Due to widespread unemployment, enrollment falls, allowing President Holland to close Ferry and Stevens residence halls in the spring of 1933 and keep them closed until September 1934, saving as much as $6,000. The library budget suffers a cut of 33% in the 1933-34 college budget.

For students, dropping out of school for a semester or two to earn money was a common practice throughout the 30s. Typical part-time jobs for women often involved cleaning and babysitting in private homes, while male students worked on farms surrounding the college.

Phillip Abelson graduates in chemistry and two years later earns his masters degree in physics from WSC. He is later recognized as the father of the atomic submarine, the co-discoverer of neptunium (element 93), and later serves as editor of Science magazine and president of the Carnegie Institution. He is also the first recipient of the WSU Regents Distinguished Alumni Award. He is the son of Olaf and Elle Abelson, who first attended WSC in 1905 and built a home where Fulmer Hall now stands.  The Philip M. Abelson Hall was named in his and his wifes honor in 2002.

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 Washingtons 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.

The first degree program in physical metallurgy, forerunner for today’s materials science and engineering program, is established by Clarence Zener, inventor of the Zener diode.

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

A famous national debate almost happens between Claudius O. Johnson, chair of the WSC Political Science Department and humorist / actor Will Rogers.  Johnson gives a speech for the Pullman PTA in December of 1932, and in the course of the evening cautions people against accepting Rogers expertise on foreign policy issues. Some of his comments are soon reprinted in the Pullman Herald, and several people forward copies of the article to Rogers.  The comedian sends a telegram back to the Pullman Herald, threatening to come up and debate Johnson.  The offer is gleefully accepted, and for many months thereafter the proposed debate is both bandied about in the press and discussed in telegrams between Johnson and Rogers.  Will Rogers describes the debate as Ignorance vs. Knowledge and Im going to be Ignorance.

The two correspond for a few months thereafter, but their final exchange comes in March of 1933.  Though the proposed debate gains a public life of its own, it never comes about. The death of Rogers and Wiley Post in a 1935 Alaskan plane crash forever ends the possibility, though the passage of time would turn this almost into an urban legend, reframing it with Rogers fatally canceling the debate at the last moment in favor of the Alaska trip.

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

One day in 1936, Betty Lee and her twin sister Peggy, about four years old, posed for their mother in the Washington State College shirts given to them by Carl Morrow, then Dean of Men at WSU.

Their parents, Don and Julia Lee, moved to Pullman in the 1930s and opened a restaurant, and later ran a small grocery on Maiden Lane. Morrow was a regular customer at their restaurant, which served “American” food, says Betty Lee. On occasion, he brought the family gifts, conferring on the girls the shirts, dolls, and balls.

Betty Lee graduated from WSU in 1954 with a degree in general studies. Her sister Peggy also graduated from WSU. They went on to have careers at the University, Betty working in the Agronomy department and Peggy with Extension. Peggy died in 2008. Betty still lives in town.

Betty says her mother was always taking pictures of her twins—when she could find them. Life was a great adventure growing up in the shadow of a large university. “My sister and I used to go exploring on campus and sometimes we would get lost,” says Lee. Their roaming was to the consternation of their parents. “My mother would say, ‘If you see two Chinese girls wandering around town, please tell them to come home.’”

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 didnt 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.

In the summer of 1936, Randall Johnson, a fine arts student at Washington State College, was hired as a sign painter by Fred Rounds, director of Buildings and Grounds. Johnsons job was to paint door numbers and names on buildings around campus.

One day, Rounds mentioned to Johnson that the college needed a trademark. After that, Johnson designed the first WSC cougar logo, which appeared on the door of a college truck.

When the college became a university in 1959, President French asked Johnson to revise the logo, changing the C to a U.

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.

During spring break of 1970, a fire destroyed the wood stands. The Cougars were forced to play off-campus for two years while the university built Martin Stadium.

The mens boxing team are national champions.  WSC sent four boxers to the championship and all four reached the finals.  Ed McKinnen and Roy Pooch Petragallo won national titles to give the Cougars the national championship.  Longtime boxing coach Issac Ike Deeter coached the 1937 team.

President Holland falls ill in early January and for several months runs the school from his bed in St. Lukes Hospital in Spokane. When he leaves for an April to August recuperative trip to the eastern U.S. and Canada, Holland and the Regents appoint Dean Herbert Kimbrough to act on his behalf, and on Oct. 2nd Kimbrough is made the schools first Vice President.

Marshall Allen Neill, future Justice of the Washington State Supreme Court, graduates with a B.A. in Political Science. In 1938, Neill received his law degree from the University of Idaho. He engaged in private practice in Pullman from 1938 to 1967, and during this time he also served as Pullman City attorney, assistant attorney general for Washington State University, part-time assistant professor at WSU, state representative (1949-1956) and state senator (1956-1967). In 1967 Neill was appointed to Associate Justice in the Supreme Court of Washington, and in 1972, President Nixon appointed him to the prestigious U.S. District Court in Spokane, a post he held until his death on October 6, 1979.

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.

WSC builds a ski jump on campus near the east end of whats now the CUB. It runs down the hill towards whats now the Football Operations Building and was reportedly one of only two ski jumps on college campuses in the United States. During World War II, the jump became part of the obstacle course for the fittest of the soldiers; it was even displayed in Life Magazine (Oct. 12, 1942, pg. 142).

The ski jump was repaired and reworked in 1947, but by 1950 it was permanently removed to make way for the construction of the CUB.

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 Meserves Historical Portraits. 

Allen I. White served as a professor of pharmacy at WSU from 1940 to 1979. In 1960, he was appointed dean of the College of Pharmacy, a position which he held until retirement nineteen years later. White was best known for his devotion to working with students, faculty, colleagues, and the health care profession.

After becoming dean, White led the transition in pharmacy education at WSU to a more balanced one, emphasizing the clinical role of a pharmacist. He also personally went out to discuss career opportunities with high school and community college students and counselors, increasing pharmacy enrollment to 250-255 students. He also fought to keep the College of Pharmacy at WSU when the Council of Higher Education recommended there only be one college in the state and pushed to have it at the University of Washington.

White passed away on December 23, 2002 in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

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

Coach Jack Friels mens basketball team finishes as the runner-up for the NCAA title, losing in the championship game to Wisconsin, 39-34.

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

Bryan, Enoch Albert, 1855-1941 at desk, 1937

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.

In the late 1930s, the WSC Creamery wanted to find a new way to store cheese. Wax cracked easily and plastic hadnt been invented. The only option left was cans. In the 1940s, the U.S. Government and the American Can Company funded WSCs research into storing cheese in cans.

An unexpected product of this research was Cougar Gold, an American cheddar named after Dr. N.S. Golding, one of the researchers.

The WSU Creamery continues to produce 250,000 cans of cheese a year, 80 percent of which are Cougar Gold. Cougar Gold has won multiple awards, including the World Cheese Awards Gold Medal in 2006 and makes great mac and cheese.

Charles H. Drake was a popular, well-respected professor at Washington State University for 36 years. His introductory class in bacteriology attracted many non-science majors as well as students preparing for careers in health care. In his lectures, he displayed an acute sense of humor and love of puns. In 1989, the Drakes created a trust to provide assistance for WSU graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in microbial ecology. He was 86 when he died on May 20, 2002 in Pullman.

On August 21, 1944, the Board of Regents selected Wilson M. Compton to serve as the fifth president. Compton accepted the position in October, leaving his position as an administrator and lobbyist for the lumber industry in Washington D.C.

President Comptons administration is well known for equalizing teaching loads, allowing faculty time for research, allowing students to declare majors after freshmen year, and establishing modern budgeting system. Compton served as president through 1951. The Compton Student Union Building (CUB) was dedicated to him after its construction.

The 7,212 ton liberty ship E.A. Bryan, named after the former WSC president and funded by Washington State 4-H Club members, explodes while workers load it with explosives. The ship had been dedicated to former 4-H Club members who were then serving in the War.

On July 17, 1944, the E.A. Bryan and the Quinalt Victory were moored across from each other at the Port Chicago Naval Base, in the San Francisco Bay. They were being loaded with explosives when something exploded; pieces of the Quinalt Victory were recovered but the E.A. Bryan was effectively vaporized. There had been an estimated 4,600 tons of explosives and ammunition on the E.A. Bryan when it detonated.

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.

Sarboe with football queen Donna Jacobson, 1949

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.

Stout also wrote scripts and recorded half-hour radio shows for a series titled The Legendary Pianists. The 242 programs, distributed for broadcast use by WSUs Radio Tape Network, aired weekly over KWSU and more than 200 educational and commercial stations nationally during the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1996, the Stouts joined a small group of Pullmanites dedicated to reclaiming the old Pullman High School. The three-story brick structure, known now as the Gladish Community and Cultural Center, was the site of an August 21, 2004, celebration of his life.

Stout took early retirement after a mild heart attack in 1979 and passed away July 4, 2004.

Don Adams, founder of the Laboratory for Atmospheric Research, developed and patented an analyzer that measures atmospheric gases.  Adams led pioneering research in the measurements of air pollution and its effects from lumber mills and smelters after being asked to put aside his research in extracting alumina from clay to investigate complaints about lumber mill odor. In the 1960’s, he was able to demonstrate for the first time that sulfur emissions were causing downwind die-offs of pine trees.

Adams was born in Spokane and grew up in the Pacific Northwest, attending then-WSC and earning a bachelors in analytical chemistry in 1941 and a masters in chemistry in 1942.  Don Adams passed away in August, 2006.

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.’’

Post-WWII construction at WSC was marked by the importing of many temporary buildings to handle the boom of returning soldier students. Many of these buildings came from the Farragut Naval Training Station near Coeur dAlene, ID while others came from Vancouver, WA. These buildings were torn down by the mid 1990s.

A surge in military veterans enrolling as students results in admission requirements imposed to manage enrollment.

As World War II comes to an end, enrollment at WSC passes 5,000, signifying the return of G.I.s and a drop in war-related employment.

