History and Traditions

The Agricultural College of Utah (UAC) is founded on March 8. Two years later, 14-year-old Miss Vendla Berntson enrolls as the Agricultural College of Utah's first student.

The "Farmers" of UAC defeat the University of Utah 12-0 in the first football game, and athletic event, in school history. The game is played on what is now the USU quad.

The first eight students receive business degrees, making USU home to the oldest continuously operating business school in the West.

The Alumni Association is organized.

Blue is adopted as the official school color, and is used by the first women's basketball team, which will predate a men's team by three years.

Students publish the first campus newspaper, Student Life. The name is changed to the Utah Statesman in 1978.

Fearing that the growth of the UAC will hinder the University of Utah's progress, legislators in Salt Lake City attempt to consolidate the two schools, and upon failing, instead pass a bill limiting UAC's curriculum to agriculture, domestic science, and mechanic arts. Many once-thriving programs in the arts, humanities, education, and others are closed, despite the college's initial mandate that it offer such instruction. By 1927, all curricular restrictions except law and medicine are lifted.

Students meet in the Old Main Chapel on October 26 to organize the first student government.

The "A" of Old Main, the school's first senior gift, is installed on the tower's west face.

The first volume of the student yearbook, the Buzzer, is published. It persisted through 1971.

As part of the school's land-grant mission, the Utah Cooperative Extension Service is founded, bringing research-based knowledge to people, especially farmers, around the state.

UAC grants its first graduate degree, a master's in agriculture. The first doctoral degrees are awarded in 1950.

The Be-No Club erects the block "A," which can now be found between the quad and Old Main.

Campus is temporarily transformed into a military institution, with enlisted students housed in numerous new barracks around the quad. The buildings, which will be converted into classroom and laboratory space after the war, essentially double the size of campus. Meanwhile, the Spanish Flu epidemic necessitates a campus-wide quarantine and the establishment of a hospital in the north wing of Old Main.

The popular fight song "The Scotsman" is composed by a student. "Hail the Utah Aggies" is first written and performed in 1933.

The National Summer School is founded at UAC, bringing in Knute Rockne, Frederick Jackson Turner, and other distinguished faculty from Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and elsewhere. The success of the program, which lasts three summers, is partially responsible for influencing the state legislature to reverse the curricular restriction in 1927 and award UAC full state college status in 1929.

The newly launched School of Education establishes a teacher training school, what is now called the Edith Bowen Laboratory School.

The Utah Agricultural College (UAC) is renamed the Utah State Agricultural College.

The first Homecoming game and festivities are held on October 11.

Three students are named Rhodes Scholars in three years (1936-1938).

World War II has a profound effect on campus. The war decimated student enrollments, which declined from 3,641 during the '40-'41 school year to 1,129 in the '43-'44 school year to only 861 students for fall 1944. The physical face of campus changes as well. In preparation for the Army Specialized Training Program, the Field House is modified to serve as a barracks.

The institution initiates its first international program at Kardj College in Iran.

Utah State Agricultural College becomes Utah State University.

Two of the most respected research institutions in the West, the Space Dynamics Laboratory and the Utah Water Research Laboratory, are founded in the same year at USU.

Led by future Hall of Famer Merlin Olsen, the Utah State Aggie football team finishes at #10 in the nation, its highest year-end ranking.

In one of the greatest tragedies to befall the university, star basketball player Wayne Estes is killed on February 8, hours after scoring 48 points in a victory against the University of Denver. At the time of his death, he is the nation's second leading scorer, and the Los Angeles Lakers are planning to select him in the first round of the NBA draft. He is posthumously awarded first team All-American honors.

The Smith Spectrum hosts its first men's basketball game on December 1, against Ohio State.

The university initiates its Undergraduate Research Program, making it the second oldest program in the nation, behind MIT.

USU purchases a live white bull to act as a mascot for sporting events and painted it blue before each game. Despite being fitted with large rubber boots, the damage the bull causes to the Smith Spectrum and Romney Stadium becomes too great to overlook, and the bull is retired a short while later. The current Big Blue mascot is introduced in 1987.

Utah State Aggie Athletics crowns its first national champions as the women's volleyball team defeats UCLA in the national final and finishes 40-4 on the year.

USU Research and Technology Park is founded north of campus. It will later be renamed Innovation Campus and will support the research of private companies engaged in projects with student researchers and faculty.

A fire that destroyed the south wing of Old Main in 1983 led to an extensive renovation project that took 14 years to complete. The historic building is completed and rededicated in October.

USU initiates its first capital campaign for $400 million. In a short period of time, the university receives the three largest private gifts in its history.

The new Merrill-Cazier Library is dedicated on April 14 and immediately begins to receive national recognition, including #1 in the "Smart Classroom Category" from Campus Technology.

In the state of Utah's first-ever merger of two longstanding academic institutions, the College of Eastern Utah joins forces with USU.