Feb. 11, 2025
Contact: Janese Heavin, heavinj@missouri.edu
1. What year was the University of Missouri founded?
The University of Missouri was established through the Geyer Act as the first public higher-education institution west of the Mississippi River.
2. Who said, “Let them stand a thousand years”?
After a fire destroyed Academic Hall, this president of the University of Missouri Board of Curators ordered that the now iconic Columns be torn down. After numerous pleas to save them, he had a change of heart and spoke these immortal words: “Let the Columns stand. Let them stand for a thousand years.”
3. What are the names of the current mules on the Missouri Mule Team? (There are six mules total.)
A fixture at Mizzou since 1984, the Missouri Mule Team is the outreach arm of the College of Veterinary Medicine and a goodwill ambassador for Mizzou. Cared for by members of the Mule Club, the mules can be seen at a variety of public events, including the Mizzou Homecoming Parade.
4. Who did the Mizzou Football team play in the first Homecoming game?
In 1911, MU athletic director Chester Brewer invited alumni to “come home” and support the football team as they played this opponent in Columbia for the first time.
5. What campus facility conducts groundbreaking research to create lifesaving radiopharmaceuticals?
This facility became operational in 1966. For nearly 60 years, it has conducted groundbreaking research and collaborated with industry partners to develop unique, lifesaving products.
6. What beloved student hangout was destroyed by a fire in 1988?
In 2011, Mort’s opened in the MU Student Center as a reinvention of the once popular campus hotspot. For more than 50 years, its original building was where the Reynolds Alumni Center now stands.
7. Which Mizzou professor was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry?
After the award was announced, the distinguished professor emeritus of biological sciences quickly became a campus celebrity. He began working at MU in 1975 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of the phage display.
8. Which Grammy Award-winning music artist graduated from Mizzou in 1984?
Born in Kennet, Missouri, this alumna has won nine Grammy Awards and was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As a student, she was crowned Homecoming Queen and was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta.
9. Who is the winningest Mizzou Basketball coach?
Taking over as the Tiger basketball coach in 1967, he would go on to earn 731 career wins — 634 of which he won at Mizzou. He is an MU alumnus and was a member of the 1954 National Champion Mizzou Baseball team.
10. What comic strip character was created by Mizzou alumnus Mort Walker?
Mort Walker first started creating cartoons and comic strips for Showme, a college humor magazine on campus. After graduation, an editor encouraged Walker to draw cartoons based on his college experiences, and this iconic character was born.
Answers:
1. 1839
2. Gideon Rothwell
3. Tim, Terry, Boone, George, Bess and Rose
4. University of Kansas
5. MU Research Reactor
6. The Shack
7. George P. Smith
8. Sheryl Crow
9. Norm Stewart
10. Beetle Bailey