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 masters 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 Lakes 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 BCCAs ties to WSU have faded, but the Beaver Creek Camp Association still exists today on upper Priest Lake.

John Gorham, a 1946 graduate, earns his Masters of Science Degree in pathology under D. R. Cordy. Later the pair go on to discover a rickettsia that is the cause of salmon disease in dogs and foxes.

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.

The WMEL was an integral part of WSU’s materials science and engineering program and an early contributor to sustainable resource use from forests.  WMEL researchers developed nondestructive testing methods that revolutionized production of high quality engineered wood composites. Ultrasonic veneer grading technology was key in the development of the I-joist material that now claims about 30% of the market for floor supports in single-family homes.

After graduating with his degree in physical education, Elmer F. Leonard spent many years as a teacher and administrator, eventually retiring in 1983 as superintendent of schools for the East Valley School District in Moxee.

The Leonards estimate that 18 close relatives have attended college in Pullman, beginning with the first Elmer Leonard, who started in 1915 but was killed in World War I prior to graduating. His name is engraved on the WSU Veterans Memorial, a lasting tribute to the first in a long family tradition of Cougs.

Washington State University’s sculpture “The Reader” made its first appearance on campus in 1949. Located on one corner of the Holland Library, the 30-foot limestone figure was almost instantly dubbed Nature Boy by the students. Some thought the sculpture was beautiful, while others didnt like it.

Paul Castleberry was a faculty member in the WSU Department of Political Science from 1949 to 1983. He taught courses in American government, international law and organization, and American foreign policy for 34 years at WSU and taught overseas in Egypt and Turkey under Fulbright scholarships and in Paris and London as part of a study abroad program. Castleberry was acting chair of WSUs political science department in 1957 and 1961-62, and chair from 1964 to 1968. He was also active in the University Senate and as chair of the International Education Committee, directed two Institutes of World Affairs, and was co-founder of the Northwest Inter-Institutional Study Abroad Program.

The State Legislature gives the WSC Board of Regents the power to develop a police department. H.E. Sims is the initial acting chief.

President Hollands full estate, by then $410,000, would come to WSU in 1964.

The 1950 Cougar Baseball team finished second in the fourth College World Series and the first to be held in what would become its permanent home, Omaha, Nebraska. The Cougs finished the season with a 32-6 record. They defeated Tufts, Alabama, and Rutgers in the World Series, but fell to Texas in their final two games. The 1950 team was the first of four Cougar baseball teams (as of 2015) to represent WSU at the College World Series.

Camp Easter Seal, also known as Camp Manitowish and later renamed as Camp Larson, is established on Lake Coeur dAlenes Cottonwood Bay by Professor Roger Larson. For over 50 years, both the Easter Seals and WSU education students use the site as a field school in their studies. WSU sold the property in 2005 to the Coeur dAlene Tribe.

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

In 1950, WSC produced a 23 minute promotional video designed to be shown in high schools as a recruitment tool.  The film was narrated by former Cougar, Edward R. Murrow.

J.W. Kalkus, superintendent of the colleges Puyallup Research Center, reported that one new berry plant developed at the station has added $15 million to the states wealth during the last 10 years.

In the face of state budget cuts, the Regents order Compton to dismiss 182 employees, including the vice president. Compton resigns.

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.

With the help of his colleagues, Bhatia began laying the groundwork for an academic program that would promote intellectual curiosity and critical thinking long past graduation. The Honors Program was introduced in 1960 and would later become the Honors College in 1998.

Bhatia passed away on January 16, 2003 in Pullman.

After President Compton resigns, William Pearl serves as acting president of WSC for a period of six-and-a-half months.

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.

On February 24, 1952, the Board of Regents selected C. Clement French to serve as the sixth president of Washington State University. He took the office April of that year, combining his inauguration with commencement.

President French was known as a pragmatist and diplomat. His administration is well known for the increase in enrollment and for building a better relationship with the University of Washington. French served as president until 1966. In 1968 the French Administration Building was named in his honor.

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

Philip Phibbs graduates a top scholastic student. Phibbs later becomes president of University of Puget Sound in 1973, helping transform the institution into one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country.

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.

On March 9, 1954, Edward R. Murrow spoke out against Senator Joseph McCarthy on his CBS program, See It Now. McCarthy had taken it upon himself to investigate communism in the U.S. government and had made allegations of treachery and subversion against many innocent people, ruining their careers and lives. Murrow was adamant that he speak out against McCarthy and ended up playing a key role in the senators political downfall.

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.

Two WSC students, Richard Thompson and Russell McCormmach, were the only representatives from land-grant colleges among the 64 U.S. students to win Rhodes Scholarships in these two years.

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.

David Seamans, who joined the electrical engineering faculty in 1954 (and retired in 1992), taught the first computer hardware course on campus. In 1956 or 1957, Seamans worked with William Grant, a professor of music, to build an analog music synthesizer.

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.

Patrick McManus, humorist and outdoor writer for Outdoor Life, Field Stream and other magazines, graduates with a B.A. in English from WSC in the Class of 1956.

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

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 states highest award.  Frances Penrose Owen passed away on March 9, 2002 in Seattle.  She was 102.

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.

Richard Daughterty and his student crew also excavated two large house pits and found artifacts like stone projectile points, knives, and scrapers, all dating between A.D. 187 and A.D. 687. Unfortunately, only a portion of the site could be excavated before being flooded by water.

Computer science became a full-fledged department in 1969 and graduates students at the B.S., M.S., and PhD levels.

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

George Marra, WSU wood technologist, develops a high speed lamination process capable of producing a weatherproof beam in seven minutes.

Washington State College officially becomes Washington State University.

The Honors Program is established under Sidney Hacker, professor of mathematics. In 2001, a grand opening was held for Honors Hall (formerly White Hall), the new home of the nationally-acclaimed WSU Honors College.

The WSU boxing program, started by coach Issac Ike Deeter in 1932, ended after the 1959-1960 school year. The NCAA closed all college programs in 1961 following a death at an NCAA tournament a year earlier.  A shortage of opponents in the west coast also spelled doom for the boxing program as transportation costs continued to rise.

Deeter, a 1929 WSC alumnus, coached for 24 years, directing the Cougars to eight Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) titles, produced 53 PCC champions, and his fighters won 15 individual NCAA titles.  Deeter continued to teach physical education classes at WSU until his retirement in 1967.

Dr. John Fred Bohler passes away. He served as a basketball coach, athletic director, and physical education administrator at WSU for 42 years.

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

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.

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.

Jack Cole, from Edwall, Wash., is named to the WSU Board of Regents. He served two terms from 1961-1967 and 1977-1983.

In 1962, WSU archeologists Richard Daugherty and Roald Fryxell began excavating the Marmes Rockshelter, near where the Snake and Palouse rivers meet. During the excavation, they found what was then the oldest human remains in the western hemisphere at approximately 12,000 years old.

The site was scheduled to be flooded during the construction of the Lower Monumental Dam, but thanks to the discovery President Lyndon Johnson authorized the construction of a coffer dam to protect it. Unfortunately, in 1969, the site was flooded anyway because of leaks under the dam. It had only been partially excavated.

President French and Regent Tom Gose visited WSUs program in Pakistan, one of the first international programs helping developing countries with land grant assistance.  French also visited Pakistan in 1956 and 1964.

The Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award honored the first three recipients: Phillip H. Abelson, Henry T. Heald, and Edward R. Murrow.

WSU alumnus Edward R. Murrow returns to campus and delivers the annual commencement address at Rogers Field. Rogers Field was located where Martin Stadium is today. The introduction was delivered by President C. Clement French who can be seen with Murrow in the first photo. The video seen here is the audio from that address, with a select few photographs from the ceremony overlaid upon it. Murrow died from cancer just three years later in 1965.

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

The compulsory ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) program was changed to voluntary, reflecting a greater focus on academics at WSU.

KWSC-TV went on the air for the first time under the direction of Cal Watson.  Though the university was already WSU, KWSC did not become KWSU until March 1, 1969.

Ivy Lewellen passes away at age 83. She served as executive secretary for 37 years to three presidents: Bryan, Holland, and Compton.

J. Clifford Folger, Nixons 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.

Famed Agony Hall (Music Conservatory) is torn down to make way for the new Kimbrough Music Building.

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.

Nearly 14 years after his death, President Hollands final estate of $410,000 was gifted to WSU. Two weeks later, the John I. and Orpha Preissner estate of $300,000 is also gifted to the school.

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

George E. Duvall, a pioneer of shock physics research, joined the WSU faculty in 1964 after leaving his position as director of the Standford Research Institute Poulter Lab. At WSU, Duvall established the WSU Shock Dynamics Laboratory in 1968 and supervised the doctoral dissertation of more than 25 students. His work was instrumental in furthering research efforts to seek a microscopic understanding of shock-induced changes in condensed materials. Duvall retired from WSU in 1988 and passed away in 2003 in Vancouver.

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

WSU and UW establish the State of Washington Water Research Center (SWWRC) on the WSU Pullman campus, in Albrook Hall. The Washington Water Research Center is established by the Water Resources Research Act; the SWWRC is one of only 14 centers which begin in that first year.

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.

In 1965, the WSU baseball team became famous for playing the then-longest game in College World Series history: 15 innings against Ohio State, with OSU finally winning 1-0.

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

WSU veterinarian Keith Farrell developed a freeze-branding technique for animals, reducing their pain and injury during the branding process.

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.

Gerry Lindgren, WSU track All-American, wins 11 NCAA titles during his time at WSU. He never loses any NCAA event he enters during the four years he attended the university. Lindgren majored in political science with a minor in Russian.

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.

Karl Sax, internationally acclaimed scientist, receives the seventh Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award. Sax attended then-WSC from 1912 to 1916, earning a bachelors of science in agriculture, and while at WSC he met and married his cytology teacher, Dr. Hally Jolivette. Sax is perhaps most well-known for his research in cytogenetics and the effect of radiation on chromosomes.

Following President Frenchs 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.

