It’s a story of broad-minded thinkers and impressive feats. Outstanding artistic contributions and world-altering inventions. Strong leaders and brave community-builders. These milestones represent the amazing life of our flagship Bloomington campus.
Herman B Wells (1902–2000), Â黨¶¹´«Ã½’s long-standing president (1938–1962) and chancellor (1962–2000), is credited with elevating the university’s stature in research, the arts, and international studies. One of the great leaders in higher education, Wells devoted his life to Â黨¶¹´«Ã½. Advancing the rights of African American students, supporting groundbreaking research from the Kinsey Institute, protecting our campus green spaces, and establishing the Lilly Library are among his lasting achievements.
1820: A legislative act is adopted establishing a state seminary. Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Founders Day.
1822: Construction begins on Seminary Building.
1823: Baynard Rush Hall is hired as the first professor.
1825: Classes begin with an enrollment of 10 male students.
1828: “State Seminary” becomes “Indiana College.”
1829: Andrew Wylie becomes the first Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president.
1830: The first class graduates.
1838: “Indiana College” becomes “Â黨¶¹´«Ã½.”
The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center is named in honor of Â黨¶¹´«Ã½’s first male and first female African American graduates, Marcellus Neal and Frances Marshall. At a time when it was rare for an African American man to go to college—and even rarer for an African American woman—Neal and Marshall were undaunted in their pursuit of an education. Neal graduated in 1895 with an A.B. in mathematics, and Marshall graduated in 1919 with an A.B. in English. Both went on to serve in respected careers as teachers and school administrators.
1842: The School of Law is established (now the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Maurer School of Law).
1852: Alfred Ryors becomes the second Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president.
1853: William Mitchell Daily becomes the third Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president.
1854: The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Alumni Association is founded.
1859: Theophilus A. Wylie serves six months as acting Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president. John Hiram Lathrop becomes the fourth Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president.
1860: Cyrus Nutt becomes the fifth Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president.
1867: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ becomes one of the first state universities to admit women. The Indiana Student (now the Indiana Daily Student) publishes its first issue.
1869: Sarah Parke Morrison becomes the first woman to graduate.
1875: Lemuel Moss becomes the sixth Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president.
Listen to the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Band play our official alma mater song, “Hail to Old I.U.”—which was first performed in 1893. J. T. Giles, who organized the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ glee club, wrote the lyrics: Come and join in song together, Shout with might and main. Our beloved alma mater, Sound her praise again. Gloriana frangipana, E’er to her be true. She’s the pride of Indiana, Hail to old I.U.!
Audio transcript:
[crowd applause fades in]
Announcer speaks: Ladies and gentlemen, please join in singing one of the great college songs of all time: “Hail to Old I.U.” It will be conducted by Ray E. Cramer, director of bands at Â黨¶¹´«Ã½.
[band plays]
[crowd applauds and cheers]
1883: Charles Henry Gilbert becomes the first Ph.D. graduate.
1884: Elisha Ballantine is named acting Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president.
1885: David Starr Jordan becomes the seventh Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president.
1886: The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s football team is founded.
1888: With the purchase of a chronoscope, future Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president William Lowe Bryan founds the oldest continuing psychology laboratory in the United States.
1891: John Merle Coulter becomes the eighth Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president.
1892: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ wins the Intercollegiate Baseball Championship series against DePauw University. The Arbutus campus yearbook is published for the first time.
1893: Joseph Swain becomes the ninth Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president. “Hail to Old I.U.,” Â黨¶¹´«Ã½’s official alma mater, is performed by the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ glee club for the first time.
1895: Marcellus Neal becomes Â黨¶¹´«Ã½’s first black graduate, with an A.B. in mathematics.
1896: The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s basketball team is founded.
Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ journalism student Ernie Pyle won the Pulitzer Prize for Correspondence in 1944 for his extraordinary work as a World War II correspondent. His writings illustrated the everyday struggles of ordinary soldiers, whom he traveled with on front lines in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and France. Pyle was published in more than 400 daily newspapers nationwide. His columns were popular because they put a face on a dehumanizing war. Pyle died in 1945 by sniper fire on the island of Ie Shima.
1902: William Lowe Bryan becomes the 10th Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president.
1903: The School of Medicine is established.
1904: The Graduate School is established.
1908: The School of Education is established. Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ hosts “Gala Week”—the first homecoming event for alumni—which includes a circus and a banquet.
1912: “Indiana, Our Indiana”—the most popular Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ fight song—is first performed by the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Band in a football game against Northwestern University.
1914: The School for Nurses is established (now the School of Nursing).
1919: Frances Marshall becomes Â黨¶¹´«Ã½’s first black female graduate, with an A.B. in English.
