- [Narrator] The University of Central Missouri is an institution like no other.

From its roots as a Progressive Teachers College founded after one of the most tragic periods in our nation's history to today, where it is an internationally recognized university with over 12,000 students studying over 100 majors.

In a world that is ever changing, the University of Central Missouri has produced the students who change it.

The University of Central Missouri provides students from across the globe, not just an education, but a sense of community, service and purpose.

Join us as we explore that journey through the tragedies of war, the triumphs of peace and the ultimate goal of education for service.

This is the history of the University of Central Missouri.

- [Narrator Two] Support for Mule Tracks, UCM after 150 years was made possible by the following: the Warrensburg Convention and Visitors Bureau is proud to support this program.

You can learn more about UCM's home community at visitwarrensburg.com.

Central Bank of Warrensburg, serving Warrensburg, Higginsville, Holden and Odessa.

Central Bank of Warrensburg is proud to support this program on KMOS-TV and viewers like you, thank you.

- [Narrator] 1870, the United States, just coming out of its darkest period ever, the civil war was trying to come to grips with reunification and how to prevent an event such as this from ever taking place again.

In Missouri, education was a focus of that thought process.

Unfortunately, at that time, public schools were thought to give a poor education to underprivileged children, as they were taught by so-called acts.

To reform this system, the Missouri Legislature with support of the Missouri state teachers association, created the Normal School Act.

- There was a lot going on in terms of education.

And so that we kind of the beginnings of the normal school kind of starts on the east coast, probably in the 1830s in Massachusetts.

And then of course the country goes through the civil war.

And so after the war, the country and including Missouri has to put itself back together again.

And so in the State House in Missouri, you had radical reconstruction taking place.

Even though Missouri was not seen as a state that it seceded from the union, it's radical reconstruction took place within the State House, not coming out of Washington DC.

One of the key components was public education.

So in 1870, there's a law that's proposed.

That creates an opportunity for the normal schools to be created across the state of Missouri.

- [Narrator] This act led to the creation of two normal school districts in the state.

The first was located at the existing school in Kirksville, and the second one to be named by the newly created normal school Board of Regents.

Bids were sought for communities interested in hosting the newest normal school with the winning bid of $75,000 awarded to the town of Sedalia.

However, that town would not ultimately be the school's final home.

- Warrensburg back in the late 1860s, 1870s was a frontier town.

It was a wild town.

In fact, I have a great quote that said in the late 1860s, Warrensburg was unfit for human habitation because of all the horse thieves and the rustlers and the Jayhawkers and red legs and the leftover of the union of the Confederate armies.

And then you had contrails raiders were still around here, and they were all trying to make a living at this point.

And they may see, basically did it by stealing and stealing horses, robbing people.

And it wasn't uncommon for them to ride up to a house out in the country and just shoot the residents and steal what they could.

So Warrensburg was a very rough place, not sophisticated at all.

But we had visionaries here in town at that time to say, "We need something, we need to put in a college "or even a university as they call it at that time "into Warrensburg."

And so they started this application to see if Warrensburg could get one of those normal schools.

And that's why we came Warrensburg number two, in the state of Missouri for normal schools.

- The founding was a really chaotic time.

So in 1870 Missouri, had passed the normal school act, which would set up another normal school for teachers.

And they set up a bidding system to see who would actually get it.

And Sedalia initially won with a $75,000 bid, but then seemingly overnight Warrensburg managed to get like 150,000 in county bonds and then 110,000 in like private donations with the addition of a campus.

And the Missouri general assembly was like, "Wow, that's a lot of money, how did you do that overnight?"

So Warrensburg was put under investigation and the school was originally given to Sedalia with its original bid.

But then in April, Warrensburg was cleared of any suspicious activity and the decision was reversed and the normal school went to Warrensburg over Sedalia.

- [Dr. Jon] And the community kind of went wild.

I mean, they, the bells in the church bells rang.

And I think this kind of started in the evening and then kind of moved over into the next day.

- I don't know what backroom maneuver it happened at that time to get the revolt, but anyway, we won it.

And the university was founded here in 1871.

And ironically, that was just one year after the Old Drum Trial, which is a famous part of Warrensburg.

And the Old Drum Trial of course was about how we now use so frequently man's best friend is the dog.

And that occurred just up on main street, Naval Courthouse.

- [Narrator] The normal school Board of Regents appointed George Petri Beard as the first principal.

Without time to construct a school building, Principal Beard's first act was to find a place to hold classes.

The foster school, Warrensburg public school offered the use of space, which principal Beard graciously accepted.

Principal Beard set about hiring the first teachers for the new school with teachers such as, E. A. Angell and Lucy J. Maltby.

They, along with principal beard provided advanced courses in science, literature and education.

- The first kind of president assembled his team.

And a lot of the teachers were from these normal schools that had already been established in the east or in the Midwest.

Now the students, it was primarily a teaching school, even at the founding.

It was for teachers, to train teachers to go out and to teach in the public school system, this new public school system that had essentially come out of the civil war.

And so with that, there's a predominant number of women who were students at the institution.

And this having women and their ability to gain this education at a normal school was relatively progressive for this early period.

And it allowed women to take classes, which they probably wouldn't be able to take on any other place.

It allowed them a certain amount of freedom.

And because of that, you do have a number of women instructors who were also hired and who teach during this, during the whole kind of early part of the founding.

- [Narrator] Now prepared with a mandate, classrooms and faculty, the second Missouri normal school was ready to receive its first students.

On May 10th, 1871, Warrensburg normal school opened with an enrollment of 30 students.

As word spread, enrollment grew.

And the school and community turned its attention to building a permanent home for the school.

- The Corner Stone laying was in August of 1871, and that was a massive event for the community.

And I think to me is kind of a founding, kind of a focal point is that August dedication.

The masons oversaw the laying of the Corner Stone, you had all kinds of politicians come in.

The event was covered by the St. Louis newspapers, obviously by the Warrensburg newspapers.

And so these incredible addresses were delivered, talking about the opportunity that having this normal school would bring to the community.

- Old Main was the normal schools very first building.

It was made from local quarried, limestone and sandstone, as well as locally made bricks.

It was made in the Lombard-Venetian style.

And it took about 10 years to actually complete the building itself.

Warrensburg got the first floor done within the first year that it started being built, but then due to lack of funds, it took another like eight years to actually get it finished.

And it, that was only because the president at the time convinced his staff to take a pay cut so they could actually finish it.

- It's similar to where the administration building is now.

They started building it when the school was awarded.

So they began building in 1871, it opened in 1872 officially.

It was a Gothic style architecture structure, and it has everything.

The president's offices, classrooms, labs, this lab school, everything was in one building at that time.

- [Narrator] The school was considered a success.

However, the board was not happy with principal Beard and voted to replace him with James Johonnot, whose title was changed to President, making him the first president of the school.

Title which has been bestowed on every head of the institution since.

- The Board of Regents disliked president Beard, because he was very vocal in his support of president Grant at the time.

And the board of Regents felt that as the principal of the normal school, he shouldn't be as vocal and as political as he was.

Plus the fact that he was originally from a Northern state, it just didn't jive well with small town Missouri values.

And so he was like, oh, because of that.

- [Narrator] By 1875, the explosive growth of the Missouri normal education system had led to the creation of a third normal district.

And with it, the creation of a separate board of Regents for each school.

This was the year of the first graduating class from the Warrensburg normal school, which bestowed honors on eight students who had completed the four years scientific course.

This occasion while happy, was also bittersweet.

The Board of Regents dismissed president Johonnot, due to the community's dissatisfaction with his teaching of natural sciences and his Northern ways.

- President Johonnot served for three years as president.

And part of his concern I think was the issue of just the standing of the normal schools in comparison to the University in Columbia.

And he wanted to make sure that the normal schools would provide a very kind of similar kind of education.

And so he was very much an individual who encouraged, obviously the practical, but the scholarly.

And he, I think he got along fairly well with the community.

Although he thought students need to be exposed to all kinds of training and thinking.

And sometimes that did not always kind of sit well with the local kind of community, the local church community.

And there apparently was some kind of disagreements.

They were concerned that he didn't attend a local church while he was here.

And that kind of got some of the community kind of concerned about him, concerned about the instruction.

And so his tenure was essentially kind of cut short.

- [Narrator] Another northerner and superintendent of the Louisiana, Missouri public schools, George L. Osborne was appointed as the newest president of the institution.