R.A. Nilan, geneticist, develops new barley strain with chemical mutagent.

President Emeritus Wilson Compton dies in Ohio.

Matsuyo Yamamoto is presented with Regents Eighth Distinguished Alumnus Award and is the first woman honored. After receiving her degree in home economics in 1937 at then Washington State College, Yamamoto returned to Japan where she pioneered home economics extension programs, eventually overseeing a staff of 3,000 home advisors that served the rural populations of Japan and other Asian countries. The College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Studies offers the Matsuyo Yamamoto Endowed Scholarship in her honor.

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.

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 students president. He would walk from the Presidents 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 dedicates the French Administration Building in honor of former President C. Clement French.

Robert Helm, an acclaimed Northwest artist known for surreal imagery and exquisite craftsmanship, graduates from WSU. After leaving WSU, Helm and Tamara continued to live and work in their studios in their beloved wheat fields between Pullman and Moscow. From there, his art went to museums and galleries all over the world. His work is in the collections of some of the most distinguished institutions in America: the Whitney and the Metropolitan Museums in New York, the Hirshhorn in Washington, D.C., and others.

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.

In 1969, the program that is today known as the WSU College of Nursing accepted its first class of 37 students. The WSU campus is rife with Vietnam war protests and student unrest.

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.

Lewis graduated with a degree in political science from WSU in 1972 and went on to earn his masters in public administration from the University of Washington. He moved to Washington D.C. in 1976 and founded his own consulting firm, DevCorp Consulting Corporation.

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.

Students gathered in front of the CUB to protest the invasion of Cambodia May 1970.

Enrollment for the 1970-1971 year passed 15,000 students.

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.

The Washington State University Alumni Association introduces the Alumni Achievement Award to honor outstanding Cougar alumni. Edryn Ed Jones (Sept. 21), Asa V. Ace Clark (Sept. 28), and Harry E. Goldsworth Jr. (Nov. 9) receive awards in 1970 as the first three recipients.

Paul Philemon Kies, a popular English professor, was known for his collections during his time at Washington State College. He filled his office and home with rare books, autographs, letters, and photographs. Some of these included a note from Sarah Bernhardt, a letter from Pearl S. Buck, a government document signed by Adolph Hitler, and a copy of a poem by Langston Hughes. After Kies death in 1971, WSU bought his collection (more than 400 artifacts) and moved it into the archives for safekeeping.

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.

In 1972, students Gary Larson, creator of the acclaimed comic strip The Far Side, and Patty Murray, future United States Senator, graduated from WSU.

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 Washington, Alaska, Montana, Idaho (WAMI) program is established in 1971 to create a cooperative agreement among the aforementioned states, and WSU becomes part of it in 1972. The program provides access to medical school to state residents of Alaska, Montana, and Idaho states without medical schools and also brings medical education into these states.

WAMI students are admitted to the University of Washington Medical School. They initially spent their first year at satellite universities including Washington State University, the University of Idaho, the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (later the University of Alaska-Anchorage), and Montana State University. During their first year, all students of the UW Medical School, including WAMI students, were registered for the same first-year course. Consequently course topics, materials, evaluations, and exams were similar at all five sites.

In 2015, WSU left the WWAMI partnership in favor of forming its own medical school.

The National Park Service designated Thompson Hall (formerly the administration building) for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1973, the Edward R. Murrow Communications center was dedicated to WSU alumnus, Edward R. Murrow. In 1990 the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication was dedicated.

In 1994, Murrow was memorialized on a U.S. postage stamp. He was the first broadcast journalist honored this way. The national first day of issue ceremony was January 21 in the Murrow Communications Center on WSUs Pullman campus.

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).

The Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (WADDL) is officially created with new funds from the legislature and existing resources. Today, it is a fully accredited facility and one of only a handful integrated with veterinary schools nationwide.

WSU created a major exhibit featuring Albrook Hydraulic Laboratory work, titled Waterworld, for the Spokane Worlds Fair/Expo 74.

The Washington, Oregon, and Idaho (WOI) regional Veterinary Medicine program begins, led by the WSU Veterinary College.

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.

On a lark (and prior to Caddyshack), a group of fifth-year architecture students dressed up as members of a “Palouse Country Club,” posing with golf clubs and tennis whites on College Hill to record the effort.

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

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 Ronos 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 band Heart played to a packed studio audience on campus during KWSUs show Second Ending. At the time, Heart was a young band whose internationally-renowned album, Dreamboat Annie, hadnt been released yet.

Steve Puidokas, a six-foot-eleven point guard, sets the Cougar mens career basketball points record. Puidokas other career records would include scoring average (18.6 points per game), field goals, and rebounds (9.7 per game).  He was the second-team all-conference for four straight seasons. Puidokas is the first WSU basketball player to have his number (55) retired.

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.

Regent Michael Dederer becomes Board of Regents President for a third time. Dederer, a Seattle philanthropist and president of the Seattle Fur Exchange, was originally appointed in 1955 to fill the unexpired term of John C. Scott, who resigned. Dederer started as a janitor at the Seattle Fur Exchange in 1922, and just 17 years later was president of a rapidly growing fur empire. In public service, Dederer not only served as first member, then president of the WSU Board of Regents, but he was also a regent for Pacific Lutheran University and headed the WSU Foundation. Dederer died on June 24, 1995.

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 Swedens Royal Academy and the University of Sydney in Australia.

On October 18, 1976, President Gerald Ford presented the National Medal of Science to WSU Professor Emeritus, Orville Vogel. Vogel helped develop wheat varieties with stronger stalks and higher yield potential, which now grow on five continents. This research launched the Green Revolution, a push in agricultural research to help feed the worlds hungry. Vogel worked at WSU from 1931 to 1973, receiving his Ph.D. here in 1939.

Orville Vogel, developer of the worlds most productive wheat strains, receives Regents Ninth Distinguished Alumnus Award. Vogel received his Ph.D. at WSU in 1939 and stayed as faculty for several decades. His work helped start the Green Revolution in agriculture. He led the research team that produced the first commercially successful semi-dwarf wheats and was known for his inventions of scientific research equipment. He received the National Medal of Science, presented by President Ford in 1975, as well as the State of Washington Medal of Merit in 1987.

The Crimson Company student show choir first performs for Dads Weekend in 1977 and goes on to be one of WSUs 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 tenth Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award goes to ABC television sportscaster, Keith Jackson.

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.

The last of the live mascots, Butch VI, dies at age 15. Butch VI was gifted to the school by then-state governor Albert Rosellini in September 1964.

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

In 1983 a $3 million multi-purpose animal holding and care facility is completed adjoining existing animal care facilities in the Veterinary Science Building.  In 1984 the building is named for the dean emeritus, Leo K. Bustad.

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.

Jack Thompsons No. 14 jersey is retired, recognizing his 7,818 yards gained passing. Thompson is only the second football jersey ever retired by WSU.

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.

Blair vs. Washington State University became a landmark womens rights case for Washington. In 1987, the state supreme court ruled in favor of women athletics and in the following years womens soccer and crew were added to WSU, scholarships for women athletes were established, and the teams were provided buses for transportation to and from games.

Weldon B. Hoot Gibson, Charles Schroeder, and Marshall Neill receive the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth Regents Distinguished Alumnus Awards.

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.

By 1987, private giving to the university through WSU Foundation surpassed $9 million. Major gifts included Distinguished Professorships from the Kennedy family of Seattle and from five high-tech companies; $1 million from the Boeing Company and $1 million in computer equipment from ATT.

John Stickney, a troubled youth and ex-boyfriend of WSU student Lisa Clark, detonated a bomb on the fourth floor of Streit-Perham Hall, killing himself and wounding two policemen. Stickney, a high school dropout, was employed by Industrial Rock Products as a powder man. He drove from his home in Mercer Island to attempt a reconciliation with Clark. Stickney twice attempted to talk with Clark at her dorm room and then detonated the bomb after a failed attempt to force entry.

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

Cooper Publications Building is the first building named to honor a classified staff member, Caroline Cooper. Cooper was Director of Duplicating and Mailing for 39 years.

The home of WSU Baseball, Bailey Field, opens after relocating. The field was previously at the site of todays 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.

WSU is home to three superb collections: the Conner Museum, Ownbey Herbarium, and James Entomology Collection. All three began almost as soon as Washington State College opened its doors. They were considered central to the schools land-grant mission to help farmers identify weeds and pests and to document the native flora and fauna of the state.

The collections soon grew beyond their teaching role. What makes them research collections is their sheer numbers. The Conner has about 69,000 specimens, the Herbarium about 375,000, the James more than 1.25 million.

William Bugge, Washington Director of Highways, and Laurence Peter, and co-author of the Peter Principle, receive fourteenth and fifteenth Regents Distinguished Alumnus Awards.

Bugge completed three and one-half years at then-WSC, leaving in 1922 to work for the Washington Department of Highways. He received an honorary bachelors degree from WSU in 1990. As Director of Highways, Bugge oversaw the design and construction of some of the states most ambitious projects. In 1963, he resigned his position to become the Project Director in charge of the design and construction of the Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, in San Francisco.

Peter taught in Vancouver before attending WSU. After graduation, he moved to California where he became an Associate Professor of Education, Director of the Evelyn Frieden Centre for Prescriptive Teaching, and Coordinator of Programs for Emotionally Disturbed Children at the University of Southern California.

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 universitys first comprehensive fund-raising effort. Over a seven-year period, ending in 1997, Campaign WSU raised more than $275 million. It increased the universitys scholarship endowment, established endowed professorships to attract and retain top faculty, and provided modern equipment for teaching and research.

In a 26-31 Cougar pigskin loss to San Jose State in Spokane, Glenn Johnson debuts as public address announcer for WSU football and men’s basketball, a position which soon earns him the title of “Voice of the Cougars.” In 1983, he starts the And that’s another Cougar first down… call which has since been copied by many others. Glenn was a faculty member in the WSU Murrow College of Communication faculty from 1979 to 2014.

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.

