It Happened at U-M
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May 19, 2025
How The Rock became a local landmark
The Rock, a massive boulder at Washtenaw Avenue and Hill Street, gets a fresh coat of paint and new cause nearly every week — congratulating graduates, celebrating U-M milestones, and more. But the landmark was originally conceived in 1932 as a monument to George Washington’s 200th birthday.
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May 5, 2025
Spring Commencement on the Diag
Seventeen years ago, Spring Commencement was moved to the Diag due to construction at Michigan Stadium. That was the first and, so far, only time it’s been there. To accommodate the crowd, the university installed a temporary floor to keep the seating level and brought in 30,000 folding chairs and 20 bleachers.
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April 28, 2025
Irving K. Pond left his mark on U-M
Irving K. Pond and his brother Allen B.Pond, well-regarded principals of the Chicago architecture firm Pond & Pond in the early 1900s, grew up in Ann Arbor, attended U-M — and designed the Michigan Union, the Michigan League and the Student Publications Building. He also scored U-M’s first football touchdown in 1879.
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April 21, 2025
A century of Yost
When Yost Field House opened its doors on South State Street in 1923, it was the largest indoor collegiate athletic complex in the U.S. In 1973, the university converted the field house into an ice arena and is well known to be an intimidating environment for visiting teams.
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April 14, 2025
Aero Club and hot air balloons
In 1914, the first aeronautics class was offered at U-M, launching what would become the country’s first collegiate aeronautics program. U-M students were also learning about aeronautics outside the classroom as they took to the skies in gliders, simple planes — and, by the 1920s, hot air balloons.
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April 7, 2025
One hundred years of Angell Hall
Angell Hall, one of the Ann Arbor campus’ most iconic academic buildings and home to the Fishbowl was developed in the 1920s to address overcrowding on campus. The 152,000-square-foot building was completed in 1924 at a cost of just over $1 million.
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March 31, 2025
How maize and blue became U-M’s colors
Blue had been an unofficial color of U-M since the school’s founding, and maize was chosen by students because it provided a nice contrast to the blue. With no standards initially implemented, the hues of the colors varied until a committee commissioned in 1912 by the Board of Regents settled on the current colors.
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March 24, 2025
Founder of famed survey scale was U-M alum
Rensis Likert, a U-M alum, groundbreaking researcher and co-founder of the university’s Institute for Social Research, created the Likert scale. Likert scales have been used in research surveys in a wide variety of industries, from academics to the government to private research.
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March 17, 2025
When the Wolverines won it all in 1989
When March Madness begins, and 68 Division I men’s basketball teams will vie to become national champion. The U-M men’s team has made it to the championship game seven times since the NCAA Tournament began in 1939, winning it all in 1989 — its first and, so far, only national championship.
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March 10, 2025
The Royal Shakespeare Company came to town
In 2001, the Royal Shakespeare Company performed an historic 27-hour marathon at the Power Center for Performing Arts, presented by the University Musical Society. The performance was so successful and popular it kicked off an 11-year relationship between the RSC, U-M and UMS that included three residencies.
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