Northwest Timeline

(1874-1919) (1920-1949) (1950-1972) (1973-Present)

1973
• March: The nationwide fad of streaking hits campus over a five-day period.
• Spring: A food protest turns into a food fight involving 40 men in the cafeteria.
• August: Northwest begins the ELBA program.

1974
• Fall: Faculty Senate is created.
• Tower Dance is discontinued.
• Summer: A news release story about President Foster’s 10-year anniversary is misinterpreted by wire services as an announcement of retirement.

1975
• May: The Bearcat baseball team finishes fifth at NCAA Division II College World Series.
• Fall: The Board of Regents considers a proposal to sell beer on campus but decides against it.
• The last Ugly Man on Campus contest takes place; Dr. Virgil Albertini wins.

1976
• NCAA Division II Tennis Nationals take place on the Northwest campus.
• July: The Speech/Theatre Department presents a Maryville Chautauqua at College Park.
• Fall: Jim Redd becomes football coach; MBA first offered.

1977
• July: President Foster retires; Dr. B.D. Owens becomes eighth Northwest president.
• October: Walkout Day resumes after a several years absence, establishing itself as the Friday before Homecoming.
• November: University Mace is created for Dr. Owens’ inauguration.

1978
• February 13: Heavy snowfall cancels classes.
• April: New all-weather track is named for 1930s track star Herschel Neil.
• September 23: First Parents Day celebration takes place.
• Fall: Bobby Bearcat gets a companion in mascotting, Roberta Bearkitten; ROTC comes to campus; football games moved from Saturday nights to Saturday afternoons (lights are torn down).

1979
• January: Former President J.W. Jones dies at age 85.
• June: The Administration Building theater is named after Frank Deerwester, the first president, and the cafeteria in the middle of the high rises is named H.K. Taylor Commons after the third president.
• July: High winds and rains tear the roof off DeLuce Fine Arts Building; Northwest’s signature birches die.
• July 24: The Administration Building fire devastates the campus’s central building.

1980
• March 25: Northwest celebrates its 75th anniversary.
• April: The Gaunt House is named to the National Register of Historic Places.
• September: Women move out of Roberta Hall in preparation for $250,000 in renovations.
• October: Towers in the Northwest, written by Dr. Virgil and Delores Albertini, is published.
• October: M-Club Athletic Hall of Fame is established; the first inductees are Henry Iba and Jack McCracken.
• November: The Alumni House, formerly the Townsend home, is purchased.

1981
• Spring: Robert Foster Aquatic Center opens.
• June: Specialist in Education degree program begins.

1982
• The University’s wood-to-energy plant opens; a little more than a decade later the plant is retrofitted to burn paper pellets created on campus.

1983
• March: B.D. Owens Library opens.
• July: Northwest Nigerian student, Wallace N. Morgan, is beaten to death in the Nodaway County Jail; four inmates indicted for capital murder.

1984
• January: Northwest’s men’s and women’s basketball teams win overtime thrillers against Central Missouri State at home. All four teams are ranked in the top five in NCAA Division II.
• February: Bobby Bearcat is attacked by Central Missouri State University fans at a basketball game.
• August 1: Dr. Dean L. Hubbard becomes Northwest president.
• November: Northwest’s first football appearance in the NCAA Division II national playoffs ends with a 28-15 loss to Nebraska-Omaha.
• December: The Kansas City Symphony opens the Mary Linn Performing Arts Center.

1985
• January: Center for Applied Research is established.
• February: Kelly McDowell of Kansas City is named Northwest’s first student representative to the Board of Regents.
• April: Northwest enters into an agreement with Missouri Western State College in St. Joseph, establishing a permanent Northwest Graduate Center on the St. Joseph campus and eliminating the agriculture program at Missouri Western and the nursing program at Northwest.
• August: Bomb threats persist during summer classes.
• September: Smoking is banned in the library.
• October 24: Vandals steal the head of the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Administration Building for the second time in two years.
• Small Business Development Center is established.

1986
• January: Students are allowed to have visitors of either sex stay in dorms with them from Friday night to Sunday night.
• March: The Regional Electronic Catalog Accessed Library (RECAL) is in use at Owens Library, replacing the old card catalog.

1987
• February: State Rep. Everett Brown proposes changing the school’s name to Missouri State University at Maryville, creating a unified state university system.
• April: The Culture of Quality program is approved by the Board of Regents.
• August 17: Missouri Gov. John Ashcroft switches on the Electronic Campus.
• August: Northwest’s first comprehensive freshman orientation program, called Advantage Week, begins.
• October 10: Homecoming takes place during a snow storm.

1988
• April: No-confidence vote in President Hubbard voted by Northwest faculty. A Campus Collegial Committee is established the next month to help communication problems between administration and faculty.
• August: Record freshman enrollment of 1,405 students.
• November 17: After Dr. Shalia Aery, commissioner of higher education, suggests closing Northwest, Missouri State Sen. Pat Danner says, “Read my lips: Northwest Missouri State University will not close.” Aery eventually drops her plan.

