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University of Southern California history
University of Southern California company history timeline
1880 - University was founded and cornerstone of first building laid, September 4.
1880: Marion McKinley Bovard is named the university’s first president, concurrently serving as professor of mental and moral philosophy and natural sciences.
Their vision materialized in 1880, when the University of Southern California formally opened, with 53 students and 10 faculty.
1881 - Active public relations campaign launched.
1881: USC’s first dormitory, Hodge Hall, is opened.
1884 - First graduation ceremony-three graduates.
In 1884, USC started a school of music and began its first graduating class with two males and a female.
Originally operated in affiliation with the Methodist Church, the school mandated from the start that "no student would be denied admission because of race". The university is no longer affiliated with any church, having severed formal ties in 1952. Its first graduating class in 1884 was a class of three—two males and female valedictorian Minnie C. Miltimore.
1885 - First alumni association organized with eight members.
1885: USC receives a gift to create its first endowed faculty position, the John R. Tansey Chair in Christian Ethics.
1885: USC’s College of Medicine, the first in Southern California, is established.
1888: USC plays its first football game and trounces the opponent 16–0.
1892 - Joseph P. Widney elected second president.
1892: USC’s first student newspaper, a four-page weekly called The University Rostrum, appears.
1895 - Founders Building completed at cost of $20,000.
1896: USC’s law school begins when a group of apprentices form a voluntary association to study under a prominent attorney.
1903 - George Finley Bovard became fourth president.
1904: USC’s first Olympic athlete, Emil Breitkreutz ’06, brings home a bronze medal for the 800 meters.
1905: The USC School of Pharmacy opens, as the first in Southern California.
1906 - First big intercollegiate football game-Occidental 22, USC 0.
1908 - Several student publications started.
1909: USC’s Department of Education opens, to attain full school status nine years later.
1910 - Owen R. Bird, Sports Editor of the Los Angeles Times, first referred to USC athletes as "Trojans". Summer session started.
1911: President William Howard Taft visits the USC campus.
1912: The university announces a groundbreaking course in automotive science, the first of its kind in the world.
1912: Freshman Fred Kelly ’16 becomes USC’s first Olympic gold medalist.
Until 1912, USC students (especially athletes) were known as Fighting Methodists or Wesleyans, though neither name was approved by the university.
1914: A group of international students founds the USC Cosmopolitan Club to “promote friendship” among students from Asia, Latin America and Europe.
1915: Emory Bogardus, later famed for research on immigration, race, and ethnicity, founds the USC sociology department. +
1916 - Purchase of additional land required for expansion of campus.
After his arrival in 1917, philosopher Ralph Tyler Flewelling established USC as a bastion of personalism.
1919 - Bovard Administration Building completed.
A program in Architecture, the first program of its kind in Southern California, started in 1919.
1920: The USC School of Social Work is started by Emory Bogardus.
During the summer of 1920, Harold K. Needham, D. W. Kerr, and W. C. Peirce opened a school to prepare Christian workers for the various ministries of the church.
1921: Rufus B. von KleinSmid becomes USC’s fifth president.
1922: USC dental student Milo Sweet composes the music for USC’s official fight song, “Fight On,” as an entry in a Trojan Spirit contest.
1923 - Bookstore opened.
The first doctoral degree was awarded in 1923.
1924 - First alumni homecoming.
The USC College of Engineering is formed.1924: USC establishes the country’s first school of international relations.
Founded as a private co-educational university under the sponsorship of the Methodist Conference of Southern California, USC has been officially non-sectarian since 1926, when the Church withdrew to organize independently one of its national seminaries.
1927: USC confers its first Ph.D. to David Welty Lefever in the School of Education.
1929 - Seeley Wintersmith Mudd Memorial Hall of Philosophy completed.
1930: With more than 700 foreign students (10 percent of the student body), USC ranks third in the United States in international enrollment.
In 1930, the Trojan Shrine was unveiled during its 50th anniversary celebration.
1934: USC debuts its “University of the Air,” an educational outreach program broadcast on radio.
1935: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt visits the USC campus and receives an honorary doctor of laws degree.
1937 - Hancock Foundation started.
1937: Gil Kuhn becomes the first Trojan football player to be drafted into the pros.
1939: USC’s Elizabeth Holmes Fisher Gallery (now called the USC Fisher Museum of Art) is dedicated.
In 1939 it was chartered by the State of California as a college eligible to grant degrees, and it became Southern California Bible College-the first four-year institution of the Assemblies of God.
