University of North Texas history

The first building on campus was the Normal Building, completed in 1891 at Hickory and Avenue B, where a fence kept out straying livestock.

Chilton resigned in September 1893 because of health problems and died the following February.

In 1899 the state took control of the school and changed its name to North Texas State Normal College.

The private college reached an important milestone when it became state-funded in 1901.

The first library opened in 1913, the year enrollment broke 1,000 and sports officially began.

In 1917, the state adopted standard regulations for all normal schools: a student must be 16 years old or over; a first year student must have completed seven "admission units," one or two in algebra, two in grammar and composition, one or two in history and enough electives to make seven units.

Graduate degrees were first awarded in 1935.

However, the college should not furnish auxiliary water to self-supporting dormitories, the ruling said.The issue was settled, according to an article in the January 22, 1946, Denton Record-Chronicle.

But not for long.In March 1947, Denton Mayor J.L. Yarbrough notified the city commission that it "was imperative and a public necessity " that the two state schools in Denton pay their water bills.

The bill passed.In May 1949, the Denton City Attorney notified college officials that the city would bill North Texas for water at commercial rates.

Bill Mercer, the voice of North Texas for nearly 50 years, was emcee. It was another ten years before the Southwest Conference had integrated football teams.Every athlete at the Saturday celebration owes a bit of his or her success to those first two African American players and the coaches, the 1956 teams and the school that made it happen.

The ’60s began with one of the biggest moments in the history of the college as it became a university in 1961.

UNT had awards for every African American athlete who broke racial barriers in every sport and the women who broke both racial and gender barriers after another far-reaching ruling in 1972 that prohibited discrimination against women in athletics.

King became an educator and earned his Ph.D in education at North Texas.Ronald Marcello, associate history professor at North Texas and director of the oral history collection, studied the integration of North Texas for an article that he wrote in 1987 for the Journal of Sport History.

UNT began a yearlong celebration of its Centennial in 1990, and the 15-foot Eagle statue, “In High Places,” was installed near the Union in honor of the occasion.