Old School

  1. February 17, 2014

    Opening ceremonies first

    USA Hockey officials said former Wolverine Jack Johnson was the first-ever American National Hockey League player to participate in the opening ceremonies for an Olympics.

  2. February 10, 2014

    The last engineer

    Russell Hurst was the last engineer to serve the University of Michigan Railroad. 

  3. February 3, 2014

    New president

    Harlan Hatcher newly invested president of the University of Michigan, is congratulated by Regent Roscoe Bonisteel in 1951. 

  4. January 27, 2014

    Popular

    Author Kurt Vonnegut appears at a January 1969 program at Canterbury House on Maynard Street, just west of Nickels Arcade.

  5. January 20, 2014

    Janitor and bell ringer

    William Bliss Jolly spent 10 years working as a janitor and bell ringer for U-M in the mid-1800s, but he dressed more like a statesman than a janitor. 

  6. January 10, 2014

    MLK at U-M

    In November 1962, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke from the stage at Hill Auditorium to an audience. He also spoke before a small gathering at the Michigan Union during his visit to campus.

  7. December 16, 2013

    Boiler Rats

    The Central Power Plant was erected in 1914. Coal was delivered to the plant by a small locomotive towing a coal car and was shoveled by hand by staff members known as stokers or “boiler rats.”

  8. December 9, 2013

    Missing statue

    A plaster cast of the Winged Victory of Samothrace was exhibited in Alumni Memorial Hall through the 1920s, then relocated to University High School, now the School of Education building. It was reported missing in the 1960s.

  9. November 25, 2013

    President Ford returns

    In November 1977, alumnus and former President Gerald R. Ford viewed the site and blueprints for the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library on North Campus. 

  10. November 18, 2013

    Past traditions

    In 1876, students pose at a smoker’s club gathering. Smokers were social events that became popular in American universities near the beginning of the 20th century, specifically among male students. Female students were known to hold smokeless smokers.