1920: The School of Commerce and Finance is established (now the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Kelley School of Business).
Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ dental scientist Joseph Muhler, Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ chemist William Nebergall, and head of the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ chemistry department Harry Day filed a patent for a toothpaste that used stannous fluoride and a calcium pyrophosphate abrasive—the formulation that Procter & Gamble soon named Crest, which revolutionized dental care. Crest was first sold nationally in 1956.
1921: The School of Music is established (now the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Jacobs School of Music).
1925: The stadium is dedicated and the “Old Oaken Bucket” makes its first appearance during the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½-Purdue football game.
1929: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ alumnus and composer Hoagy Carmichael publishes “Stardust” at the age of 30.
1931: Professor Rolla N. Harger invents the Drunk-O-Meter—the first successful machine for testing human blood-alcohol content.
1932: Coach Billy Thorn leads the wrestling team to the NCAA championship, the first NCAA team title for Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Athletics.
1936: The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Foundation is established.
1937: Herman B Wells is named acting Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president.
1938: Herman B Wells becomes the 11th Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s cross country team wins the NCAA championship.
1940: The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s basketball and cross country teams win NCAA championships.
1940. 1953. 1976. 1981. 1987. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Hoosiers men’s basketball team has won five NCAA Championships, tying Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ for third place in total championship banners—which hang in our beloved Assembly Hall. Many consider Â黨¶¹´«Ã½’s 1976 team to be the best ever in the history of college basketball. The team is still the last undefeated NCAA men’s basketball champion.
1941: The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Auditorium is completed. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Art Museum is established. One of the world’s first cyclotrons becomes operational at Â黨¶¹´«Ã½.
1942: The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s cross country team wins the NCAA championship.
1944: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ bestows its first honorary doctorate on former student Ernie Pyle, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Correspondence that year.
1945: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ wins the Big Ten football championship.
1946: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ zoologist Hermann J. Muller wins the Nobel Prize. The School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation is established (now the School of Public Health-Bloomington).
1947: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Professor Alfred Kinsey and his colleagues establish the Institute for Sex Research (now the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction).
1948: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Professor Alfred Kinsey and his co-researchers publish Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, which becomes a national bestseller. America’s first degree-granting folklore program is initiated.
1950: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Press is established.
1951: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ holds the first Little 500 bicycle race.
1953: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ professor Alfred Kinsey and his co-researchers publish Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s basketball team wins the NCAA championship.
1956: Crest toothpaste, using a formula developed by three Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ researchers, is first sold nationally.
1960: The Seventeenth Street Football Stadium (now the Indiana Memorial Stadium) is completed.
Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ alumnus Steve Tesich won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1979 for the movie Breaking Away, the story of four Bloomington townies—called “cutters” after the local limestone cutting trade—who enter the famous Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Little 500 bicycle race. To this day, Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ student teams race under the name Cutters to honor the film’s legacy.
1961: The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s swimming team wins the first of 20 consecutive Big Ten championships.
1962: Elvis Jacob Stahr Jr. becomes the 12th Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president. Herman B Wells is named university chancellor. Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ alumnus James Watson wins the Nobel Prize, as he and two others are honored for discovering the structure of DNA.
1968: Herman B Wells serves as interim Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president. Joseph Lee Sutton becomes the 13th Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s swimming team wins the NCAA championship.
1969: John W. Snyder is named acting chancellor through July. Byrum E. Carter becomes chancellor in August. The Third Library Building (now the Herman B Wells Library) is completed. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s swimming team wins the NCAA championship.
1970: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ celebrates its sesquicentennial. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s swimming team wins the NCAA championship.
1971: John W. Ryan becomes the 14th Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president. Assembly Hall and the Musical Arts Center are completed. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s swimming team wins the NCAA championship.
1972: The School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) is established. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s swimming team wins the NCAA championship. Team member Mark Spitz goes on to win seven gold medals at the Olympics. Coach Doc Counsilman leads both teams.
1973: The Black Culture Center (Neal-Marshall) and the Latino Cultural Center (La Casa) are established. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s swimming team wins the NCAA championship.
1976: The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s basketball team wins the NCAA championship.
1979: Alumnus Steve Tesich wins an Oscar for his screenplay for the movie Breaking Away about the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Little 500 race. The movie was filmed on campus.
1980: Kenneth R. R. Gros Louis becomes vice president for academic affairs and Bloomington chancellor.
Funded by Edson Sample, the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Sample Gates were dedicated in 1987, serving as a welcoming entrance to the oldest part of the current Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ campus known as the Old Crescent. They are made with Indiana limestone and are the most-photographed Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ structure. Before the gates were built, Kirkwood Avenue extended into campus.