Originally reluctant to take the daunting task of being the third president in five years, his passion and determination to make the school a success proved unwaverable.

President Osborne approached the position with tact and delicacy in an effort to make judgements that would not only satiate the residents of Warrensburg, but benefit the institution as a whole.

These traits led to him being affectionately, nicknamed King George by his students.

- President Osborne was affectionately known as King George.

He was a very tall man, very imposing figure.

And he was so well beloved.

He always looks incredibly stern in his photos, but he really was beloved.

He kept the natural sciences in the school curriculum, but was far more diplomatic towards the greater Warrensburg community.

So he was able to keep them without further antagonizing anybody, the board included.

So he was able to stay on until he got very sick and he was here close to 30 years.

- The president Osborne assembled his own team of teachers much like the previous presidents had done.

And again, very similarly, they came from normal schools, which usually their training was either on the East or in the Midwest.

So they were kind of Northern in their influence.

But I think Osborne had a little bit different tone in terms of the, we didn't hear the religious concerns being raised about him as you had with Johonnot.

And seemed to be relatively successful in his tenure.

- [Narrator] Early in his time at the institution, the survival of normal schools seemed in doubt.

The state legislature disliked funding them.

And the public did not see the value in specialized training for what they deemed an easy profession.

- So the first budget cuts were really detrimental to normal schools around the state.

And Osborne managed to rally that by simply pouring out this continuous stream of very well taught teachers.

And so that really started benefiting the state of Missouri and the greater United States.

- At that point, you had two other normal schools, and so they're kind of competing as well for money.

I think that's probably a concern maybe that hadn't been fully kind of fleshed out that you have some other normal, state normal schools being established.

So they're competing now for scarce dollars.

For the most part, I mean the local communities supported these institutions.

I mean, $7,500 was not gonna go that far in terms of building structures, they were not that, that was just kind of to keep the lights on and the staff faculty kind of compensated.

And so they worked with the local communities, I think, to be able to move forward.

And I think, again, that's, this is during a period where they're not able to finish Old Main.

- [Narrator] In his nearly 25 year tenure, president Osborne oversaw impressive growth of the institution, including the introduction of philosophy and science programs.

The addition of postgraduate programs and the creation of the first sports clubs setting the stage for future collegiate athletic programs.

A significant example of the school's expansion came in 1878 with the publication of its first student newspaper, the Normal Courier.

Further expansion also extended to campus with the addition of four acres to the west of Old Main.

As the campus and the student body grew, so did extra curricular organizations, such as literary clubs and the beginning of Greek organizations.

- My favorite story about him, he fought tirelessly for, to get use, to get the normal school recognized as an actual college.

But my favorite story about him is actually, he really loved trees, like really loved trees.

He was very much into the nature movement.

But his 10 years as president also corresponded with our first football team.

And our first football team managed to convince him to let them cut down a couple of his beloved trees to create a football field, but they decided that it wasn't actually enough room.

So while he was gone at a conference, they cut down more trees than had been originally sanctioned.

And he came back in the middle of them doing that.

And so they tried to apologize and they said that they would stop.

And he was like, "No, keep going those blisters "from all that ax swinging will serve as a good reminder."

- [Narrator] As the 19th century waned, so did the health of president Osborne.

Increasingly bedridden over the last year of his life, President Osborne passed away in 1898.

Succeeding him was his loyal vice-president and friend George Henry Howe.

Hired by president Osborne in 1887 to teach mathematics, George Howe was no stranger to the institution.

After he served a year as the interim president, the Board of Regents selected him as the fourth president in 1899, stirring the school towards four year accreditation.

- President Howe was not here for very long, his heart lay in teaching.

He was president Osborne's successor, and he really kind of took over when president Osborne started getting sick towards the end of his tenure.

And so when president Osborne left to take care of himself, and then he ultimately passed away, the Board of Regents at the time was very supportive of how becoming the next president.

And he stayed on for about two years and he fought the good fight like he fought presidents, president Osborne's fight to keep the school open, but ultimately he preferred teaching math.

And so he left to go teach again.

- [Narrator] President Howe departed the school in 1901, ushering in a period of short tenured school presidents, which beyond himself included Edwin B. Craighead and James Ament.

While their tenures were short, their accomplishments were not inconsequential as this time saw the construction of the Dockery Gym.

The first published your book, the "Rhetor" and the first Alma Mater.

In 1906, William J. Hawkins, was elected the seventh president of the school.

Immensely popular with the students and faculty, President Hawkins gained a reputation of standing firmly behind his teachers.

- When Hawkins came and was president, his presidency corresponded with a lot of wonderful hires that really did help the school expand into more programs, and actual colleges becoming a thing later.

And so like these hires really did help lead their program.

Martin led the English program to becoming the great program that it was.

Like the training school under Humphreys became more well-known.

And at the time it was the best equipped training school West of the Mississippi.

So his tenure as president in the faculty that he hired, really helped bring the school into kind of a golden age.

- [Narrator] This was a time of great transition for the school.

The training school which was considered to be one of the best equipped in the west if not the nation, had grown so much that it was moved to its own building constructed in 1909.

- [Dr. Jon] The training school was really important to the normal school education.

The normal school was very much focused on a kind of hands-on teaching and learning.

And so if you were going to be a school that focused on training teachers, then you essentially needed to have a training school to be able to practice that skill.

And so this whole idea of what a normal school should teach and do really becomes kind of a bone of contention.

- [Narrator] The first bachelor's of science degree in education was awarded in 1914.

And in 1912, the school became a charter member of the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Association.

- Warrensburg was part of the precursor to the MIAA, but that had almost every single school in Missouri in it.

And it was just huge.

It was, people weren't able to play, everybody in it during the seasons.

And so it really was just too big for its own thing.

And we actually got kicked out of that because our football coach at the time had been an alumni or he was an alumni of the school.

And so he didn't see a reason why he couldn't keep playing with his now students that he was coaching.

And so he kept playing and we actually almost had a fight on the field with the University of Missouri of all places.

Because they had the argument of your coach shouldn't be playing and coach Ferguson, that was his name.

He argued that well, he had been a player himself, so, and he really loved the sport so why couldn't he.

So there was almost a fight on the field and Warrensburg got kicked out of the precursor.

And so when the precursor itself just kind of fell apart eventually on its own, 'cause it was just too big.

Warrensburg helped found the MIAA on our own.

- And the only two left of charter members are Central Missouri and Northwest Missouri.

There were the two schools that were charter members that are left.

But in those early days, Central Missouri was very, very successful.

And Phog Allen was the head football coach and was the head basketball coach.

And won numerous, during the teams, won numerous conference championships, both in football and in basketball.

He left the university, besides being a coach, he was a chiropractor.

And the board at that time would not let him practice chiropractic medicine.

So it was really over about $25 is why he left the university and went to Kansas University.

And of course we know the rest is history, his name is on Allen Fieldhouse, but he was very successful here.

- [Narrator] With triumph, there is tragedy.

On Saturday, March 6th, 1915, a late winter storm had blanketed the campus with six inches of snow.

The spring term was set to begin the following Monday and for the night caretaker, the evening passed slowly until early that morning when he gazed across campus and discovered that to his horror, Old Main was on fire.

(fire crackling) - The fire in Old Main really wasn't a surprise to anybody when it actually happened.

Fears of the fires went back to the 1890s with president Osborne, the walls and the ceiling were never actually insulated.

And on top of that, when they were adding on the new buildings, they were adding on new infrastructure, especially electricity.

And so they weren't updating Old Main's infrastructure when they were adding on the new infrastructure.

So that really wasn't a good thing either.

And the night janitor would say how, when the boiler would kick on in Old Main, it would cause sparks to fly.

And so it's honestly a surprise that there wasn't a fire until 1915 if the fire fears themselves were going back to the 1890s.

It was a very, very quiet Saturday morning when the fire started.

The night janitor looked out from the power house that his office was in and there were flames and sparks going in Old Main.

And he quickly raised the alarm.

But because Warrensburg had had a snow storm, the previous like entire week almost, the snow was really deep and so there really wasn't good response to it.

And the nearest hydrants were frozen.

- [Narrator] Old Main, the science annex, the library and the training school all burned, leaving only charged skeletons of the once proud buildings.

Lost with the buildings were academic records, 40,000 books, the museum, and all furnishings and equipment.

