Archive of: Schools -- Illinois State University

On May 24, 1941, Illinois State Normal University competed in the Illinois Intercollegiate Conference track and field championship in DeKalb, on the campus of what was then called Northern Illinois State Teachers College.

Back in 1936, there was one graduation ceremony for all graduates, and it was staged on the Quad.Seen here are unidentified ISU faculty members taking part in it.

Department of Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet, stopped in the Twin Cities on October 17, 1935. She spoke at Capen Auditorium on the Illinois State Normal University campus. She talked about workplace health and safety.

A Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and an internationally respected authority on the game, Jill Hutchison’s first brush with organized athletics was her seventh grade basketball team. But soon after, the self-proclaimed “Army brat” transferred to Germany where she spent three years in a physical education class that featured marching as an appropriate activity for young women. Jill says that disappointing experience would be a motivation for the rest of her career.

Forty nurses, doctors, and supervisors attended the annual Mennonite School of Nursing banquet on May 14, 1930, held at the Illinois Hotel in downtown Bloomington. Eloise Lehmann of Pontiac and Eula Peden of Lexington, presidents of the junior and senior classes respectively, addressed those gathered, as did Dr. H.P. Sloan

Located on the east side of the Illinois State Normal University campus, the handsome brick Georgian-style Milner Library building opened in 1940. When the current Milner Library opened in July 1976 on the north end of campus, the old Milner Library was eventually renamed Williams Hall. In other words, seen here is the old Milner Library when it was brand new.

For many years the biggest sporting event on the local calendar was the McLean County Basketball Tournament, which began way back in 1911. During the years before school consolidation, 20 or more McLean County high schools outside of Bloomington-Normal would battle it out for bragging rights as the county’s small school champion.There were 11 schools vying for the 1966 tourney title. On January 21, Octavia beat Lexington in the championship game before a packed Horton Field House crowd on the Illinois State University campus.

On January 14, 1960, Illinois State Normal University’s puppetry class staged its third annual pageant at Metcalf School. There was an afternoon performance for the university laboratory school’s lower grade children, and an evening one opened to the public. The program included “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Cinderella,” and other fairy tales

Seen here is the 1939-1940 Illinois State Normal “A” or varsity squad, which would go on to finish the season 21-5 and champions (two years running) of the “Little Nineteen” athletic conference.

Seen here is Illinois State Normal University senior Connie Townsend from Princeton, IL, enjoying an idyllic fall day back in early November of 1961.

The Illinois State University homecoming parade has passed through Uptown Normal since the 1920s. Pictured here from the 1958 parade are members of the visiting Northern Illinois University marching band heading east on North Street. In the football game later that afternoon, the #Redbirds dispatched the NIU Huskies 33-18. Illinois Wesleyan University also held its homecoming on this day.

This view of the Town of Normal and Illinois State University, taken in 1966 from either Hewett or Manchester halls, two recently opened high-rise dormitories, looks west. Visible in the distance are Hancock Stadium and the Tri-Towers residential complex (Haynie, Wilkins, and Wright halls). The houses shown here were later razed to make way for the ISU Student Center (completed in 1973) and Milner Library - Illinois State University (1976).

On September 9, 1958, a one-ton wrecking ball made quick work of Illinois State University’s first campus building, affectionately known as “Old Main.” Today, a memorial featuring the building’s bell can be found on the north end of the Illinois State Quad.

Back in 1907, the Illinois State Normal University Teachers finished the season undefeated against college-level competition—9 wins and 0 losses. The Teachers earned victories over Wesleyan (twice), Milliken, Monmouth College, Knox College, Northern Illinois, Bradley, Western Illinois, and Eastern Illinois.

Watterson Towers, a 28-story residence hall complex located on the Illinois State University campus, opened in 1969. It houses some 2,200 students and is generally regarded as one of the tallest college dormitories in the world.

Normal was the longtime home to the state-run orphanage known as the Illinois Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s School. “Home Kids” (as they often called themselves) attended University High School, Normal IL on the Illinois State University campus (or, Illinois State Normal University, as it was known at the time).

On Sunday, October 24, 1965, demonstrators from Illinois State University marched along Main Street to downtown Bloomington to protest the acquittal in Alabama of Ku Klux Klan gunman Collie Leroy Wilkins in the murder of Civil Rights Movement worker Viola Liuzzo.

Illinois State University's Doug Collins holds an autographed ball featuring the signatures of players, coaches, and team personnel from the 1972 U.S. Olympic basketball team.

On October 3, 1984, Illinois State University students protested new Town of Normal liquor ordinances designed to control large off-campus keg parties.

Back in the 1960s when Illinois State University and Illinois Wesleyan University still played each other in football, pranks were common among the more mischievous members of the respective student bodies. For instance, several days before the September 23, 1967 game, IWU boosters "boosted" the Illinois State Victory Bell from its locked garage on the Normal campus. It was then clandestinely moved to the Wesleyan campus and chained to the old science building.