1981: School of Music students present the first performance by a university company at the Metropolitan Opera House. Architect I. M. Pei completes the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Art Museum. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s basketball team wins the NCAA championship.
1982: Composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein is in residence as the first fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ women’s tennis team wins the AIAW championship. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s soccer team wins the NCAA championship.
1983: The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s soccer team wins the NCAA championship
1987: Thomas Ehrlich becomes the 15th Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president. The Sample Gates are dedicated. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s basketball team wins the NCAA championship.
1988: The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s soccer team wins the NCAA championship.
1991: The first Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Dance Marathon is held.
1994: Myles Brand becomes the 16th Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president. The School of Music graduate program ties for first place with Juilliard and Eastman in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. Professor of English Yusef Komunyakaa wins the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ softball team wins the Big Ten championship.
1998: The Asian Culture Center is established. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s soccer team wins the NCAA championship.
1999: University Chancellor Herman B Wells is named Â黨¶¹´«Ã½’s Man of the Century. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s soccer team wins the NCAA championship.
2000: The School of Informatics is founded and is the first school of its kind in the nation. University Chancellor Herman B Wells dies at 97. The Herman B Wells plaza is dedicated.
For her analysis of economic governance, Professor Elinor Ostrom (1933–2012) won the Nobel Prize in 2009. Ostrom, a political theorist, defied traditional understanding by showing how local property can be successfully managed by local commons without privatization or governance by central authorities. She was the first woman to win in the category of Economic Sciences.
2001: Sharon Stephens Brehm becomes chancellor. Kenneth R. R. Gros Louis is named chancellor emeritus. Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ is named Time magazine’s College of the Year.
2002: Gerald Bepko is named interim Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president after Myles Brand steps down to become the head of the NCAA. The Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center is dedicated. The inaugural powwow is held by Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ First Nations.
2003: Adam W. Herbert becomes the 17th Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president. Kenneth R. R. Gros Louis is appointed interim chancellor. Coach Jerry Yeagley leads the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s soccer team to a sixth NCAA championship in his final season.
2004: Intel names Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ the no. 1 wireless college campus. The Lilly Endowment Inc. gives Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ $53 million for life sciences research. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s soccer team wins the NCAA championship under new head coach Mike Freitag.
2005: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ is named the Hottest Big State School by Newsweek, America’s Hot Colleges.
2006: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½’s supercomputer system “Big Red” is ranked the fastest supercomputer owned and operated by a U.S. university and the 23rd fastest supercomputer in the world. Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ is named the “most wired” public university by PC Magazine.
2007: Michael A. McRobbie becomes the 18th Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president. Karen Hanson is named Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ executive vice president and Bloomington provost.
2009: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Professor of Political Science Elinor Ostrom (1933–2012) is awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
2010: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ moves into the top 30 colleges in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine’s rankings of the “100 Best Values in Public Colleges.” Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Bloomington libraries are named #1 in the country by the Association of College and Research Libraries. A new microscope at Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ breaks the light microscopy resolution barrier.
2011: The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Cinema is dedicated. The 9/11 Commission reconvenes on campus.
2012: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ is named 17th in the nation in total voluntary support rankings by the Council for Aid to Education. Lauren Robel is named provost and executive vice president. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ trustees approve a new School of Global and International Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ trustees approve the merger of the School of Informatics and the School of Library and Information Science. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s soccer team wins the NCAA championship.
2013: Former U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar and former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton are named distinguished scholars and professors of practice in the School of Global and International Studies. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ men’s baseball team makes its first trip to the College World Series.
2014: The Media School at Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ is established, which combines the 100-year-old journalism program, the telecommunications department, and portions of the communication and culture department. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ trustees approve the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Bicentennial Strategic Plan.
2015: The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ trustees approve a proposal to establish a new engineering program that will be initially housed in the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ School of Informatics. Â黨¶¹´«Ã½, Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Health, and Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Health Bloomington Hospital announce plans to create a regional academic health campus at Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Bloomington, which will include a new home for the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Health Bloomington Hospital. The National Jurist names Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Maurer School of Law Professor William Henderson the most influential person in legal education. Three Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Jacobs School of Music alumni take home Grammy statuettes—double-bassist Edgar Meyer, pianist Cory Smythe, and early-music tenor Aaron Sheehan.