What remained of the campus were the Dockery Gym, the fine arts building, the powerhouse and the enduring spirit of the faculty and students.

- Warrensburg residents saved pianos, they saved just a number of things by complete happenstance.

And then the best thing that was probably saved 'cause all the student records were lost, all the library books were lost.

The best thing that was saved though was all of the Board of Regents notes and whatnot going back to the founding of the school, simply because they'd been put in a semi fire-resistant safe.

And so while they still have smoke damage and you can really smell it on them, they are still in existence.

- [Narrator] Facing what appeared to be insurmountable odds, president Hawkins rallied the faculty and the spring term began the following Monday as scheduled.

Classes were held in borrowed rooms, churches, faculty homes, and the Warrensburg public schools.

Dockery gym was transformed into a library, chapel and offices.

What could be salvaged was, and the school continued its mission of education for service.

- I think one of the things about the fire which I find interesting is how the community came together in terms of trying to address the challenges.

And they were significant, I mean their, their whole standing as an institution was essentially wiped out.

And I think Hawkins had worked so hard, I think, to try to work on that standing, hiring new faculty and trying to move the institution forward.

And then this hits.

I mean, it had, it was, had been a significant blow.

I think the board holds a meeting at 6:00 AM, I don't think the board has probably held 6:00 AM meeting.

Maybe, but in this case it was six O'clock the same, essentially, I guess the same day of the fire, to try to figure out how to move forward.

President immediately goes to Jefferson City.

And he is trying to figure out, we've gotta find secure money to try to move the institution back to where it was.

And there seemed to be significant support though.

The state legislature appropriated money, pulled funds from different places.

And I think that probably that had to be a credit to what had gone on previously.

At least the state legislature thought enough of the leadership because that was not easy.

I mean, they were pulling money from accounts that were not really set aside for normal instruction, to be able to immediately rebuilt.

And I think that's an important kind of component in the community.

- The aftermath of the fire really showed the school and Warrensburg's resiliency.

Really, it was just this great, combined effort between Warrensburg and the school to get everything opened back up on Monday.

And they were, they were very successful.

Spring semester did start when it was supposed to.

- There was even a basketball game the next night at Dockery Gym, I've seen a ticket for it to say that, "Hey, the game's still on for tomorrow night."

And this is the day after the whole campus burns down.

And then if you notice on the north side of the campus, they're on, what's called South Street, there's two columns.

And one of those columns it says, it has a grave in it, it says 1915.

And that was to honor the fact that the campus was rebuilt in 1915.

- [Narrator] Out of the darkness came a renaissance for the school, but president Hawkins was not able to see it to completion.

Only 23 days after the fire, the Board of Regents ended his tenure at the institution.

- President Hawkins was incredibly popular and he seemed like he should have continued on with his 10 years presidency, especially after getting the school back on track when it was supposed to.

However, politics played into that.

And the new governor of Missouri was not a fan of normal schools at all.

And so Hawkins was a very big proponent of normal schools.

Of course, he was the president of one.

And, but not only that, he had a lot of sway.

And especially after this, like he got the school back on track.

He would have had an enormous amount of power after that.

And so the governor put a lot of pressure on the board of governors to let him go.

- And then, he's practically dismissed within several weeks after the fire, apparently in some sort of a political trade-off with the governor who was gonna try to appoint one of his cronies.

And the community responded, they didn't think that was the best thing to do.

The governor did not get his appointed crony as president, but a historian, president Hendricks was selected and he becomes president and then kind of oversees this transition in the institution.

- [Narrator] Replacing Hawkins was Eldo Hendricks, who originally came to Missouri from Indiana to head normal number two's history department.

Upon his election as the eighth president, he demanded a multi-year contract to ensure that he did not suffer the same fate as some of his predecessors.

- President Hendricks unfortunately inherited a skeletal campus.

But he did his best to rally the school and the surrounding community.

And because of that, the campus got several new buildings just within the first year since the fire.

- [Narrator] It was at this time that the school was admitted to the North Central Association of colleges and schools as an unclassified college, still short of four year recognition.

It appeared that achieving that goal was closer than ever.

In the shadow of the greatest test the campus ever faced, the great fire.

Another test was looming over the entire nation, a test that would become the great war.

- During World War I, the federal government gave out a list to all universities and schools across the country of government sanctioned war activities that they could participate in.

And that included having a red cross nursing unit and an ambulance core and an SATC unit, which was the precursor to ROTC.

And we had all of those things.

President Hendricks at the time was very firmly entrenched in the War Hawks faction on campus.

So they were very, very in support of the war itself.

And so he, any activity that we could have done as a school, we did.

- The great war on campus was certainly a challenge.

There were some women who actually decided to go home.

And not just to go home, but to go home and farm.

Because there was a critical labor shortage.

Some of their family members, maybe their father, or maybe their brothers had enlisted to go serve.

Which left that whole family farm without individuals to run it.

And there were several instances of where women students are leaving with the blessing of president Hendricks to go work on the farm.

And apparently they were able to work out some arrangement where they received credit for this work that they were doing for the war effort.

- In World War I, we had a lot of students that ended up in World War I, got shipped overseas to France.

And in the town, of course, we have a building called the old Mule Barn, which we grew up knowing as Casting Hams, but it was actually the Jones Mule Barn.

And Warrensburg shipped a lot of mules.

I mean, thousands of mules to France in World War I.

And not until after the war in 1922, was it decided that we would actually name the team Mascots here to be the mules.

Until that time we were just the normals, which is not a very exciting name for a athletic team and didn't strike fear.

But the mule was such an important part of Missouri's history, Warrensburg's history.

And of course the school now.

- [Narrator] Of the many wartime activities, one of the most notable was that of a women's literary circle, which sowed a service flag to hang in the administration building.

- We had a number of students and faculty serve in World War I. Warrensburg had an Ambulance Corps and they did see action in France.

Warrensburg had students serve and make the ultimate sacrifice as well.

And what the school did to honor them was a service flag was made by one of the literacy groups on campus.

And a blue star was added for every student or faculty that served.

And that star was changed out for a gray star if they were injured, but then it was changed for the gold star if they did make the ultimate sacrifice over there.

So that was one way that they were honored.

There is a plaque that had been part of the administration building, but is now in the Memorial chapel.

And it was placed in honor of those that served and sacrificed in World War I as well.

The Memorial Oregon was in honor to those also that is actually being restored or will be soon.

So there were a number of ways that they were honored.

- [Narrator] The triumph of the United States in the great war was rivaled by a smaller triumph on campus.

In 1919, the Missouri general assembly, granted Warrensburg normal number two, the status of a four year college.

The culmination of years of hard work and student success that had been long fought for and finally won.

With this accomplishment, came the first name change to the institution, Warrensburg Normal Number two would now be known as Central Missouri State Teachers College.

- The road to the name change began in 1916.

Normal school applied for admission to the North Central Association of Colleges and secondary schools, as a full four year institution.

So this is a stepping stone to the recognition as the teacher's college that comes.

The committee granted the request, admission was based on the modern buildings, the library holdings, the lab facilities.

The faculty also had advanced degrees.

One of the things that did happen under Hendricks is that he would allow the faculty to take time off, to go work on advanced degrees.

And all of that was focused on this kind of being recognized.

- [Narrator] 1919 was even more of a rapturous year for Central Missouri State Teachers College with the passage of the 19th amendment granting women, the right to vote.

The on-campus suffrage movement led by Laura Yeater , Laura Runyon and Lucy Ball held lectures, organized parades, and made the Johnson county league of women voters one of the most formidable in the state.

- You know women had not been accustomed to voting.

Yeah, they weren't allowed to vote.

So they didn't have that tradition that we think of now as voting.

And it took a while for that to get into place.

And so I'm assuming, for many of these young women who hadn't observed their mother's voting, that it's gonna take time for them to actually absorb the vote too.

Although I really do think that the message that was coming through the faculty was a strong one that they should be involved and vote.

- [Narrator] In 1921, the institution celebrated 50 years of student success.

The college still celebrating its newfound status as a four year school.

Marked this occasion with celebrations including a parade, beginning at the stone pillars that marked the corner stone of Old Main.

Pauline Humphrey led on horseback, nearly four dozen floats, multiple bands and a small army of alumni through the streets of town.

In 1922, the school held a contest to name the new mascot.

Suggestions of bobcats, skunks and even hippopotamuses were made by a student named John Thomason, suggested the winning choice, the mule.