WSU dedicates the Warren G. Magnuson Nursing Education Building, home to Intercollegiate Center for Nursing Education, on Aug. 27. The building, located in Spokane, is named for State of Washington U.S. Senator.

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.

Eggart scores 16 against Portland State, bringing her to 1,906 points in her career, passing mens basketballer Steve Puidokas record of 1,894.  She would finish her career with 1,967.

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.

In the fall of 1983, L. Keating Johnson was named director of bands at WSU, where he taught both conducting and tuba and conducted the Wind Symphony and Symphony Orchestra. He also served as music director and conductor of the Washington-Idaho Symphony.

After 18 years with the WSU School of Music, Johnson passed away April 6, 2004 in Pullman from brain cancer.

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.

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 mens double sculls and Kristi in the womens coxed eights.  In track, Gabriel Tiacoh finishes with the 400m silver.

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

On a wet fall afternoon in Eugene, Oregon, in late October 1984, Rueben Mayes feet carried him to what was at the time the greatest accomplishment of any NCAA running back, rushing for 357 yards. Just a week earlier, Mayes ran for 216 yards at Stanford in a rally that brought Washington State University from a 28-point third quarter deficit to a 49-42 win.

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.

On March 7, 1985, the Board of Regents selected Samuel H. Smith to serve as the eighth president of Washington State University.  He took office on July 1, leaving his position as the dean of the College of Agriculture and director of both the Cooperative Extension Service and Agricultural Experiment Station at Pennsylvania State University.

President Smiths administration is best known for the establishment of the WSU branch campuses in Spokane, Tri-Cities, and Vancouver in 1989.  In 1997 Smith chaired the NCAA Presidents Commission, the major governing body for college intercollegiate athletics. Smith served as president until January 8, 2000.

The Samuel H. Smith Center for Undergraduate Education, also known as the CUE, was named in his honor.

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.

The Washington Higher Education Telecommunications System, or WHETS, transmits its first live interactive course, originating on the Pullman campus and reaching both Vancouver and Spokane.  The University of Idaho, UW, Gonzaga, and Tri-Cities all also take part in the initial project.

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.

The National Academy of Sciences honors biochemist Clarence A. Bud Ryan. He becomes the first WSU professor with membership in the prestigious organization. Ryans career at WSU spanned more than 40 years. His work on the natural insecticides plants produce when they are subjected to herbivorous predators is internationally recognized.

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.

WSU Athletics introduces new leadership to the Cougar family, including Jim Livengood, athletic director; Dennis Erickson, football coach; and Kelvin Sampson, mens basketball coach.

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.

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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.

In 1987, the State Higher Education Coordinating Board asked WSU to increase access to higher education in the Tri-Cities, Vancouver, and Spokane. On August 24, WSU offered its first three undergraduate courses in Vancouver and in 1989, the three branch campuses officially open. The branch campuses serve more than 6,000 students a year.

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.

The Washington State Historical Society recognizes trailblazers from WSU in the Washington Centennial Hall of Honor: Philip Abelson (Class of 1933), Father of the Atomic Submarine; Enoch Bryan, WSC president (1893-1916); Gary Larson (Class of 1972), acclaimed Far Side cartoonist; Edward R. Murrow (Class of 1930), preeminent broadcast journalist; Archie Van Doren (Class of 1937), father of controlled atmosphere storage for apples, conducted research for WSU at its Wenatchee Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center; Orville Vogel (Class of 1939), agronomist who revolutionized wheat breeding, made possible the Green Revolution. He worked for the USDA at WSU in Pullman.

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

Former WSU president, C. Clement French, died in Lacey, Wash.

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.

Governor Booth Gardner signs an $800,000 appropriation allowing the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute (SIRTI) to purchase a swath of Spokane land across the river from Gonzaga, for developing a branch campus. The first building would be dedicated there on Oct. 21, 1994.

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 hospitals 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.

Mary Turner DeGarmo, known for her work in transcribing musical compositions into braille, and William Julius Wilson, sociologist, receive the Regents 21st and 22nd Distinguished Alumnus Awards. DeGarmo, who graduated in 1926 with a B.A. in Education, developed the first and only detailed, comprehensive teaching text on transcribing musical compositions into Braille for blind musicians, a volume used worldwide. DeGarmo, the second woman honored with the Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award, passed away in 1995.  Wilson received his Ph.D. in Sociology in 1966 and is known for his research and scholarship on the black underclass. He authored articles and books including, The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass and Public Policy and The Declining Significance of Race.

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.

The Alumni Centre opens in the name of benefactors Jack and Ann Lewis. It was part of a $50 million construction initiative on the Pullman campus, which included the Chemistry Building and the Food Science and Human Nutrition Building.

In 1985, Jack and Ann Lewis pledged $1 million toward the new facility. In 1991, the Lewis Alumni Centre dedicates a library in honor of Phillip and June Lighty, the Past Presidents Room in honor of Henry and Anna Magnuson Reaugh, and the Reception Gallery for Weldon Hoot Gibson. In 1994, the Lewis Alumni Center completes its fifth year of operation and hosts 150,000 visitors and 1,500 meetings.

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.

Fulmer Hall receives a makeover, including a vibration-free laser laboratory and a six-story addition.

Jason Hanson, field goal kicker, is the first team academic athletic All-American.  Hed go on to play 21 years for the NFLs Detroit Lions.

He would win the title again in 1991 as well.

Chuck Bobo Brayton won his 1,000th game as Cougar head baseball coach in a 14-6 victory against Eastern Washington at WSUs Bailey Field. The field was renamed Bailey-Brayton after Bobo retired in 1994, having accumulated 1,162 career wins at WSU. Braytons predecessor, Buck Bailey, coached the Cougars from 1927-1962, and Brayton followed from 1963-1994. The two combined to coach the Cougars for over 60 years.

After 20 years as a faculty member in psychology at WSU Pullman, Hal Dengerink became the first chancellor of WSU Vancouver. Hal helped establish the urban campus and led it for more than 20 years before his retirement in 2011. Shortly after, Hal passed away after a courageous battle with brain cancer.

Gary Larson, syndicated cartoonist and creator of The Far Side, receives the Regents 24th Distinguished Alumnus Award and is the Centennial Commencement Speaker.  His talk is titled The Importance of Being Weird.

Morty the Moose, a WSU research animal, was featured in the opening credits of televisions 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.

The Caring Call, a traditional bronze sculpture by Larry Wayne Anderson sculpture, is built and dedicated near the intersection of Stadium Way and Grimes Way.  It is the only bronze statue in the country depicting a human administering medical care to an animal.

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 WSUs program among the top 25 in the nation.

WSUs choice for the future home of WSU Vancouver is approved by the states HEC board. The land spans 348 acres at Salmon Creek in Clark County.  The campus opens in 1996 and it is WSUs first all new campus in over a century.

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

The WSU African American Alumni Alliance begins in fall of 1991 during the planning of that years first Black Student Reunion.

The Cougars were defeated by Northwestern, 82-62, in a first round match-up in Chicago.

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.

WSU West moves into the Westin Building in downtown Seattle.  In 2000, WSU West moved from the Westin Building to a building on Pike Street, both in downtown Seattle.

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Barry Serafin receives the 26th Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award for his career in journalism. Serafin started his career at KWSU and later transferred to the CBS Washington D.C. bureau. He won an Emmy for his contribution to the documentary Watergate: The White House Transcripts. He then joined ABC in 1979, covering the Iran hostage crisis, and became a national correspondent in 1981.

Cole later returned to teach advanced courses in Electrical Engineering at WSU in 1997, and began designing adaptable circuit boards for his students to use.  After sharing them with colleagues in different universities nationwide they became so popular that he formed his own company, Digilent, to manufacture and market the circuit boards.  Cole received his B.S. in computer science in 1987 and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2000, both from WSU.  He continues to teach junior and senior-level electrical engineering courses.

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.

Former WSU quarterback Mark Rypien is the 1992 Super Bowl XXVI MVP in the Washington Redskins 37-24 win over the Buffalo Bills.

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 WSU mens basketball team received its first invite to the National Invitational Tournament. The Cougs lost in the second round to University of New Mexico.

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 years record of $26 million, and it would in turn be topped the following year when that years gifts tallied $45 million.

The new WSU Multicultural Center opened its doors in the renovated former Chemical Engineering Building (Math Learning Annex).

U.S. Air Force General (ret.) Robert D. Russ received the 27th Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award for his service as Commander of Air Force Aviation during the Gulf War. Russ graduated from WSU in 1955 with a B.A. in business administration and entered the Air Force in 1955 as a second lieutenant, serving until 1991 when he retired as general.

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.

Mike Lowry (62) is elected governor of Washington. Lowry was born in St. John, Washington and served various positions in the Washington State government before his election.  Lowry also spoke at the 1993 commencement ceremony.

The WSU womens volleyball team won the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (volleyballs equivalent of basketballs 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.

The Boeing Company donated $7 million to WSU- the largest private gift to date.

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

He previously had won the same award in 1990.

John Gorham, internationally renowned veterinarian and WSU faculty member, received the 28th Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award. Gorham was the first student to earn a graduate degree from the College of Veterinary Medicine and contributed heavily to the study of feline and canine disease.

The WSU Veterans Memorial is dedicated on Veterans Day in 1993, honoring all alumni, faculty, and staff who died during 19th and 20th century conflicts. In 1996, the class of 1949, with help from former registrar James Quann, began a campaign to complete the memorial. It was rededicated on October 7, 2000.

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

The WSU mens basketball team received an invitation to play in the NCAA Championship Tournament. They lost in the first round to Boston College, 64-67.

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.  

Necia Bennett Huntley (35) and husband Elmer C. Huntley left a 890-acre wheat ranch in Thornton, Washington to WSU. The goal of the ranch was funding scholarships.

WSU completed construction on a new $36 million library adjacent to Holland Library. In May 2006, it was formally named after former WSU president Glenn Terrell.

WSU Regent Kate Webster retired after nearly 19 years of service. She served the longest term on the WSU Board of Regents in the past 50 years. The Physical Sciences Building is named for her.