1941 - Allan Hancock Foundation building completed.
1941: The tradition of passing the bell between rival schools is established. +
1942: USC’s Department of Occupational Therapy opens as one of the first programs of its kind in the country.
1945: USC establishes biokinesiology and physical therapy departments (now merged into the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy).
1947: A feisty stray dog, nicknamed George Tirebiter, is adopted as USC’s official student body mascot.
1947: Fred D. Fagg Jr. becomes USC’s sixth president.
1950: USC English professor and distance-learning pioneer Frank Baxter is named by Life magazine as one of America’s eight finest college professors.
1951 - Organic Chemistry wing completed.
1952 - Medical Campus near Los Angeles County Hospital purchased and Raulston Medical Research Building completed.
1952: USC launches the first doctoral program in social work in the western United States.
1952: USC’s Institute for Safety and Systems Management begins offering degree programs in safety, human factors and systems management.
Originally operated in affiliation with the Methodist Church, the school mandated from the start that "no student would be denied admission because of race". The university is no longer affiliated with any church, having severed formal ties in 1952.
1954: For the first time, a white steed makes an appearance at a Trojan football game, with rider Art Gontier.
1957: USC's tradition of on-campus pre-game picnics begins.
1958: Doctor Norman Topping becomes USC’s seventh president.
1959 - Planning Commission established to determine future academic and physical goals of the University.
1959: The USC Associates, the university’s premier academic support group, is founded.
1961 - Master Plan for Enterprise and Excellence in Education, the report of the work of the Planning Commission, announced May 17.
1961: On May 17, President Topping announces the “Master Plan for Enterprise and Excellence in Education.” +
Architect Konrad Wachsmann joined the faculty in 1963 and initiated a doctoral program in building science.
1965: The USC School of Dentistry founds its mobile dental clinic, now the oldest and most extensive self-contained facility of its kind.
1966: The Gamble House is deeded to the City of Pasadena in a joint agreement with the USC School of Architecture.
Will Ferrell was born in Irvine, California, on July 16, 1967.
1968: USC launches “The Urban Semester,” a program that sends students out of the classroom and laboratory and into the city streets and halls of power.
1970: The USC student body votes to assess itself a fee for a student-sponsored scholarship fund, which becomes known as the Norman Topping Student Aid Fund.
1971: USC creates the Department of Emergency Medicine — the country’s first.
1972: The USC Joint Educational Project (JEP) — one of the oldest service-learning programs in the United States — is launched.
1974: The USC School of Urban and Regional Planning is founded.
1974: Dedeaux Field opens its gates, and USC’s baseball team wins its fifth straight NCAA title — to date still an unmatched record.
1975: The USC Davis School of Gerontology is founded, the first of its kind in the country.
1976: Gerald R. Ford, 38th president of the United States, makes a campaign visit to USC.+1976: USC’s Black Alumni Association is founded.1976: USC launches its “Toward Century II” fundraising campaign, which will bring in over $309 million in five years.
1977: United States President Ford sends USC President Hubbard an autographed $10 bill to satisfy their wager on the Rose Bowl game in which USC defeated Michigan.
1979: Fleetwood Mac invites the Trojan Marching Band to perform on the title song for the album “Tusk,” which becomes the band’s first platinum album. +
1980: USC celebrates its centennial, and James H. Zumberge becomes the university’s ninth president.
1981: USC's Doheny Memorial Library celebrates the acquisition of its 2 millionth volume.
1982: USC inaugurates the annual Academic Honors Convocation to “honor the excellence that is in our midst.”
1982: USC’s pathbreaking NIBS program (Neurological, Informational and Behavioral Sciences) begins training graduate students.
1983: McDonald’s Olympic Swim Stadium opens on the University Park campus.
1984: United States President Ronald Reagan visits USC before officially opening the Olympic Games.
1984: The XXIIIrd Olympiad comes to Los Angeles, and University Park campus is the site of the largest Olympic Village.
1986: The university assumes stewardship of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Freeman House in the Hollywood Hills.
1986: USC launches the Freshman Seminars, which address broad topics in contemporary research and scholarship.
1987: With the opening of a Carl’s Jr. restaurant on campus, USC becomes the first United States institution of higher education to own and operate a fast-food franchise.
1988: USC launches the Center for Scholarly Technology and the Institute for Molecular Medicine. +
1989: The Trojans’ new bookstore debuts, with one of the largest collections of trade journals and texts in Los Angeles.