After the choice was made, president Hendricks warned other teams that they would learn just how hard a mule can kick.

- When we changed to CMSTC instead of Warrensburg normal, the school really wanted a better sounding mascot in general and normals just didn't fit anymore 'cause that wasn't in the name.

So there was a competition and anyone could write in entries and the winner was going to win a full like life subscription to the student newspaper.

And the winning entry was the mules because the student who proposed that John Thomason said that it would be a shame if no school in Missouri had the Missouri mule as their mascot.

So that was why we became The Mules.

- [Narrator] The roaring '20s brought a level of stability and growth to campus with the purchase of 19 acres on the west of the existing school.

This included the historic estate of the Nickerson family called Selmo Park.

- And of course we had Major Nickerson's farm.

He was the person, of course, that donated the quadrangle area about 20 acres to the campus.

And that was part of the bid against Sedalia for us to get the university.

And Major Nickerson, of course owned Selmo park, which he named actually for one of his former slaves who became a free woman at the end of the civil war.

But during the civil war, Major Nickerson was actually incarcerated as a Confederate sympathizer.

He was incarcerated in St. Louis.

And when you're in prison during the civil war, at least in this part of the country, you were not given meals.

Someone from your family would have to come in and feed you.

And Selmo was actually, was her name that had been his slave at this point, and then became a free woman.

And after the civil war, he named his estate Selmo park in her behalf for all the great care that she gave to him.

- [Narrator] The Great Depression had a significant impact on the world.

And that impact was acutely felt by the institution.

For the entire decade, the school faced perilous times regarding its budget and very existence.

The state's budget during this time was so low that schools began appearing on the chopping block, Central included.

Dangling precariously on the brink of disaster for the entirety of the depression, president Hendrick and the Board of Regents rallied the school and ensured its survival, despite the gut wrenching decisions that went along with it.

- And we'd already suffered budget cuts, but this, this was a whole new level of budget cuts.

And on top of that 19 schools, both collegiate and normal schools were put on the chopping block in Missouri and for the entire Great Depression really, Warrensburg was on that chopping block.

And so the faculty all had to take a pay cut, tuition went up, but then it also corresponded with the time where students in general just couldn't afford tuition.

So there were less students.

And then the students that were coming had to face a higher spike in tuition for a little bit.

And it was just, it was a really bad time.

And if there was any time that we were ever going to fail, it was going to be that time.

- [Narrator] These uncertain years had a deep effect on the campus and president Hendricks who resigned in 1937 due to ill health, which had plagued him since 1930.

Succeeding him would be George Willis Diemer, the first and only Central graduate to become the president of the university.

- President Diemer was amazing.

He came in during a really hard time, still president Hendricks got sick.

And so he had to leave for his own health and then Diemer came in and was exactly what the school needed during that time.

- Early in his tenure, Diemer oversaw a major reorganization of the administration.

That would be the first incorporation of the moderate approach to education with areas dedicated to student life, public relations and library services.

A major accomplishment came in 1939 with the completion of a separate library named after the long serving librarian, Ward Edwards.

Who tragically passed away a year prior, never seeing his dream completed.

- The first separate library on campus was really a feat for the university.

The library had been a part of the school since its very founding.

However, a separate library building itself hadn't been until Diemer came along and really helped create a bigger movement and a bigger support behind that.

And another man that was behind that was the librarian at the time, Ward Edwards.

So Diemer and Ward Edwards really led that movement and really, really helped to get everybody on board with it and helped them understand why a separate library building would be best.

So that in the event there was another fire, we maybe didn't lose our entire collection of library books again.

And the library as it is now is actually bigger.

It was expanded a bit in the 1960s, but in, or the later '40s and '60s, but what it was then was the part facing Dockery.

And it had a grand staircase like pictures of the Titanic staircase.

And it was just all beautiful wood and it's been gutted completely during expansion.

But at the time it was just, it was so beautiful.

- [Narrator] The beginning of the '40s saw some major accomplishments at the college.

In 1941, the first residence hall opened on campus.

Prior to this, students stayed with members of the local community or at boarding houses.

The new dorm, named for the Latin instructor, Laura J. Yeater, became the first of many student residence halls on campus.

- Later when she passed away, she actually willed all of her household furnishing to the building itself too.

Students only lived in it for one year.

Because then during World War II, we had a Navy V12 officers program on campus and that's where they were housed.

So the matron of it, she really had to work hard to get her girls, is what she called them.

She had to get them housed in places around town.

And she really wanted to make sure that they were going to be safe where they were being housed.

So she would go personally with them.

- [Narrator] This year also saw another solemn occasion as the last football season would be played for several years.

The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 would change the world.

- [Franklin] Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.

- [Narrator] Students listened to Franklin Roosevelt's infamy speech and young men left campus in droves to enlist in the military.

And by 1943, the campus dwindled to only 275 students.

Over 2000 male students and alumni would join the armed forces.

Many including president Diemer's son would make the ultimate sacrifice.

The remaining students did their part by participating in scrap metal drives as well as buying and selling war bonds.

- We had a civilian pilot training course to kind of replace the number of trained pilots that were going into the military.

Warrensburg had the Navy V12 officer's training unit on campus as well.

Diemer also invited and housed Austrian Jewish refugees on campus and they got a good education while living here.

And thankfully, they were actually all reunited with their families later.

- [Narrator] The conclusion of the second World War saw an explosive growth of students coming to campus.

A post-war planning committee was formed to further develop the school.

- What did come from World War II is several of the programs that we still have on campus.

So the Pilots Training Unit actually turned into the aviation unit on campus.

SATC unit that had been in World War I, and then we kind of had something similar in World War II.

But really that was greatly overshadowed by the Navy V12 unit, eventually was turned into the ROTC unit that we still have today.

And we really have a strong veteran presence on the university, thanks and part to the support that the university has always had for its veteran student alumni and faculty.

Diemer actually himself was very involved with UNESCO at the time.

And so he was jet setting to help bring educational opportunities back to these war torn countries in like Europe and Asia and everything.

And so he was a big proponent in getting the international program here as well.

So that comes, that's part of his legacy.

- [Narrator] The college celebrated its Diamond Jubilee raising the spirits of an institution, which had seen a depression and to second World War.

Over 70,000 students had passed through the college and it was experiencing tremendous enrollment.

And with more courses being offered than ever, the university's primary focus was still education.

But now it offered so much more.

To recognize this growth and success, the Missouri general assembly approved changing the name to Central Missouri State College.

The end of the second World War saw a re-invigoration of the college.

Peace had come and with it a sense of positive future and hope.

Men and women during a rapid demobilization from war efforts set their sights to the future.

As the campus grew, so did the curriculum offerings of the school.

Degrees such as the bachelor of science and music education and business administration were offered.

The long awaited graduate program was created awarding the first masters of science and education in 1948.

This graduate program offering over 40 courses as well as a major reorganization of the old divisional model of campus, led to a slew of organizational recognitions over the next decade.

Another momentous event happened in 1954 with the Supreme court in deliberating brown versus the board of education, determining that the separate but equal doctrine was unconstitutional.

This enabled African-American and other students of color to attend the college for the first time in its history.

- Everything was low key.

There was not any type of protests or some of the ugliness that we see in images from other campuses where people were taunted or mistreated.

Walking across the courtyard, perhaps people may have made remarks.

But overall they found the campus to be welcoming given the conditions.

So those, because they're first in the few, when you have to understand the first in the few are gonna be the best and the brightest and the most perfect, because that was a part of the NAACP strategy.

So it's going to become very difficult if you will, to, I guess, dismiss their presence.

- When the brown versus board of education decision came down, the university was very quick, like almost immediately to support that.

Unfortunately, requirements for entry were made a little tougher.

That really made it hard for like inner city schools, just as the problems are today, they were there in the '50s.

It really made it hard for inner city schools to compete.

And it really made it hard for the students themselves to get into the school.

So it really wasn't until the 1980s that you see just an explosion of African-Americans and people of color on campus.

- [Narrator] Along with growth and course offerings, came evolutions in student life.

Greek life, which had dwindled significantly during the war became a major force in student activities with our allure of brother and sisterhood.

This decade of growth and expansion was rewarding to not just the students and faculty, but to their leader president Diemer.

He had led the school through these good times, and shepherd it through some of the most difficult times.

And now with his work completed, he retired from the institution in 1956.