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

Cougar fans celebrate a 23-6 Apple Cup football victory against University of Washington in the snow at Martin Stadium.

WSU wins a friendly fundraising competition with the University of Washington. As a result, Seattles Space Needle roof got a crimson and gray paint job.

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

Campaign WSU passes $200 million mark eight months before its scheduled end.  In 1997 the seven-year Campaign WSU, the universitys first comprehensive fundraising effort, concluded with final total of $275.4 million, surpassing its original $250 million goal. Supporting WSUs vision to be one of the top public universities in the nation, the money raised benefited scholarships, teaching and research programs, student programs, and learning initiatives statewide.

Coach Kevin Eastman took WSU mens 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.

The WSU baseball team captured the Pac-10 North baseball title under first-year coach Steve Farrington.

Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Norman Borlaug, received an honorary doctoral degree from WSU during commencement in 1995.  Borlaug and WSU professor, Orville Vogel, are credited with research crucial to the Green Revolution in wheat breeding, which has saved an estimated one billion lives in the twentieth century.

U.S. Army Gen. John M Shalikashvili, chairman of the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at commencement. His son Brant was one of the graduates.  Shalikashvili served as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Supreme Allied Commander from 1993 through 1997, the first foreign-born American to do so.

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

The WSU womens junior varsity crew team captured the crown at the National Collegiate Rowing Championship Regatta on Lake Harsha in Ohio. It was the first title for the five-year-old rowing program.

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

Cougar pride hits the road with the launch of WSU Cougar license plates. Money from each Cougar plate supports student scholarships.  By the first anniversary of the state of Washington collegiate motor vehicle program, more than 5,119 plate featuring the WSU Cougar logo will be soldmore than all the other public schools in the state combined.

Money magazine ranks WSU among the top 15 best value four-year undergraduate universities in the West.

Common Ground, a three-piece acrylic-on-canvas painting celebrating diversity at WSU, was dedicated in the Compton Union Building. WSU colleges and administrative units donated funds for the mural by artist Katrin Wiese, Riverside, Calif.

President Emeritus Glenn Terrell, who led WSU from 1967-1985, returns to WSU for dedication of the Glenn Terrell Friendship Mall.

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

Volleyball coach Cindy Fredrick concluded her seventh season at WSU by being named PAC-10 Conference Coach of the Year, and was named AVCA District VIII Coach of the Year as well. The team finished 22-7 overall and third in the Pac-10, led by All-American Sara Silvernail.

Jack Friel, coach of the Cougar mens basketball team from 1928-1958 and holder of the schools record for 495 victories, died at 97. Friel led the Cougs to the 1941 NSAA championship game and was later the first commissioner of the Big Sky Conference.

WSU Cooperative Extension officials and community partners announced plans to develop six pilot Extended Learning Centers in Port Townsend, Wenatchee, Colville, Longview/Kelso, Tacoma, and Yakima to expand educational opportunities.

After opening its doors to its first students in January, the new classroom building, Academic I, celebrates its dedication on Feb. 21.

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.

Time magazine named WSU alumnus William Julius Wilson (66) one of Americas 25 most influential people. Dr. Wilson, who earned his doctorate in sociology from WSU, taught sociology at several universities, including Harvard. He is one of the nation’s most accomplished and looked-to analysts of race, inequality, and poverty, a MacArthur “genius” award recipient and, counting this year’s accolade at Yale University, holder of 45 honorary degrees.

He is only the second sociologist to receive the National Medal of Science, the highest scientific award in the United States.

Time magazine named WSU graduate William Julius Wilson, noted sociologist, one of Americas 25 most influential people.

Universe magazine editor Tim Steury and scientist/cat Dr. Wendy Sue Universe team up to answer science questions from curious readers. “Ask Dr. Universe,” a popular question-and-answer science column for children, is syndicated in 30 newspapers around the region.

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 hospitals magnetic resonance imaging unit. Under a cooperative agreement, the vet hospital provides imaging services for human patients.

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.

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

The mission of the Center (CRB) is to provide opportunities for investigators from across the Pacific Northwest to collaborate and learn from one another.  The Center boasts a large membership at the two core institutions (WSU and UI), but also includes a number of members at Montana State University, University of Washington, Central Washington University, and Spokane Community College.The CRB includes approximately 88 faculty and over 200 trainees and staff and is one of the largest reproductive biology centers in the world.

WSU biochemists Rod Croteau and Linda Randall were elected to the National Academy of Sciences. They joined four other WSU researchers in the academy: C.A. Bud Ryan, a biochemist; Jim Cook, a USDA plant pathologist at WSU; John Hirth, a materials scientist; and Dieter H. von Wettstein, a plant geneticist.

Dave Cooper retired as manager of the Students Book Corporation after 27 years.

WSU received a $10 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to create an Institute for Shock Physics. The institute is directed by WSU physics professor, Yogi Gupta.  In 2001 the university held a ground-breaking for a new building to house WSUs internationally recognized Institute for Shock Physics.  In 2003, the new building housing WSUs internationally recognized Institute for Shock Physics was inaugurated.

The Consolidated Information Center at WSU Tri-Cities opened. Funds for the $18.6 million literary and teaching center came from the state of Washington and the U.S. Department of Energy.

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.

Debbie Pipher, senior member of the WSU coaching staff, resigned after 20 years as coach of the womens swimming team.

The WSU Cougars head to the 84th Rose Bowl for the first time in 67 years. Sadly, the Cougars lose to Michigan, 21-16, a sad end to an otherwise great season. The Cougars were predicted to finish seventh in the Pac-10, but won the conference title and posted a 10-1 record.  In February, football coach Mike Price signed an eight-year contract extension through December 31, 2005.

Built by the Works Progress Administration in 1937 with a knotty pine interior, it was operated as a cooperative house, independent of the universitys 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.

The CL Davis Foundation for the Advancement of Veterinary and Comparative Pathology honor Dr. John Gorham, Dr. Thomas Jones, class of 1935 and Dr. Floris M. Garner, Class of 1950, former chairman of veterinary pathology at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington D.C. by naming them Legends in Veterinary Pathology.

On March 26, the WSU Alumni Association began a six-month centennial celebration. The association started in 1898, eight years after the state Legislature created the land-grant college.

The new $27 million, 100,000-square-foot Engineering, Teaching, and Research Laboratory opened. Adjacent to Dana Hall, the four-story structure was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

A new state law gave WSU a major educational leadership role in Spokane and management responsibilities for the Riverpoint campus.

The 8-mile-long Bill Chipman Palouse Trail opened. Built on an abandoned railroad bed, this recreational path paralleling the highway between Pullman and Moscow is a recreational asphalt trail involving two states, two cities, WSU, and the University of Idaho. The late Bill Chipman, a Pullman car dealer, was a UI graduate and supporter of his alma mater and WSU.

At age 102, Dorothy Otto Kennedy, the oldest living graduate of the WSU College of Pharmacy, died in Everett. She earned her degree in 1916 and went on to practice pharmacy in Reardan in eastern Washington and Everett in western Washington.

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.

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.

The first students recruited to WSU through the College of Educations Future Teachers of Color program graduated during the 1998 Commencement.

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.

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.

The September issue of Kiplingers Personal Finance Magazine ranks WSU 39th among the nations Top 100 Values in State Universities.

The Animal Disease Biotechnology Facility (ADBF) houses offices for the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences and research laboratories. The facility is unique among all USDA buildings and facilities projects because its focus is on the use of molecular biology to resolve diseases in agricultural animals with application where appropriate to human health. Program goals include ensuring a safe and abundant human food supply; improving the health and well-being of food animals produced in the US; and providing research training for the next generations of scientists.

WSU dedicates the admissions office suite in the Lighty Student Services to Stan Berry, who worked 33 years in WSU admissions. He was director for 22 years.

William Julius Wilson, Ph.D. (66) received the 1998 National Medal of Science, the highest scientific honor in the United States.Wilson was a behavioral and social scientists and received the medal  for his innovative approach to studying urban poverty, his dedication to the proposition that rigorous social science change will improve his fellow Americans lives, and his advocacy of policies which reflect more accurately what we have learned from research and which therefore take a broader point of view with respect to the interactions of race, class, and location.

Wilson received the award at a White House ceremony April 27, 1999.

WSU alumnus and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen became the 29th recipient of the Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award during commencement.

James Petersen receives a 5-year National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) grant, the largest NSF grant received at WSU at that time. The grant enabled the education of about 45 PhD students and transformed the PhD educational programs.

Jason Gesser broke several Cougar football records during his time at WSU. He was the only player to be selected as team captain three times, and the only quarterback to have back-to-back double-digit win seasons. The winningest quarterback in WSU history played briefly in the NFL, CFL, and AFL, then coached for the Idaho Vandals and the Wyoming Cowboys, and in 2014 returned to WSU as an analyst for the football radio broadcast team.

Dr. Bayly has been at WSU for more than 20 years and was named the first, four-year Robert B. McEachern Distinguished Professor in Equine Medicine in 1995. Named acting dean in 2000, one year later the position would become permanent.

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.

The Board of Regents selects V. Lane Rawlins to serve as the ninth president of WSU. He took office after serving as the president at University of Memphis. Rawlins was the first WSU faculty member to become president. He joined the economics faculty in 1968, later served as chair of the department of economics, and was WSU vice provost from 1982-86.

President Rawlins administration is best known for strengthening the WSU-UW relationship, giving the WSU branch campuses more autonomy, establishing December commencement, and Academic Showcase. He served as president until June 2007.

On November 17, WSU unveiled its new graphic identity at a WSU Board of Regents meeting in Spokane: the new crimson and gray on white logo employs the Cougar head within a crest, now an internationally recognized symbol for higher education. The famous Cougar head logo was designed in 1936 by then Washington State College student Randall Johnson.

WSU graduate and scientist Jack Gorski, a National Academy of Sciences member, received the 30th Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award. Gorski was known for his discovery of the estrogen receptor.