2016: Ground is broken for SPEA’s O’Neill Graduate Center. The Hutton Honors College celebrates its 50th anniversary. The first Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Day—a 24-hour worldwide celebration of all things Â黨¶¹´«Ã½—is held on April 12. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Auditorium celebrates its 75th anniversary. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Art Museum becomes the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art. Lori Reesor is named dean of students. The first program is selected for the Grand Challenges initiative. The School of Art and Design opens. Â黨¶¹´«Ã½’s first engineering program launches. Olympians with ties to Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ bring home five gold, one silver, and two bronze medals.
2017: Herman B Wells’ 23 reels of personal home movies were digitized and made available online. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art closed to begin a two-year, $30 million renovation. Goodbody Hall and Wells Quadrangle became student housing for the first time in almost 90 years. A new Master of Architecture degree program, set to begin in fall 2018, was announced. The Conrad Prebys Amphitheater was dedicated. Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Health and Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ revealed the design of the planned Regional Academic Health Center. The School of Informatics and Computing became the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering. The School of Art and Design became the School of Art, Architecture, and Design. The Arthur Metz Carillon played its final notes prior to a planned renovation and move to the Arboretum. Chancellor Emeritus Ken Gros Louis passed away at age 80. Actor Glenn Close donated her costume collection to the School of Art, Architecture, and Design.
2018: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Provost Professor Lisa Pratt was named the planetary protection officer at NASA. Ballantine Hall renovation began. Found footage of the 1954 high school basketball games that inspired the movie Hoosiers was preserved in the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Libraries Moving Image Archive. The WFÂ黨¶¹´«Ã½ program A Moment of Science celebrated its 30th anniversary. The Center for Rural Engagement was launched. Former Chancellor Sharon Brehm passed away. Luddy Hall was dedicated. Dave O’Guinn was named vice provost for student affairs and dean of students. Â黨¶¹´«Ã½’s Mexico Gateway opened in Mexico City. Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ amended its non-discrimination policy to include protections for genetic information and gender expression. The Russian Language Flagship program was established, making Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Bloomington the only institution in the United States with four language flagship programs. The Precision Health Initiative, part of Â黨¶¹´«Ã½’s Grand Challenges, led to a new cancer treatment. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ School of Global and International Studies was named for Lee Hamilton and Richard Lugar. Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ football legend George Taliaferro passed away at age 91. Reuters ranked Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ the 54th most innovative university in the world.
2019: Due to its international reputation for Drosophila research, Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ received a donation of the earliest records of fruit fly genetics research. Carol Anne Murdoch-Kinch was named first female dean of the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ School of Dentistry. Public TV station WTÂ黨¶¹´«Ã½ celebrated 50 years of serving the community. The movie Breaking Away celebrated its 40th anniversary. Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ began digitally re-creating “Megajeff,” an ancient giant sloth skeleton that once resided on campus. The School of Art, Architecture + Design was renamed for Sidney and Lois Eskenazi. The Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Herbarium completed digitization of its collection of more than 160,000 preserved plant specimens. Former Indiana senator and Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ faculty member Richard Lugar passed away. I.M. Pei, internationally renowned architect of the Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, passed away. The century plant located in the Jordan Hall greenhouse for almost 50 years finally bloomed. Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ acquired Big Red 200, the fastest university-owned supercomputer in the nation. The Informatics East and West buildings were renamed Myles Brand Hall after the former Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ president. The Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center celebrated its 50th anniversary. The LGBTQ+ Culture Center celebrated its 25th anniversary. The Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art reopened to the public after a $30 million renovation. Researchers at the Center for Underwater Science opened an underwater “living museum” in the Dominican Republic. The former School of Public and Environmental Affairs is renamed to celebrate distinguished alumnus Paul H. O'Neill. Athletics director Fred Glass announced his retirement from Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ at the end of the academic year. Kelley School of Business Dean Idie Kesner was named Dean of the Year by Poets & Quants.
2020: Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ celebrates its bicentennial on January 20 by ringing Metz Carrilon's bells 200 times.
2021: President Pamela Whitten is inaugurated as Â黨¶¹´«Ã½'s 19th president. Â黨¶¹´«Ã½ Health Bloomington opens its doors to serve 11 counties in its new 620,000 square-foot Regional Academic Health Center. The Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design becomes the Mies Building for the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design to honor building architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. A "Black Lives Matter" mural embraces diversity with its colorful messaging near the Neal-Marshall Black Cultural Center.
2022: Rahul Shrivastav assumes the role of provost. The portion of Jordan Avenue that runs through campus is renamed Eagleson Avenue to honor a prominent Black Bloomington resident. The Helene G. Simon Hillel Center opens its doors, becoming the campus' seventh cultural center. Celebrating its 75th year, The Kinsey Center announces a partnership with the Kelley School of Business to address gender inequity and sexual misconduct.
INDIANA UNIVERSITY BLOOMINGTON
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