Succeeding president Diemer was Warren C. Lovinger.

At the time, president Lovinger was presiding over the Teachers College of Aberdeen in South Dakota.

He and his wife were invited to tour the campus and fell in love at first sight.

President Lovinger became the driving force of one of the most significant periods of expansion at the college.

- President Lovinger has a very mixed legacy.

He oversaw probably the greatest expansion of buildings built during his tenure.

But he also oversaw a very difficult time with many of the civil rights movements kicking off and the Vietnam war protests happening.

And he really censored things on campus.

So the student governing board, they were censored very heavily.

They were made to have only the same, like voices in, the student newspaper was censored incredibly heavily.

And anyone who spoke against that censorship, if they were a student, they faced potential expulsion.

- The interesting thing about president Lovinger when he became president, the idea of what institutions and colleges were, and we were at college at the time, it was very much a parental in nature.

So the institution and therefore the faculty served more as your parent and told you when you would do things, how you would do things, where you would do things, what time you were going to bed, those sorts of things.

And so realistically, when he became president that's what was anticipated as an institution.

It was actually during his tenure, that that society began to shift on that and became much more the institution isn't my parent.

You can't actually dictate what my lifestyle is or what my life is going to be.

And so we saw that through the late '60s and into the '70s.

I did have an opportunity to read president Lovinger's inauguration speech for when he became president and was installed.

And I will tell you that he did very much have a vision for this institution and he saw the growth coming.

- There was always, and I say always, but I said the majority of institutions in the midst of the expansion and the post GI Bill or the GI bill generation of expansion for higher Ed that had a Warren Lovinger.

Somebody who had the opportunity to build 23 buildings on a college campus, I mean, and do it with the architectural integrity that Dr. Lovinger did for the Warrensburg campus making it, really one of those beautiful campus facilities.

I appreciated what it meant to build an institution with the bones that were built under Dr. Lovinger's tenure.

- [Narrator] This time also saw the acquisition of one of the most notable areas of campus, Pertle Springs.

With the addition of the Keth Memorial Golf Course, the former health spa became a recreational park for students, as well as an educational center for science field work in the areas of archeology and biology.

- Pertle Springs was a fantastic addition to the university.

It had already been a area of like leisure and relaxation for the students anyway.

Like there were students going back to the turn of the century that talked about ice skating there during the winter and fishing in the spring and summer.

And so for it to finally actually be a part of the university itself was really great.

That's when the like the pool was built and the golf course was later added.

And so it became just a really great part of the university.

- [Narrator] The 1960s saw a decade of great change in the nation with the election and assassination of President John Kennedy.

The escalation of both the cold war and the war in Vietnam and the coming of age of the largest generation in American history, the baby boomers.

At the conclusion of the second World War, many soldiers returned to build homes and start families.

This led to the single largest baby boom in the nation's history.

And this generation went to college in numbers never seen before.

Central Missouri State College saw such a growth in its student body, that it had to add new residence halls to house them all.

Including Hudson, Foster, Knox, Nickerson, Nattinger, Bradshaw and the Ellis Complex.

Another significant addition during this time was that of Skyhaven Airport.

Donated to the university by a local businessman, Max Swisher in 1966.

- Campus changed during the 1960s a lot.

We had many new buildings built.

What is now the Humphreys building used to be two buildings.

And it was the training school on one side and the science building on the other, but the science building was way too small.

So a new science building, the third science building, the Morris building was built.

And then a connection was built between the Humphreys and the old Morris.

And then Humphreys was just given to the entire name.

So almost every building we have today on campus just came from the 1960s, for the most part.

Some were built in the '40s and '50s and somewhere a little later.

But the greater array of buildings we have is really from the '60s.

- [Narrator] As the campus and student body grew, but also grew in diversity of both individuals and viewpoints, the world was changing and the college was changing too.

The '60s are considered one of the most tumultuous times in U.S. history and at the university.

The war in Vietnam loomed over the country and the university.

Much like president Hendricks during the first World War, president Lovinger could be considered a war hawk.

- President Lovinger believed that the Vietnam war should be supported.

And so he believed that everyone who was not in support of the war didn't necessarily need a place the university.

So when there were anti-war protests, he would have private eyes in civilian clothes mingling with everybody and taking secret pictures.

And then he would go through those pictures and see who possibly needed to be expelled or let go.

- President Lovinger was far to the right.

Our assembly, he used to call the assemblies and he would have military guys come and speak to us.

And that wasn't just part of my makeup, but it was required that you be there.

So that was a challenge, understanding the rigidness, but that wasn't because I was black, that was just the way it was for everyone here.

- [Narrator] This time on campus saw a notable crackdown on the student body by president Lovinger.

The civil unrest in the nation was mirrored on campus with students protesting for civil rights, women's rights and against the war in Vietnam.

- President Lovinger came down pretty hard on the students and faculty that protested when there was a Black Panther Chapter from Kansas City that came onto campus.

Anyone that went to that faced disciplinary action.

And some of the people that helped get that chapter to come to campus were actually expelled.

Faculty that sided with the students were, their positions were frozen, they didn't get the raises they deserved and some were let go.

It was really just a tough time on campus.

- [Narrator] 1969 to 1971 saw the greatest number of protests with most directed to the civil rights movement.

In 1969, the Kansas City Black Panthers came to hold a meeting with the students of the union.

This meeting ultimately led to the expulsion of three African-American students.

- The idea that racially, that we could compartmentalize people and press them down and assign roles to them and limits thing, that was breaking down.

The country was in a transition.

And those who were intelligent and sensitive and contemplated, they could see this.

And that we had to find a new way to do things.

- We started the Association of Black Collegians so that we could speak to the issues of the black students on campus.

We wanted to be heard.

We wanted not only to listen to the military, but to listen to other voices also.

And that's the reason that we invited the Black Panther party down.

We had gone through the channels, we had the authorization to do it, had the room.

And then at the last minute they told us, no, they can't come.

And so we were just like in a, between a rock and a hard place, what do we do?

They're on the way.

- Yeah, they made the decision, "We're gonna come anyway."

Once it was communicated to them that they couldn't.

- When we were told that we didn't have a room, they were coming.

And so the decision was made, well, we can go into the cafeteria and the student union.

Not a public place, but a place where everyone could gather.

And they came down, they had a record player with them and they put on a record.

Malcolm X's "Ballots or Bullets" - BBLP.

- Yeah, big 33.

And that's what, that was their presentation.

But anyway, during this time we were in, it must've been probably 150, 200 students.

And it was some whites in there too in the cafeteria.

And the announcement comes over, clear out, clear out of the union, the union is closed.

So I walked out and it was still bowling going on, still pool being played, cards being played.

There was activities going on in the union.

So I'd go back in and I said, "The union's not closed, everybody else is out there.

"Finish what you're doing guys."

And they finished, and when we walked out, my recollection is that we had to walk through a gauntlet of sheriffs, police.

And the thing that really, really got me was some of this, I was a law enforcement major along with sociology, I had to do a major.

Some of my fellow students in the law enforcement section had been deputized and they were bearing guns also.

They had guns also, and to walk through that was like an eye-opener for me.

So we walked through and, me, you and Sentwali, we went back to my apartment I think afterwards.

We left the union, went straight back to our, my apartment and we were talking about it.

And I think it was either late that night or the next morning that we realized that some of the other students had thrown bricks and broken windows at the union.

But we were not at the union when that occurred.

- Well, my recollection is that the amount of damage that yes, it was reported that somebody had thrown a brick, but it wasn't as though people were throwing bricks.

There was a window that was cracked.

One of the side panel windows at the student union was cracked.

And there was a, I remember they kept repeating, there was a chair in the student union that was broken.

Well, this was the extent of the "Riot" that took place at Central Missouri State.

- [Narrator] The school's administration identified, Kamau, Burnele and their classmate Sentwali, as the ringleaders and they were promptly expelled.

This expulsion was later corrected in 2017 when Dr. Chuck Ambrose awarded the three students degrees from the University of Central Missouri.

- That expulsion could have meant the end of their careers.

Even, they talk about the shame that they felt and that their families felt of being expelled.

Because the idea is to go on and to do exceptional things.

Hillary Clinton gets the credit for, it takes a village, but that is an African proverb.

And that is definitely a part of African-American culture.

That is why African-Americans celebrate the way that they do at graduations, much to the chagrin of many people.