Ralph Yount, a distinguished chemist and Regents Professor Emeritus, receives first WSU Eminent Faculty Award, granted for distinguished lifetime service at WSU. His research was funded through National Institutes of Health without interruption for 40 years, one of the longest continually funded projects at NIH.

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.

WSU and Pullman community members held a vigil the evening of September 12 in Pullmans Reaney Park in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. East Coast.

Robert C. Bates, a WSU alumnus and longtime Virginia Tech administrator, began service as WSU Provost and Academic Vice President.

On the final day of 2001, the WSU Cougar football team beat Purdue 33-27 in the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. The Cougs finished the season with a 10-3 record and ranked 10th in two polls.

The $39 million, 145,000 square-foot Health Science Building was the third building opened on the WSU Spokane campus and houses pharmacy, speech and hearing sciences, exercise science, health policy and administration, and food sciences and human nutrition. Other WSU programs inside include the Health Research and Education Center, Area Health Education Center, Washington Institute for Mental Illness Research and Training (WIMIRT), and the Institutional Review Board-Spokane.

Eastern Washington University programs in physical therapy, occupational therapy, and dental hygiene are also housed here.  The Health Science Building adds to Spokanes status as an important regional medical community, the largest between Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

WSU named Don A. Dillman the second recipient of the WSU Eminent Faculty Award. Dillman was the Thomas S. Foley Distinguished Professor of Government and Public Policy and a social scientist in the Departments of Sociology and Rural Sociology.

WSU graduate and sociologist James E. Blackwell received the 31st Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award. Blackwell is a leading scholar in the areas of minorities in higher education and social movement in black communities.  Blackwell received his Ph.D. in Sociology from WSU in 1959 and worked during the turbulent early 1960s as the president of the San Jose NAACP and as a teacher at San Jose State University.  In 1970 the University of Massachusetts hired Blackwell to build its fledgling Department of Sociology and Anthropology at its five-year-old Boston campus where he stayed for 20 years.  Blackwell remained passionately dedicated to teaching, not for the sake of knowledge alone, but to help students go on to graduate and professional schools and becoming important, contributing citizens.

The Samuel H. Smith Center for Undergraduate Education (CUE), a $32 million, five-story, 94,000 square-foot building, opened in early 2002 as a hub for student-centered and active learning.  The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, the WSU Writing Program, General Education Program, and the Student Computing Services Lab are all housed in the building along with 20 classrooms of various sizes.  The building was named for WSUs eighth President, Samuel H. Smith, who served from 1989-2000.

Herbert Eastlick, a devoted mentor and self-described taskmaster and autocrat in the classroom who taught at WSU for 33 years, passed from complications to Alzheimers disease at the age of 94.  Eastlick came to then-WSC in 1940 as an assistant professor in zoology from the University of Chicago where he earlier became acquaintances with President Holland.  He was chairman of the Department of Zoology from 1947 to 1964 and chaired the Faculty Executive Committee in 1955-56.

He also helped create WSUs nationally ranked Honors Program and presented the Universitys eighth Faculty Invited Address on his research in 1961. In 1979 the new Eastlick Biological Sciences Building was dedicated in honor of the Herbert and his wife Margaret Eastlick.

Four generations of the Appel family, starting with Don in the 1930s, have migrated from farming on the Palouse to cultivating their knowledge at WSU.  While Don had to withdraw due to failing eyesight one semester short of his degree, he made sure that all nine of his children (Dick Appel ’59, David ’61, Tony ’63, Fred ’65, Donna ’67, Colleen ’68, Steven ’74, Laurette ’78, and Renata ’82) received their college degrees at WSU.  Most of their spouses are WSU degree-holders, plus a host of cousins.  They were followed by a third and fourth generation of graduates.  Dick and his wife Helen, also a WSU graduate, farm on 1,700 acres near Dusty, Washington and many of the Appel children have degrees in agricultural or engineering related fields.

WSU graduate Dr. Robert W. Higgins, former U.S. Navy Deputy Surgeon General and Navy Medical Corps chief, received the 32nd Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award. Also the recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest military peacetime award, he was former president of the American Academy of Family Physicians and of the World Organization of Family Doctors.

Cougar womens volleyball received an NCAA Championship tournament at-large berth for the ninth time, all in a twelve year stretch, hosting the first and second rounds of play.

WSUs 2002 football team was PAC-10 Conference co-champions. The Cougs played Oklahoma in the 2003 Rose Bowl where they lost 14-34.

WSU named faculty member James Petersen as the Universitys vice provost for research. Faculty member Howard Grimes was named the dean of the Graduate School.

The WSU football team had a successful year in 2003. It began with the 2002-03 football team (named PAC-10 Conference co-champions) playing in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 2003. The Cougs lost to Oklahoma 14-34. For the 2003 season, former assistant Bill Doba became the Cougars new head coach, succeeding Mike Price. The Doba-led team played in the 2003 Holiday Bowl football game on Dec. 30, 2003. The Cougars beat Texas 28-20. The 2003 season marked WSU footballs third straight 10-win season. The Cougs were the first Pac-10 team to achieve this feat in 70 years.

The athletic highlights of 2003 included womens golf making its first NCAA appearance, a WSU swimmer competing in the NCAA championship, rowing making its first team NCAA appearance, and Whitney Evans winning NCAA, NCAA regional, and PAC-10 high jump titles.

The WSU Regents gave chief executive officers/deans of WSU urban campuses in Spokane, Tri-Cities, and Vancouver chancellor titles and expanded their responsibilities.

Rodney Croteau, Eisig-Tode Distinguished Professor of Forest Biotechnology in WSUs Institute of Biological Chemistry, was honored as the third recipient of the WSU Eminent Faculty Award.

As part of WSUs commitment to supporting Pullman, the WSU Foundation moved its offices from campus to downtowns new Pullman Town Centre. The Foundation raised more than $48.5 million, the second highest fund-raising total in its history.

On May 24, WSU honored its winningest coach, Charles Frederick Bobo Brayton, by retiring baseball jersey no. 14. Brayton wore no. 14 while earning 12 varsity letters at WSU, becoming the schools first baseball All-America in 1947 as shortstop, and during more than three decades as baseball coach.

At the WSU-UCLA baseball game, a white banner bearing a red no. 14 encircled by a baseball was unfurled on the rightfield fence. The 77-year-old coaching legend threw out the ceremonial first pitch. The Cougars went on to win 15-2, appropriately pounding out 14 hits.

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 best prepared freshman class WSU ever enrolled in the fall included 15 National Merit Scholars and 24 Distinguished Regents Scholars.

In early September 2003, Keith Lincoln stepped aside after 25 years as the WSU alumni director. Lincoln arrived at WSU in the fall of 1957, having attracted attention as a quarterback at Monrovia High School near Pasadena. At WSU he became a triple-threat halfback and earned the nickname The Palouse Moose. He was inducted into the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1979.

Lincoln became the WSU alumni director in 1978 when E.G. Pat Patterson retired from the position and looked to his assistant, Lincoln, as the ideal successor. In 1982, Lincoln stopped the university from demolishing WSUs historic livestock barn, which was later renovated into the Lewis Alumni Centre.

WSU alumnus Tim Pavish became WSU alumni relations director/WSU Alumni Association executive director. He succeeded Keith Lincoln, who retired from the post after 26 years of service.

Construction began on the new Plant Biosciences Building, the first of several new buildings that will create a new research and education complex along Stadium Way. The building was dedicated on October 14, 2005 and named for wheat researcher Orville Vogel in 2007.

A three-quarter size replica of WSUs historic entryway arch is installed near the originals location.

WSU graduate Sherman J. Alexie Jr., award-winning poet, author, screenwriter, and film director, received the 33rd Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award recipient.

WSUs Anjan Bose, an international expert in the power grid control industry, and Jim Asay, an expert in shock-wave research and high-pressure science, join The National Academy of Engineering.  Bose is internationally known for his development of training simulators and computational tools for reliable power-system operation, and for contributions to education and research on power systems.

Raymond Muse joined the WSU Department of History and Political Science in 1948 after completing his doctorate at Stanford. By 1956, Muse had become the chair of the newly formed Department of History. By the time he retired, the history department was ranked among the top 15 percent in the U.S. and offered courses in U.S., Latin American, European, and Asian history.

A test developed at WSU was used to diagnose the nation’s first case of mad cow disease. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service at WSU and from WSU’s Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology were credited. The USDA chose WSU for one of seven laboratories nationwide to conduct tests for the disease.

The WSU College of Veterinary Medicine was granted seven years of continued full accreditation by the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Council on Education. It is the highest level of accreditation any veterinary college can attain.

The Veterinary Leadership Experience (VLE) is a global leadership education program for veterinary students, faculty and allied professionals.  Originally developed from the Cougar Orientation and Leadership Experience (COLE) curriculum, the VLE emphasizes personal leadership and teamwork. Participants have come from as far away as China, Sweden, and South Africa. To expand its reach, VLE moved from WSU in 2012 and is now led by VLE alumni.

A bronze memorial in Holland Library was dedicated to honor the Grandfather of Chicano poetry, Ricardo Sánchez. Sánchez was a celebrated poet and WSU creative writing and Chicano studies faculty member from 1991 until his death in 1995.

Thomas J. Dickinson, Regents Professor in the Department of Physics, was honored as the seventh recipient of the WSU Eminent Faculty Award.

WSU Spokane Chancellor Rom Markin received the first WSU President’s Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service. His WSU service included 15 years as the dean of the College of Business and Economics.

Frances K. McSweeney, professor of psychology and vice provost for faculty affairs, was honored as the fourth recipient of the 2004 Eminent Faculty Award.

The first Celebrating Excellence: An Evening Honoring Our Faculty and Staff banquet in Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum honored WSU award-winning faculty and staff.

Peter Jennings, ABC-TV news anchor, received an Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcasting during the WSU Edward R. Murrow Symposium.

In 2004, WSU purchased the Friel House and renovated the home into housing for music students. The home belonged to WSU basketball coach Jack Friel and his wife, Catherine, for 54 years. After Catherine passed away in 2003, the Friel family agreed to sell the house to WSU. The school invested $400,000 into the property.

