University of Missouri System history

The University of Missouri was founded in 1839 in Columbia. It became a land-grant university after passage of the Morrill Act of 1862.

One of the starkest events in MU’s history is the burning of Academic Hall on January 9, 1892.

Following the tragedy, Missouri governor David R. Francis oversaw the rebuilding of the university, including Academic Hall’s replacement, Jesse Hall, in 1895.

Progressive educator Junius L. Meriam established an experimental elementary school there in 1904.

The Missouri School of Journalism was founded in 1908 and remains one of the most prestigious of its kind.

In 1911, athletic director Chester Brewer asked alumni to come “home” for the Tigers’ football game against the rival Kansas Jayhawks.

Erected in 1913, it houses much of MU’s massive collection, the largest in the state.

Early curricula were focused on the state's mining industry and its immediate technological needs, but, by the end of the 1920's, courses of study included mining, civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering and chemistry, metallurgy, mathematics, physics, and geology.

Walton graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in economics (1940) and entered a J.C. Penney Company management training program in Des Moines, Iowa.

He opened his own Ben Franklin variety (five-and-dime) store in Newport, Arkansas, in 1945 and relocated the store to Bentonville, Arkansas, five years later.

Graduate education and research began to assume greater emphasis on the campus during the 1950's, resulting from the nation's emerging from the Second World War as the economic and scientific leader of the free world.

The flagship facility for MU Health Care and the MU School of Medicine, the University of Missouri hospital opened on September 16, 1956.

The UM System was created in 1963 when the University of Kansas City, which had been a private institution, was acquired and renamed University of Missouri-Kansas City.

In 1964, recognizing its expanded nature and role, the name of the institution was changed to the University of Missouri at Rolla, soon to be altered to University of Missouri-Rolla.

Across from the hospitals on Stadium Boulevard, Missouri’s basketball program got a new home when the Hearnes Center was built in 1972.

Truman, the lovable tail-swinging tiger, was first introduced in 1986, becoming the school’s beloved mascot.

He stepped down as chief executive officer in 1988 but remained company chairman.

By 1990 Wal-Mart Stores had passed Sears, Roebuck and Company to become the largest retailer in the United States.

By the time of his death in 1992, his company had established 1,735 Wal-Marts, 212 Sam’s Clubs, and 13 Supercenters with a total of 380,000 employees and annual sales of almost $50 billion.

In April 2003, Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville approached the UM System with the possibility of becoming the fifth school in the system.

The arena is still used by the wrestling and volleyball teams as well as the school’s gymnastics and indoor track and field teams, though the basketball team moved to Mizzou Arena in 2004.

Effective January 1, 2008, UM–Rolla became the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Between Fiscal Year 2009 and FY14, the university attracted more than $1.1 billion in research, funded primarily from outside the state but spent within the state.

The move from the Big 12 Conference to the SEC in 2011 was the biggest leap for the MU athletics department in many decades.

Please note, this project was completed in 2013 and is no longer maintained.