But it takes a village, it takes a village.

That when one person in that family makes it, that entire family is really uplifted and what it has taken to get that one person through.

- [Narrator] Events like these led to the class of 1970 gifting six metallic plates inscribed with the bill of rights to the university, attached to the base of the flagpole in the quad.

These serve as a monument to American freedom.

The beginning of the 1970s brought another name change to the school, replacing the word college with university.

The school would go forth as Central Missouri State University.

This decade proved to be less tumultuous than the last, but the frenetic pace of growth for the campus didn't slow.

- The '70s is really when a lot of the women's sports on campus that didn't, that had been a part of campus history since 1903 with the first girls basketball team, finally got the recognition they deserved and were finally made official teams and sports of the university.

So similarly to the Mascot competition, another competition was held to find a mascot for the Jennies and alumni, Cynthia Almaguer.

She won that and when it was first proposed, it had a cute little bow coming off the back.

But now it's just the same as the fighting Neal that we have.

- [Narrator] Originally founded as a teacher's College, events over the years had changed the direction of the university significantly.

While education was a major focus of the school, it had expanded in other areas so much that it was not its primary focus.

As such, a difficult decision came when College High renamed University High was shut down after graduating its final class in 1976.

University elementary closed shortly after.

Ending nearly a century of K through 12 education on campus.

- The day the announcement was made we were all called into an assembly, an all school assembly.

and Dean LeRoy Barrows, who was, oversaw of the college of education at that time, came in and made the announcement.

And I just remember a lot of tears, not only from the seat graduating class.

Kind of felt like a part of them was going away.

But the students who had gone through one, two, three, three years of study there, and weren't going to be able to finish their degree there.

And that was something that was very special to them.

- Student population had been kind of dwindling for Central Elementary and University High towards the 1970s in general.

There were just more students who were going to the Warrensburg school district or the other surrounding school districts simply because alumni of the university and the education program were teaching there.

And so they were gravitating more towards the public school district.

And it really just caused the laboratory schools to not be able to function as well, simply because they just had such a low number of students.

So they finally just closed.

- University High was a wonderful school.

And I'm very fortunate to have been able to attend there.

I started in 1972 and I graduated in 1976.

I was in the last class to graduate.

The experience of being on a college campus and being in high school and also attending high school was very unique.

For me it made the transition from high school to college an easy one.

Because I was already familiar with the university.

And I knew some of the teachers I had in my classes were part of the university.

And as I went to, as I graduated, I didn't even think about wanting to go somewhere else.

- [Narrator] After 23 years of service to the university, president Warren Lovinger retired.

His successor would be James M. Horner.

President Horner came to CMSU from Illinois State University, where he served as vice president and provost.

President Horner continued Lovinger's campus expansion and administrative restructuring, including appointing the university's first provost.

After nearly 40 years of unfettered growth, the university began to experience a retraction in student enrollment and retention.

This combined with reductions of state funding for higher education, led to difficult times for the university.

President Horner did what he could to keep tuition low and engage the students.

However, he was an educator at heart who missed teaching.

1984, brought a major accomplishment for university athletics in the form of not one, but two NCAA division two championship wins for the men's and women's basketball teams.

Showcasing the strength of the university athletic department, this is the only time the same institution won both honors in the same year.

- After the Mules had won their game, I came back up and the Jennies were playing Virginia Union.

And Virginia Union was obviously a very good team, but I came back up after the press conferences.

So we were up by 27 points.

I think they got so much momentum from seeing the Mules win, they came on the floor and they won, they ended up winning 80 to 73, but they led the whole way.

So within about five hours, we won two national championships.

After the game, in 1984, I'm 35 years old.

And a gentleman by the name of Lee Williams from out in the Springfield, who was the executive director of the basketball hall of fame.

Came up to me on the court, shook my hand, congratulated me and he said, "Jerry, I wanna tell you."

He said, "That's a great accomplishment "and that will never happen again."

And I thought, well, maybe, young, I thought maybe that would happen again.

But then he was very, very prolific because after that a couple years they separated the men's and women's division two national championships.

So they will never be at the same side again at let alone on the same floor.

- [Narrator] It was during this time that another change in leadership happened.

President Horner departed the university and was replaced by a new leader.

That leader was the charismatic and energetic president of Wayne State University, Ed Elliot.

President Elliott was not a stranger to CMSU, as his wife Sandra graduated from the college in 1961 with the two marrying in the Memorial Chapel.

- My parents moved to Green Valley when I was in the eighth grade.

And his family were residents of that community.

So we met when he was a freshman and I was in the eighth grade.

We went together in high school.

He's a year older, then we didn't go together in college.

And toward the end of my junior year, we started dating again, decided to get married.

And I wanted to be married on campus.

And we were married in what I call the prayer room of the chapel.

So we were married there in 1960.

Oh, it's such a small room.

We only had each of our parents.

I think he had three siblings, I had two.

And we're so glad we got married there.

- [Narrator] President Elliott's tenure marked both the modernization and beautification of campus.

His first order of business was to create a new mission statement and institutional plan that were focused on the growth and expansion of the school.

- We loved the idea of moving back to our home state and to her Alma mater and to an institution that I had grown to love just because of attending events there.

But we knew that there would be some challenges.

One of the things that I found during that interview process was that there just were literally hundreds of very talented people who had retired and remained in the community or around the community who were being untapped, retired faculty members.

And so I said to Sandra, one of the things that we're gonna do, the one of the first things is create an Emiriti Association and get those faculty members back officially engaged with the institution.

And we knew that because of the declining student enrollment at the time that we were interviewed, they were going through a retrenchment process.

And I said to the interview committee, and I said to the board, I don't believe in doing that to an institution that is as comprehensive as this institution is.

And that is in the geographic location, such as CMS is.

And so we made sure that we had a marketing program in place, did lots of television spots at area stations.

We had students performing in area high schools as an outreach program.

But we stuck with it and put the plans into effect and had a very supportive board of trustees then.

And a faculty and a student body and an alumni base, and a community of Warrensburg, all of whom were eager to make sure that Central crank things up and made things happen.

- [Narrator] President and Mrs. Elliot were stocked supporters of arts on campus.

During his tenure as part of the campus beautification project, Dr. Elliott oversaw the installation of many art pieces and monuments across campus, as well as the creation and expansion of performing arts programs on campus.

- Art in and of itself is a universal language.

It's a means to communicate universally.

I don't care whether you're looking at art in Italy or Denmark or Tanzania or Warrensburg, Missouri.

There is a universal beauty and language about all forms of art.

And that's not my idea, that's the idea that we picked up from our art department at Wayne State.

And we wanted to make sure that to the extent that we were able, that we would transmit that and incorporate that into the activities at Central Missouri.

- [Narrator] Mirroring the early '70s, the early '90s found the university confronting racial issues again.

In the early morning of April 30th, 1992, a fire broke out in Ellis hall damaging the television lounge.

Unfair and prejudice assumptions were made as to who started the fire.

This resulted in demonstrations on campus and in the community.

And after the acquittal of the police officers involved in the Rodney King assault demonstrations on campus and in the community soon followed.

- But it was very unsettling to the African-American community.

And I think anyone who watched it and thought about the way that they beat this man on television.

Because it's always about, do you have the evidence, do you have the proof?

And so now you're telling me my eyes are lying.

Because basically that's what the verdict has said.

"No, you didn't see what you thought you saw."

Also that premise of he deserved it, because if had he done not.

So that's wrapped up in a lot of historical trauma for the African-American community.

And I think the point is, does the punishment fit the crime?

- And so it was midnight.

And we had a yard full of students who were protesting.

Some of them protesting the quality of the food.

Some of them protesting their dislike for a professor, but all of them had something on their mind.

So, much Sandra, Chagrin and much to Chief Jim Huffs, Chagrin and I walked right out in the middle with the group.

- He joined the march.

- Found the leaders and said, "I'm with you, let's go, let's talk."

And we did and lasted most of the rest of the night.

And then the next day I arranged for there to be a rally of all students down in the old stadium.

It wasn't the new stadium at the time.

And we had a good turnout and we had lots of people speaking.

Some of them angry, some of them quite positive.

And the one thing that that specifically derived from those discussions was I created, and it was the first such position around the country, a position called the student advocate.

And that person's responsibility was solely devoted to meeting with diverse groups of people, regardless of race or creed or religious tie.