WSUs renowned Edward R. Murrow School of Communication was strengthened by the opening of a 24,000-square-foot building, now known as Goertzen Hall, that includes communication research and teaching labs, TV news studio, faculty offices, and an auditorium.

WSU held opening events for the new Education Addition, adjacent to Cleveland Hall, home of the WSU College of Education.

Nobel Prize winner in chemistry Dr. Irwin Ernie Rose received the 35th Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award. A graduate of Spokanes Lewis and Clark High School, he attended WSU in the mid-1940s and was influenced by Herb Eastlick, a prominent WSU zoology teacher.

John N. Abelson, who earned a bachelor of science in physics in 1960, was honored as the recipient of the 35th Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award. Abelson was a distinguished molecular biologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Anna Harvin Grant, the first woman to earn a doctorate in sociology from WSU, passed away November 6, 2004 of heart failure. Grant was a nationally recognized expert in black family life and former chair of the Department of Sociology at Morehouse College.

Grant arrived at Pullman with a wave of top African American scholars who were recruited to WSUs new doctoral program in sociology. She was one of the first sociologists in the country to address teen pregnancy in the 1950s and she also studied teen violence and interracial marriage.

On December 16, 2004, Pullmans hospital moved its last patient from the building it shared with WSU Student Health and Wellness Services to its new location on Bishop Boulevard. The hospital had been located on campus for 57 years.

The hospital started out as a two-story infirmary called Maple Cottage on campus after a smallpox outbreak in 1903 raised concerns about where to house sick students. In 1928, the new four-story Finch Memorial Hospital was built and remained the only community healthcare facility in Pullman until the 1940s. In 1947 the college and city leaders agreed to open a hospital in the student health building. Pullman Memorial Hospital opened on campus on September 21st, 1951.

Motivational speaker and actress Yolanda King, daughter of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., gave a presentation in Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum as part of the Universitys MLK Celebration.

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.

More than 52 percent of student voters approved renovating the Compton Union Building. Renovation closed the CUB for two years, starting in fall 2006.

Yogendra M. Gupta, professor of physics and director of the Institute for Shock Physics, was honored as the fifth recipient of the WSU Eminent Faculty Award.

R. James Cook received the WSU President’s Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service. Prior to becoming interim dean of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, he was a plant pathologist with the USDA-ARS at WSU and later held an endowed chair in wheat research at the university.

Clarence A. Ryan Jr., emeritus professor, plant biochemistry researcher in WSUs Institute of Biological Chemistry, and first WSU professor in the National Academy of Sciences, received WSUs honorary doctoral degree at spring commencement.

Desppite having used both live-in student (and professional) firefighters and EMTs on campus since 1906, WSUs fire station is now permanently closed.  The city of Pullman assumes fire coverage responsibilities.

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.

In 2005, WSU purchased the two-story Adams Mall for $1.5 million and asked Corporate Pointe Developers to redesign the site and manage it for 30 years.

Adams Mall opened as a schoolhouse in 1909 and became the center of the College Hill community. In the 1980s, it was made into a shopping center and a hot night spot at the heart of the Greek system.

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.

Good Night, and Good Luck, a new motion picture, depicted WSU alumnus and broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow taking on U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. Murrows legacy continues in the WSU Edward R. Murrow College of Communication and the Murrow Symposium.

During the 2005-06 year, the WSU Cougars had a football and men’s basketball “sweep” of rival University of Washington Huskies. In fall 2005, WSU beat the UW in the annual Apple Cup football game. In the winter of 2006, the Cougars beat the Huskies in both basketball games. The last time the Cougars had such an academic year “sweep” of the Huskies was 1968-69.

Work by WSU molecular biologist Michael K. Skinner and his research team was chosen as one of the top 100 science stories of 2005 by Discover magazine. The researchers found that exposing fetal rats to environmental toxins can affect their sexual development in a way that also shows up in subsequent generations. The mechanism was an epigenetic one.

The College of Business and Economics was renamed the College of Business by the WSU Regents to reflect the impact of business on society and the relocation of the new School of Economic Sciences to the WSU College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences.

The new Carnegie Classifications ranked WSU as one of 94 public and private research institutions nationwide with very high research activity. This recognition brought attention to WSU research and Ph.D. educational programs.

Sociologist James F. Short Jr., nationally respected researcher and university leader, received the WSU Presidents Award for Lifetime Service.

Jack D. Rogers, professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and the Department of Natural Resource Sciences, was honored as the sixth recipient of the WSU Eminent Faculty Award.

The WSU women’s rowing team took fourth place at the 2006 NCAA Championships in May in New Jersey. In the Cougars’ best finish ever at the NCAA level, the varsity eight and varsity four each finished fourth. Earlier that year, the Cougars finished second overall at the Pac-10 Championships in California. Jane LaRiviere of WSU was named “Coach of the Year” for Pacific-10 Womens Rowing and for the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association West Region.

Phyllis J. Campbell, a member of the class of 1973 with a B.A. in business administration and the president and CEO of the Seattle Foundation, was honored as the 36th recipient of the Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Dr. Guy Palmer, a veterinary pathologist at WSUs College of Veterinary Medicine, was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, one of the highest honors for those in biomedical research and human health care.

The Spillman Stone, a two-ton granite rock with William Jasper Spillman’s name engraved on it, was rededicated October 21 at Clark Hall Plaza on the Pullman campus. A wheat breeder at WSU from 1894 to 1902, Spillman was the only American to independently rediscover Mendels Law of Heredity and was also influential in early agricultural economics.

After a fierce competition, Butch T. Cougar was named the Capital One Mascot of the Year on January 1, 2007. Butch beat out eleven other mascots for the title and earned WSU $10,000.

A WSU team of physicists successfully completed the first experiments using the nation’s premiere synchrotron X-ray facility to detect shock wave-induced changes in a crystalline material.

Renovations on the Compton Union Building and Martin Stadium continued on the WSU Pullman campus. The nine-hole WSU Golf Course was also renovated into an 18-hole championship course and renamed WSUs Palouse Ridge Golf Club.  The renovations were completed and both the CUB and Martin Stadium were open for the fall semester in 2008.

For the first time since the 1993-94 season, the WSU men’s Cougar basketball team made the NCAA men’s national basketball tournament, coached by Tony Bennett. The Cougars won their opening-round game over Oral Roberts, but lost to Vanderbilt in the second-round. WSU finished second in the Pac-10 Conference with a 26-8 season win-loss record. Tony Bennett, who won numerous Coach of the Year honors, succeeded his father, Dick Bennett, who coached the Cougars for three seasons.

Travis McGuire, professor in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology, received the WSU Presidents Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service.

Elson S. Floyd was named tenth president of Washington State University on December 13, 2006 and took office on May 21, 2007. A native of Henderson, North Carolina, President Floyd holds a doctor of philosophy degree in higher education and most recently served as the president of the four-campus University of Missouri system.

Patricia G. Butterfield became dean of the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing. She had been a professor and chair of the Department of Psychosocial and Community Health Nursing at the University of Washington.

WSU received nearly $156 million in new research grant awards during the 2007-08 fiscal year, up about 16 percent from the previous year.

George Mount, WSU civil and environmental engineering faculty member since 1997, became director of a new university system-wide interdisciplinary Center for Environmental Research, Education, and Outreach (CEREO).  In 2004 NASA launched a satellite into space that includes a pollutant-measuring device that professor George Mount helped develop.

In 2007, WSU installed and tested outdoor warning sirens and public address units on the Pullman campus. The system was created to alert and provide information to students, faculty, and staff in the event of a campus-wide emergency.

The WSU Regents renamed two Pullman campus buildings. Wilson Hall became Wilson-Short Hall, honoring James F. Short, Jr., influential WSU sociology professor. This building was first named for James Wilson, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1897 to 1913. The Plant Biosciences Facility I, part of a multi-building bioscience complex, became the Orville A. Vogel Plant Biosciences Building, named for one of WSU’s great agricultural researchers and wheat breeders.

Clarence A. (Bud) Ryan, one of WSU’s preeminent scientists, died suddenly of a brain aneurysm in October. Ryan pioneered the study of the innate immune response of plants. Prior to his work, plants were assumed to contain protease inhibitors all the time, as a deterrent to being eaten. Ryan discovered instead that plants make the inhibitors in response to an attack. He further showed that an attack on one part of a plant sets off chemical signals that spur production of inhibitors throughout the entire plant. Besides his scientific renown, Ryan was well known around campus for his graciousness—-and his ability on the basketball court.

David Miller and Robert Hull, members of the class of 1968 and founding partners of Seattle-based The Miller|Hull Partnership, LLP, were honored as the 37^th and 38^th recipients of the Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award.  In 2003 the Miller Hull Partnership received the 2003 American Institute of Architects Architecture Firm Award, the AIAs highest honor.

The first contest between cross-state rivals Washington State and the University of Washington took place on a muddy field in Seattle in November 1900. The Washington Agricultural College Farmers, as the Cougs were known then, made the 290-mile trek from Pullman to Seattle to play the UW Sun Dodgers in the pouring rain. The match ended in a five-to-five tie. In 2007, WSU beats UW in the 100th Apple Cup. They score in the last minute to beat the Huskies, 42-35.

Jay Starratt became dean of the WSU Libraries. He had been associate vice chancellor for information technology and dean of library and information services at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.

Johnnetta Cole, former WSU faculty member and administrator and President Emerita of Spelman College in Atlanta and Bennett College in North Carolina, received an honorary doctoral degree from WSU at fall commencement on December 6.

In December, Paul Wulff, WSU graduate and former Cougar football player, is named WSU football coach following eight years as head coach at Eastern Washington University. He succeeds Bill Doba who was at WSU for 19 years, the last five as head coach. In late November, Doba’s coaching career concluded in Seattle in the 100th Apple Cup football game where WSU defeated the University of Washington Huskies, 42-35.