1989
• Fall: The Student Union reopens after renovations to the Spanish Den
• August: A harsh summer drought forces the University to haul water from St. Joseph to fill the water needs of returning students.
• Fall: The University is officially declared a dry campus, and fraternities are prohibited from displaying alcohol-sponsored banners.
• Fall: Because of a shortage of on-campus and off-campus housing and a record freshman enrollment, temporary housing for men is set up in Roberta Hall, floor lounges and Maryville homes.

1990
• Spring: Taylor Commons is closed in preparations for renovations that turn the facility into the Conference Center.
• March 22: Northwest adopts a new logo.

1991
• March: Northwest hosts government officials from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania during the Eastern European Democracy Delegation.
• April: The first “I Love Northwest Week” takes place.
• November: Self-enrollment begins. Students no longer have to go through the Registrar’s Office to enroll in classes.

1992
• Spring: The first edition of the student publication Heartland View magazine is published.

1993
• June: Through legislation from the Missouri General Assembly, Northwest becomes the site of the Missouri Arboretum.
• Fall: Northwest’s women’s athletics teams switch from the Bearkittens to the Bearcats.
• The Student Recreation Center opens.
• August: Dunkin’ Donuts opens on campus.
• October: Northwest’s Homecoming theme, “The Wonderful World of Disney,” is deemed to be a breach of copyright laws. The theme is quickly changed to “The Wonderful World of Northwest.”
• Fall: Paper and aluminum recycling becomes part of life in the residence halls, thanks to new city ordinances.

1994
• Fall: The Bearcat football team posts a 0-11 record under new Head Coach Mel Tjeersdma.

1995
• February 27: The Rev. Jesse Jackson gives a free lecture in Bearcat Arena.
• August: The Electronic Campus Plus (EC+) pilot project begins.
• Fall: Northwest launches its first Web site.
• October: Comedian Adam Sandler entertains a sold-out audience in the Mary Linn Performing Arts Center.

1996
• Fall: Northwest enters an agreement to provide educational services to the Maryville Treatment Center; Northwest’s admissions standards are officially deemed “moderately selective”; Colden Hall is shut down for yearlong renovations; faculty offices are relocated to Perrin Hall and Douglas Hall, and classes are scattered across campus, from Thompson-Ringold to Lamkin Gym; 3,492 parking permits are sold for 2,907 spots available for student use.
• November: The Tau Kappa Epsilon house is destroyed in a fire.

1997
• April: Heavy snowfall cancels classes.
• November: Northwest receives the Missouri Quality Award.

1998
• December: NCAA Division II football championship.

1999
• Joyce and Harvey White International Plaza opens.
• August 3: Northwest Online is launched; 57 students enroll in nine courses.
• Fall(ish?): The Northwest Foundation Inc. purchases the Mueller house and John Hopper house, expanding the office space of the alumni and development offices.
• Fall: Tau Kappa Epsilon and Sigma Phi Epsilon move into their new houses.
• December 11: Second NCAA Division II championship. (double overtime against The University of Carson-Newman)

2000
• August 28: The Missouri Academy begins class with 41 students.

2001
• April: The VAX computers in the residence halls are replaced with new Gateway computers.
• January: Northwest’s first online degree program – a bachelor’s in business management, is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
• August 26: The College of Professional and Applied Studies becomes the Booth College of Business and Professional Studies, in honor of 1967 alumnus Mel Booth.
• November: Northwest receives its second Missouri Quality Award.

2002
• April 4: The Jean Jennings Bartik Computing Museum opens in Owens Library, honoring the 1945 graduate who helped program the world’s first electronic computer.
• April 27: For the first time, spring commencement is divided into two ceremonies to accommodate overflowing crowds.
• September 20: The first Alumni Association Awards are given to six distinguished alumni and faculty.
• October 17: The Clash of the Champions, Northwest vs. Pittsburg State University at Arrowhead Stadium, takes place in Kansas City. Later, the showdown – renamed the Fall Classic - continues to take place at Arrowhead.
• November (October): U.S. Highway 71 expands to four lanes.

2003
• January: All pay telephones on campus are removed, reflecting the growing popularity of cellular phones among students; Dr. Alex Ching, associate professor of agriculture, dies from a heart attack while shoveling snow.
• February: Phi Delta Theta joins the roster of Northwest fraternities.
• September: Northwest receives the largest gift in its history, $10 million from an anonymous donor.
• August: Northwest enters graduate partnership with Missouri Southern State University.
• Fall enrollment: 6,574 (total headcount).
• Rickenbrode Stadium reopens after extensive renovations.

2004
• Master’s in Quality program is established
• University studies biopharming and biotechnology initiatives
• February 27: Safe Ride Home program begins, offering free after-hours transportation for Northwest students.
• February 7: The Board of Regents approves the notebook computer program, giving each student living on campus a new notebook computer beginning in the fall of 2005; tuition for the 2004-2005 academic year: $165.50 per credit hour for in-state students.
• December: The Bell Tower reopens after a nearly yearlong renovation process. The seal that had been in the center of the structure is moved to a special display of University seals, effectively ending the long-held student superstition that walking on the seal guaranteed one would fail all final exams.
• Summer: (Regents meeting date) Rickenbrode Stadium is renamed Bearcat Stadium.
• December 17: Northwest adopts a new logo identity.

(1874-1919) (1920-1949) (1950-1972) (1973-Present)