To meet with them and ask about their needs and how things were going in the classroom and how they were progressing.

And it helped immensely.

And I think the campus was much better forward.

- [Narrator] Despite the difficulties at the beginning of the decade, the campus continued to experience a rejuvenation.

A new football stadium was constructed with a generous donation from Audrey J. Walton and it now bears her name.

- Relatively around 1994, we were having a normal inspection of the stadium that we did.

'Cause you know it was built in the '20s and the engineers were underneath it.

And they literally put a hammer through one of the beams, steel beams that had rusted out so bad.

So the stadium ended up getting condemned.

So we brought a company into, with lumber shore the stadium up, and we had one year, that one more year, we could play it in that condition.

So I was on your station on the sports page, talking about it.

And my mom who lived in Versailles, Missouri and Audrey Walton, who was her best friend were watching the show.

They heard about it the next day, Mrs. Walton called me and said, "Can I contribute to building you a new stadium?"

So that's how it all happened.

She donated the money and we built Walton stadium in '95, opened it in '96.

- [Narrator] Another athletic milestone at this time took place in Montgomery, Alabama.

Where Mules baseball won his first NCAA championship.

- 1994 was our first baseball national championship.

We'd gotten to the regional three or four times there in our career.

And this was our first time making it at the Montgomery, Montgomery Alabama is where the championship was played at that point in time.

And we had a great run through the tournament and beat Florida Southern 14 to nine in a really good baseball game that we blew open in the late endings of the game.

But it was, once again, it was just a Testament to the team and the chemistry of the team.

- [Narrator] The most significant construction project at this time, came in the form of a new campus library.

The Ward Edwards library had expanded multiple times, but the building had reached critical mass and the archival and technological needs of the institution had exceeded its capacity for additional growth.

A new library was constructed on the Southeast side of campus, the James C. Kirkpatrick library.

Named for the long serving Missouri secretary of state and CMSU graduate, opened in 1999.

- Paul Raul was the head librarian at that time.

And he came to me and had a proposal and it was endorsed by, I think most of the students and faculty, certainly associated with the library.

But there's no way to raise money to build a library.

It's hard to get donors to contribute to something like that as meaningful as it is to the campus.

So this was something that Sandra and I stewed about, thought about and the board said, "Well, let's talk about it."

At midnight one night we had gone to bed and I was still, this was early in the discussion about building a new library.

And I said, "Sandra, I know how we can get "the state appropriation that we need "to build this library."

Jimmy Kirkpatrick was alive and well on our campus.

He had an office that was a duplicative to, his secretary of state office down in Jeff City.

And I said, "I'm gonna get the board to name this "before we have a dollar raised for it, "as the James C. Kirkpatrick library."

She said, "I think that's a wonderful idea."

Nobody else thought it was a wonderful idea.

(laughs) But we decided to do it.

Now imagine yourself as a state legislator, Senate or house having the president of Central Missouri State University, come to your office with James C. Kirkpatrick and ask for your support for a library to be named after this gentleman.

Not very many people said no.

And as a result, we got the largest state appropriation in the history of the university, to start the construction of James C. Kirkpatrick.

And there were a lot of legislators that weren't exactly thrilled and happy by what president Elliott did, but you know what?

It worked, it is an absolute gym.

It's the crown jewel of Central Missouri, University of Central Missouri.

- [Narrator] The end of the century and of the millennium brought an end to president Elliot's time at the university.

After 14 years of service and countless accomplishments, he announced his retirement in 1999.

At the beginning of the new century, the university was flourishing.

Since its founding as a small teacher's college, it had grown into a well-regarded regional university.

However, with the retirement of president Elliott, the university needed a new leader.

Dr. Bobby Patton was appointed the 13th president of the university.

- And I was particularly attracted to Central Missouri, actually for a number of reasons.

But number one, the location of it, the size of it, the fact that it was a state university, these were all things in which I had had familiarity and I liked.

But particularly I liked the mission of the university, which was education for service.

And I always thought this was a legitimate, valid reason for education, to provide more people of services.

And so when we have, when we're training police officers, firefighters, teachers, physician assistants, nurses, all of these things, it's a great service to society.

- [Narrator] The future for the university seemed peaceful and prosperous, but even the best laid plans couldn't anticipate the course of the world over the next few years.

The single largest terrorist attack in the U.S. to that day took place on September 11th, 2001.

- And I have to say our community came together so positively.

I didn't have resistance, I didn't have naysayers.

I had a community of my faculty, my staff, and my students who were wanting to do the right thing.

And in that sense, it was a very positive feeling.

For me, it was a reinforcement of the vision that I had for the university.

It showed that we can work together and get things done.

And I think we did.

- [Narrator] Not long after those events, the university faced the most severe budget cuts since the Great Depression.

While the school was not in danger of being eliminated, state funding fell to an all time low.

Requiring president Patton and his administration to make some very hard decisions in order to balance the university's budget.

Despite these budget cuts, programs on campus continued to expand and the campus continued to grow.

In 2002, the Prussing research farm was donated to the university's agriculture program.

And in 2005, the Thrive Program was established to expand opportunities to students with disabilities.

So they could lead a fulfilling college life.

And in 2003, UCM women's bowling became NCAA champions.

- [Dr. Jon] Women's bowling won the national championship in 2003 against Florida State.

We won the first game of the three games set.

And then we dropped the second, but came back to win the third, to win the first national championship for bowling in, that championship was conducted in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

So it was a great achievement for the women's bowling team to win that national championship and put women's bowling at University of Central Missouri on the map.

- [Narrator] 2005, marked the end to president Patton's tenure with the university.

Dr. Aaron Podolefsky, Dean of the college of social and behavioral sciences at the University of Northern Iowa, was named the 14th president of the university.

- Dr. Podolefsky really enjoyed the university experience.

I enjoyed getting out and meeting people across the campus, and being engaged with faculty.

- President Podolefsky really loved teaching.

And so a lot of what he poured money into as the president was educational departments.

And a lot of faculty agreed with that.

Other people, not so much.

But he was a teacher at heart and he knew where the funding needed to go.

And he put the funding where it needed to go.

- [Narrator] In 2006, the university underwent another name change.

Central Missouri State University became the University of Central Missouri.

This name change symbolized the university's transition from a regional state institution to a comprehensive university that was nationally recognized.

- One of the things that Dr. Podolefsky wanted to accomplish while he was here was that he had a vision for the university to become nationally known.

And part of that, included a name that was more appropriate for an institution that we would aspire to be nationally known.

And so that Central Missouri State University was changed to University of Central Missouri.

And I think in the end, he did accomplish his goal, to help make us more nationally known.

As you look into the years that followed, our international enrollment grew inconsiderably.

And just kind of demonstrated that we aren't just as little small little school here in the Midwest, but we're an institution that attracts people from all over the globe.

- [Narrator] Despite his short tenure, Dr. Podolefsky accomplished much at the university.

The largest campus renovation since president Elliott's time was planned with the renovation of the Morrow Garrison building and an initiative to make the campus more environmentally friendly.

Dr. Podolefsky left UCM in 2009 to accept a position as the president of Buffalo State University in New York.

Replacing president Podolefsky would be Dr. Chuck Ambrose, president of Pfeiffer University in North Carolina.

A dynamic and engaged administrator, Dr. Ambrose hit the ground running at UCM by actively reorganizing both the educational and administrative sides of the university.

Many of these changes were aimed at clustering like programs together to foster collaboration for student success.

Coming to campus during the largest global financial crisis, since the great depression, Dr. Ambrose faced a dire financial situation, unlike any other in the last century.

- When I think about my own journey with UCM, we can talk some about the relationships.

But the sequence, right, of 2010 to 2018, I think are quite significant for all of higher education.

And then of course, when you think about the public institutions role and then bring it back to Missouri, I think we were in the crux of just one of those periods that was not only formative, but I think in some ways kind of creates a platform for where colleges and universities are going.

- [Narrator] The university worked hard to create new opportunities for both active duty members of the military and veterans.

Establishing the Student Veterans Organization and the Veterans Success Center in an effort to rethink and reinvigorate education.

The university expanded its presence in the Kansas City area with the Missouri Innovation Campus.

Developing a first of its kind program to transition high school students to higher education success within a shorter than normal time.

This also included bringing on corporations to help guide the students to success in their fields.

- You know UCM had a big imprint on producing graduates and having service to the school districts, a lot of outreach and non-credit support through independence.