Scientific American named WSU reproductive biologist Patricia A. Hunt to their SciAm 50 list, identifying her as one of the top 50 researchers in the world. Her research showed a potential threat to human health posed by bisphenol A (BPA), a component of the polycarbonate plastics used to make food and beverage containers.

The Bill Melinda Gates Foundation grants WSU $25 million to help construct the $35 million building that will become the centerpiece in the WSU School for Global Animal Health. This is the largest grant in the history of WSU.

Alaska/Horizon Airlines painted one of their aircraft in Cougar-branded livery.  Similar planes would follow in the coming years for other regional schools, but WSUs was the first.

Michael Utley, former student and 1989 All-American offensive guard, injures his spinal cord and is paralyzed during a Detroit Lions football game. Utley establishes the Mike Utley Foundation to help those with spinal cord injuries and Utley became known for the thumbs up he flashed fans after being carried off the field when he was injured in 1991.  In 2008 the NFL established a scholarship at WSU in Utleys name for students studying sports medicine.

LeRoy Ashby, the Claudius O. and Mary Johnson Distinguished Professor of History and a Regents professor, receives the WSU President’s Award for Lifetime Service.

Anjan Bose, Regents Professor in electrical engineering and computer science, was honored as the eighth recipient of the WSU Eminent Faculty Award.

Pop music icon Elton John performs two WSU Mom’s Weekend concerts at Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum.

In the summer of 2008 the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of WSC alum Edward and Xerpha Gaines returned to eastern Washington. They talked and laughed, piecing together their own memories of Edward and Xerpha, and mentioning a bundle of letters that gave them the details of their grandparent’s romance. At the end of the reunion, they delivered to Washington State University an astonishing gift–Xerpha’s steamer trunk which holds nearly a century of private papers detailing the life of a woman whose story is not only threaded through the University’s, but also through the story of agriculture in Washington State. Worn and heavy, with a torn label bearing Xerpha’s name on the side, the trunk contains a variety of treasures: a prayer book, a tiny box full of beads, a wedding dress, an envelope of pictures of Xerpha as a girl, Edward Gaines’s correspondence as a scientist, and a water-stained box bearing the label “Old Hampshire Bond: The Stationery of a Gentleman.”

Named for WSU graduate Edward R. Murrow, the University’s Murrow School of Communication became the Murrow College of Communication on July 1. It had been part of the College of Liberal Arts.

Provost and Executive Vice President Robert Bates stepped down on July 1 after six years as WSUs academic leader. A WSU masters graduate in bacteriology, after leaving his position he joined WSU Vancouver as Director of Research and Graduate Education.

During a quiet weekend in July, a crew came to campus to steal away one of the Universitys oldest landmarksthe Ferry Hall cupola. The quaint 12-foot by 12-foot Georgian-style structure had already survived more than a century and a major relocation. Now it was on the move again, this time to the two-acre arboretum near the Alumni Center.

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.

Roger O. McClellan, DVM, an expert in toxicology and human health risk analysis, was honored as the 39th recipient of the Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award.

In 2014 the College of Engineering and Architecture is renamed the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture.

The popular Cougar Pride statue was dedicated in honor of the previous tradition of live cougar mascots from 1927-1978.

Art by Clyfford Still appears on the Antiques Roadshow television program. To the surprise of the painting’s owners, and many in Pullman, the work was valued at a half million dollars. The piece, an eastern Washington scene, was painted in 1937 while Still was teaching art at Washington State College and before his style changed to the abstract expressionism for which he later became famous.

The School of Music holds the 20th Annual Festival of Contemporary Art Music. Charles Argersinger, WSU music faculty member and the Festival of Contemporary Art Musics founding director, was the guest composer at the event.

Robert Nilan, WSU professor emeritus and former College of Sciences dean, received the WSU President’s Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service. Nilan is a leading international authority on barley genetics who came to WSU in 1951 as an agronomist and geneticist.   While at WSU he served as chair of genetics, and his worldwide recognition as a plant geneticist earned him an appointment to the Danish Academy of Science. He trained more than 75 graduate students during his career at WSU and, as dean, he oversaw development of programs in statistics, environmental science and plant physiology; laboratories in bio-analysis and biotechnology; and centers of electron microscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance.

Nilan and his wife Winona have given generously to the arts and sciences at WSU. Attracting students to WSU’s Department of Genetics and Cell Biology was at the center of their decision to create the Robert A. and Winona P. Nilan Graduate Fellowship in Genetics.

Michael D. Griswold, Regents Professor in the School of Molecular Biosciences and dean of the College of Sciences, is the ninth recipient of the WSU Eminent Faculty Award.

Former White House Bureau Chief Helen Thomas and CBS News Chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer receive the Edward R. Murrow Awards for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism and in Broadcast Journalism, respectively, during the WSU Edward R. Murrow Symposium.

Dwight Damon (62, Zoology), an orthodontic dentistry innovator, is the 40th Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award honoree.

As part of a long-term project to establish the WSU arboretum, President Elson S. Floyd designated land for the project. One of the first candidates for a home there was the WSU bear program, which now sits at the busy corner of Grimes Way and Airport Road.

President Elson S. Floyd announces WSU will hold “town hall” meetings in each of Washington state’s 39 counties starting in March to hear from stakeholders and discuss initiatives.

WSU electrical engineering and computer science professor Diane Cook and psychology professor Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe receive a National Institutes of Health grant funding for smart adaptive technology research. The smart adaptive technology helps people with memory loss manage everyday tasks, allowing them to live independently in their homes for as long as possible.

Despite a national economic downturn and reductions in state funding across a two-year span, WSU faculty and researchers achieve more than a 40 percent increase in the amount of outside research and other grant funding.

The School of Molecular Biosciences (SMB), established in 1999, offers programs in biochemistry, genetics and cell biology, and microbiology, and joined with the Center for Reproductive Biology (CRB) and the College of Veterinary Science to provide a larger group of biomedical research scientists and scientific resources.  SMB is housed in the state-of-the-art Biotechnology–Life Sciences building, completed in 2013, which has exceptional laboratory facilities for scientists and students to conduct research and enhance learning.  The building also houses the Department of Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience.

In the aftermath of a devastating January earthquake in Haiti, WSU students raise funds in a variety of ways to support the people impacted during the natural disaster.

Chris Bruce, the director for Washington State University’s museum of art, travels to Seattle in late February to help sort out the disposition of the one of the most significant art donations in Washington State history – that of Safeco Insurance’s gift of more than 800 artworks.

During the spring, Bill Moos joins Cougar Athletics as director. A 1973 WSU graduate in history, former Cougar football player, and WSU Athletics administrator, Moos returned to WSU after serving as director at the universities of Oregon and Montana.

The Princeton Reviews Guide to 286 Green Colleges recognizes reduced water consumption on the WSU campus and water conservation efforts. In another announcement, WSU is ranked 10th among national universities for its development in clean technology by CleanTech.com, a prominent sustainability organization.

With a 15-5 victory over second-ranked Norwich, followed by a 37-0 win over top-ranked Temple, the WSU Women’s Rugby team wins the USA Rugby Division II Women’s national championship in Palo Alto, Calif.  They would win another title in 2013 before moving to Division I in 2014.

Coach Donnie Marbut leads WSU’s baseball to a third place finish in the Pac-10 Conference. Of 37 season wins, three happen in a NCAA Regional playoff in Fayetteville, Ark. At the NCAA Rowing Championships in Gold River, Calif., WSU Rowing places eighth in the second varsity and 13th as a team. Jane LaRiviere coaches.

The Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health breaks ground on its new headquarters and research facilities. The new facility, dedicated in 2012, provides a place for the program to continue building on its strengths in discovery, development, and implementation of life-saving protocols at the human-animal interface.

WSU ranks among the nation’s top 15 percent of colleges, universities, and trade schools providing the most opportunities and support to American veterans pursuing their education, according to G.I. Jobs magazine.

Gary P. Brinson (69, MBA), a nationally recognized leader in investment management renowned for his intellectual contributions to the financial investing world, is the 41st Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award honoree.

Faculty members Thomas Besser, School for Global Animal Health; Don Dillman, Department of Sociology and Community and Rural Sociology; and B.W. Poovaiah, Department of Horticulture are elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences.

WSU launches the largest fundraising effort in its history: a $1 billion effort designed to confirm WSU as a leading land grant institution.

For the third consecutive year WSU Pullman is the safest campus among the six public universities and colleges in the state of Washington, according to reports from StateUniversity.com.

U.S. News World Reports Americas Best Colleges ranks the WSU writing program amongst the best for the 9th time in ten years.

Mathematics professor Donald Wayne Bushaw taught at WSU for 43 years. During his time, he taught 62 different courses in mathematics. He also taught a University Honors class on Eastern civilization. Among many other awards, Bushaw delivered the Faculty Invited Address in 1968 and was the first recipient of the WSU Faculty Excellence Award for Instruction in 1983.

Retiring Cougar football announcer Bob Robertson announced his 520th and final game- a 31-28 Apple Cup victory for the Cougs. Even after 46 years of announcing, Robertson said he still enjoyed every game and signing off each time with his catchphrase: Always be a good sport. Be a good sport all ways.

The FAA awards WSU and MIT a grant to co-lead the new Federal Aviation Administration Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuels and the Environment. The 10-year, $40 million grant funds a 16-school research effort to develop bio-jet fuels, boost fuel mileage, and reduce airport noise and carbon dioxide emissions.

The University District Health Clinic, built through the Spokane Teaching Health Consortium, a partnership between WSU Spokane, Providence Health Care, and Empire Health Foundation, will help health sciences students gain valuable work experience while housing medical residents.  The university broke ground on the facility on May 6, 2015 and it was projected to open in 2016.

Dr. Universe makes her comeback. As WSUs resident feline scientist, every day she puts on her lab coat, grabs her laptop, and heads out on adventures in search of answers kids questions about science.

On April 1, 2015, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signs legislation changing a 98-year-old law that had prevented any Washington school other than the University of Washington from having a medical school.  The first classes begin in fall of 2017.