Old School
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June 19, 2017
President Harold T. Shapiro’s birthday
Harold T. Shapiro, U-M’s 10th president, was born on June 8, 1935, in Montreal. During his presidency, which ran from 1980-87, the “theme of quality over quantity, of ‘smaller but better’ became the guiding principle” in a period of budget reductions.
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June 5, 2017
A summer with Shakespeare
A scene from the 2007 Shakespeare in the Arb production of “The Tempest,” which will be revived for this year’s Shakespeare in the Arb, June 8-25.
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May 22, 2017
The iconic Burton Memorial Tower
The Burton Memorial Tower stands over the U-M campus during the summer of 1946.
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May 1, 2017
The beloved professors of U-M
Joseph Whiting and George Palmer Williams taught the first entering class of U-M. Whiting was a Yale-educated Presbyterian minister, while Williams was two years younger but far more experienced in the classroom.
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April 24, 2017
The first commencement
By the time of the university’s first commencement on Aug. 6, 1845, the first days of the entering class must have seemed like ancient history. The Main Building — now called Mason Hall — was cramped and an expansion was in the works.
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April 17, 2017
The first freshmen
Lyman Norris, George Parmelee, Judson Collins, William Wesson, Merchant Goodrich and George Pray can lay claim as the first entering class at U-M.
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April 10, 2017
U-M’s Uncle Jimmy
James Ottley, the University of Michigan’s custodian and “hatman,” was known to scores of U-M students as Uncle Jimmy.
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April 3, 2017
A furry icon in the making
The pudgy, curious and oftentimes fearless squirrels that roam the Ann Arbor campus have delighted students, faculty, staff and visitors for decades.
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March 27, 2017
The Wolverine jingle
Albert Ahronheim, a former Michigan Marching Band drum major and graduate assistant, created a full arrangement for the “Let’s Go Blue” tune-and-cheer, but the history behind the iconic jingle is not as simple as one might predict.
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March 20, 2017
The origins of ‘Go Blue!’
History does not paint a clear, definite picture of how “Go Blue” became the rallying cry of University of Michigan Wolverines. Conflicting stories have it starting at U-M hockey or football games.
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