And then that shifted to Lee Summit.

And then a real pivotal point in history was Bobby Patton's very strategic enabling of the Summit Center.

Which gave all the opportunity through for UCM to really move forward with expansive growth.

- [Narrator] The program was so innovative that a special guest came to campus to tout it.

In 2013, president Barack Obama visited campus, the first seating president ever to come to the university.

- My favorite memories of that, I'll always take away with, we got a call in the summer, Stan Elliott and I both connected with the office of science and technology in the White House.

And they said, "Hey, we've heard about your program."

And we had several champions within department of that.

And we had worked closely with the Lumina Foundation and Strada and others to plant the seeds of, hey, help us come build something that doesn't exist.

And some really great friends along the way that helped us do that.

And so they said, "Well, we wanna come see your program."

So like any college president, I said, "Hey, absolutely right, come see us and we'll show you."

And said, "Well, let me do some work "and we'll call you back."

And two weeks later, I was sitting in a cabinet meeting with our senior leadership team and got a call from Washington.

And they said, "The White House is calling."

And I said, "Well, I better go take this, right."

And kind of acted as if that happens on a fairly frequent basis, which it never really had before.

But in the midst of reconnecting, they said, "Well, the site visit is gonna be "by a high ranking administration official."

And so they were talking logistics, they were talking dates, they were trying to figure out what it would take.

And about 40 minutes into the conversation I had to, I mean, I'm literally head spinning with questions and curiosity.

So I finally gave in, I said, "Oh, just let me ask, right.

"High ranking administration official, who would that be?"

And they said, "Well, it'll either be vice-president Biden "or president Obama."

And I said, "Yup, got it, that's pretty high ranking."

- It was exciting to have, whether you agree with his politics or not.

It's just exciting, anytime you have a world leader come to your campus and you have tremendous press coverage.

And it was a great opportunity for the university to showcase its facilities and also something that it was doing to make a difference for students.

- But the head of the White House press Corps, there's a 60 foot shot of the president that comes head on.

And then a side shot that has always taken in any presidential visit.

The press are privy to by virtue of the work of how you host a visit.

And if you will remember, the office of communications, strategic communications had put together the visual imagery within the student rec center that the director of the white house press Corps said, undoubtedly, it was the best side shot they had ever seen on a college campus.

And that picture, is undollarble in regards to what it meant for a president of United States to come and talk about a program on your campus better than you can even tell it yourself.

- [Narrator] During this time, both men's and women's basketball once again became national champions.

In 2014, UCM men's basketball took the NCAA Division II championship.

And in 2018, UCM women's basketball took the top spot.

- The Mules won the 24 team national championship in Evansville, Indiana.

They beat West Liberty University out of West Virginia, 84 to 77 in the championship game.

West Liberty was averaging around 100 points a game that year, and the mules held them to 77, which is quite a feat to hold some by about 25 points under their season average.

But we wanted, we were down at halftime, came back won at late, and that was after a really exciting semifinal game against Metropolitan College out of Denver, in which we won by one point on a last second layup to move to the national championship game.

So it was a great accomplishment by Kim Anderson and his team to win that national championship.

The Jennies won their national championship in Sioux falls, South Dakota, 66 to 52 over Ashland University.

The Jennies were big underdogs going into that game.

Ashland University had a 77 game winning streak.

And the Jennies prevailed over them and led the whole game.

And most of the game by 20 points.

And the Ashland coaches and teams just could not figure out what was going on, but the Jennies jumped out early, stayed out the entirety of the game and won the game.

It was a great championship win for Dave Slifer and his team.

- [Narrator] Extending the success of UCM athletics, UCM women's soccer took the national championship in 2017.

And women's indoor and outdoor track won the national championships in 2015.

The following years saw yet another series of budget cuts from the state.

These multiple sustained cuts were cumulatively taking their toll on the institution.

To ensure that the university could balance its budget while still meeting its commitment to students, the campus underwent another major reorganization.

Despite all of this, the university continued thrive and build upon its previous successes.

These successes led to another change in leadership at the university as president Ambrose departed UCM, leaving a legacy of student success and growth.

On November 5th, 2018, the board of governors named Dr. Roger Best, executive vice president and CFO of UCM the 16th president.

President Best had a long history at UCM, starting as a faculty member and rising through the ranks.

This experience made him uniquely suited to handle the challenges and opportunities before the university.

- I came to teach at UCM out of my graduate program at Florida State University.

For some strange reason, I still don't to this day don't know why when I was in my teen years, I had looked at a map and thought that, maybe one day I'd like to live in the state of Missouri.

And I had never actually been to the state of Missouri until I interviewed for the position at, what was then Central Missouri State university as a finance faculty member.

And frankly, I grew up in Georgia, as I mentioned I was at Florida State University for my graduate program and really had no intention to stay.

So I was coming to Missouri for a few years to get a little experience as a faculty member.

And I find my way back to the Southeast, weather was a little bit warmer in the winter time and where all my family, I still reside frankly.

And so after three years at the university, I got an offer from an institution that was in the Southeast.

And I remember sitting in our quad and thinking to myself, why would I leave such a great institution?

And so I just decided to stay and make my career here at the university.

And one thing led to another and I ended up in administrative positions.

And I used to think that was a unique story about this university that, oh, you know, I wasn't planning to stay here, I was only gonna be here for a few years.

And then I was talking to some of my colleagues, they had exactly the same story.

- [Narrator] Facing downward pressure on enrollment and stagnant funding at the state level, president Best approached the work of the presidency in the measured and careful manner for which he's known.

- When you start thinking about their experience while they're here, it's not just about the classroom.

It's not just about what happens when they graduate.

It's what do they do when they're actually here in our environment and experiencing university life.

And so from my perspective, we also do a great job of bringing in that student experience that's beyond the classroom.

- [Narrator] President Best began the process of preparing the university for the future.

Looking to where the institution needs to be, not where it should be.

But no one would be able to protect what would come next as the institution faced one of its greatest challenges ever, a global pandemic that brought the campus together.

And the tradition of tragedies it faced in the past, such as wars, depressions and strife.

- And in terms of the impactful moments that we've had at this institution, certainly we can't leave out pandemic.

We experienced one in the 1918, 1919 timeframe.

And then the modern pandemic, if you wanna call it that of 2020, certainly created a tremendous impact on us as an institution.

And it's easy to think about the negative side of that, but realistically, there was some positive outcomes we saw from the impact of the pandemic and COVID in particular.

Certainly what happened during 2020 is we had to shut down our, all of our face-to-face classes and move to a virtual environment for essentially 100% of our classes and that persisted for half of our spring semester in 2020, as well as all of our summer semester in 2020.

And we were able to use science and medicine to find ways then to re-engage with our students in a face-to-face environment.

But during that critical period of time, which was somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 to 16 weeks, we had to make sure that we were able to deliver on our promise to our students.

Of providing for them a quality education, maintaining all of our support services, but doing so when we didn't have that one key element we were used to, which is being in person.

- [Narrator] In record time, the areas of facilities, technology, health, and student success developed plans to keep the university functioning during these unprecedented times.

Again, the university came together to face an uncertain time and an uncertain future with a single agenda, education for service.

(upbeat music) The University of Central Missouri is not a collection of buildings, books or ideas.

It is more than it's programs, degrees and sports teams.

It is a community and a family that has proven time and again, that as a whole, it is stronger than any one individual.

It brings out the best in all who are a part of it.

And they in turn take that out into the world and make it a better place.

For all that the institution does, it brings people together and encourages people to be everything they can be.

There's no power like it in the world, except for maybe the kick of a Missouri mule.

♪ Central states high is proud and noble ♪ ♪ Serving all who ask ♪ ♪ In the center of our nation ♪ ♪ Joyful in her task ♪ ♪ Red and black her colors fly ♪ ♪ Faith and vision dreams unite ♪ ♪ Leading all who look for truth ♪ ♪ To hold her high on right ♪ ♪ Is our alma mater into central state ♪ - [Narrator Two] Support for Mule Tracks, UCM after 150 years was made possible by the following: the Warrensburg Convention and Visitors Bureau is proud to support this program.

You can learn more about UCMS home community at visitwarrensburg.com.

Central Bank of Warrensburg, serving Warrensburg, Higginsville, Holden and Odessa.

Central Bank of Warrensburg is proud to support this program on KMOS-TV.

And viewers like you, thank you.