1989: USC becomes the first university in the world to offer a doctorate in occupational science.
1990: President James H. Zumberge announces that “The Campaign for USC” has raised $641.6 million and added more than a dozen new buildings.
1991: Steven B. Sample becomes USC’s tenth president.
1993: USC launches the eight-year Baccalaureate/M.D. Program, a partnership between the college and the medical school.
1994: USC Professor George Olah wins the Nobel Prize in chemistry.
A Degree Completion Program was started in 1994 for adult learners.
1995: USC launches Friends and Neighbors Service Day, an annual “volunteer blitz” that teams students and community residents to clean up local neighborhoods.
After a year of training with the Los Angeles improv comedy group the Groundlings, he became a member of the company, and in 1995 he was invited to join the television sketch show Saturday Night Live (SNL).
1997: For the 1997-98 academic year, USC for the first time in its history accepts fewer than half of the students who apply as new freshmen.
1998: The schools of public administration and urban planning merge to form the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development.
1998: Alfred Mann gives $112.5 million to establish the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at USC.
On July 1, 1999 university status was achieved when Southern California College registered with the Secretary of State's Office as Vanguard University of Southern California and offers undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as several certificate programs.
1999: USC announces its distinctive Renaissance Scholars program. +
1999: In appreciation for a $110 million gift, USC's medical school is renamed the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
2000: USC launches the Institute for Creative Technologies, a partnership between the university, the United States Army and the entertainment industry. +
2001: USC sponsors its first international conference, convened in Hong Kong.
2001: USC’s Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts opens as the country’s first and only fully digital filmmaking training facility.
2002: At the close of the “Building on Excellence” campaign, USC has raised $2.85 billion in nine years, a record in higher education fundraising.
2003: The United States Department of Homeland Security selects USC as its first Homeland Security Center of Excellence.
2005: The Princeton Review selects USC as one of 81 “Colleges with a Conscience” based on its outstanding record of community involvement.
2006: The university announces the creation of the USC United States-China Institute. +
In 2006 Ferrell and McKay launched Gary Sanchez Productions.
2007: The USC Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics is created, engaging students with the humanities and a particular focus on ethics and values.
2008: USC is ranked highly in the first national “Great Colleges to Work For” poll by The Chronicle of Higher Education. +
2009: USC's ICT and School of Social Work launch a military social work and veteran services program, the first of its kind at a research university. +
2009: USC ranks number one on the list “Saviors of Our Cities: A Survey of Best College and University Civic Partnerships," and scores highly on others. +
In 2009 Ferrell made his Broadway debut in the one-man play You’re Welcome America.
2010: The Institute of International Education’s annual Open Doors report names USC the country’s leader in international student enrollment for the ninth year in a row.
2011: USC receives $200 million - the largest single gift in its history to date - from Dana and David Dornsife.
2011: Elizabeth Garrett is installed as USC's first female provost.
2011: University Professor and historian Kevin Starr is inducted into the California Hall of Fame.
2012: In 2012, the university added its sixth arts school—The USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance.
2013: Keck Medicine physicians become the first to implant the FDA-approved epilepsy-controlling device, the NeuroPace RNS.
2013: Campus health gets an upgrade as the five-story, 101,000-square-foot USC Engemann Student Health Center opens. +
On May 1, 2014, USC was named as one of many higher-education institutions under investigation by the Office of Civil Rights for potential Title IX violations by Barack Obama's White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault.
Ferrell voiced a tyrannical businessman in The LEGO Movie (2014), a computer-animated film that used renderings of plastic LEGO toys as the characters and set pieces.
2015: A gift from Rick Caruso founds the USC Tina and Rick Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery to support advanced research for the field.
USC is also under a concurrent Title IX investigation for potential antimale bias in disciplinary proceedings, as well as denial of counseling resources to male students, as of 8 March 2016.
2016: USC's Neighborhood Academic Initiative celebrates 25 years of preparing low-income neighborhood students for admission to a college or university.
2016: For the first time ever, women outnumbered men in USC's graduate video game design program - ranked #1 by Princeton Review for game design.
In Holmes & Watson (2018), Ferrell assumed the role of Sherlock Holmes for the comedic take on Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic tales.
In 2018, Dennis Kelly resigned as men's health physician at USC after almost 20 years.
2019: The Lord Foundation of California, which supports faculty research and teaching at USC, receives $260 million from the sale of LORD Corp.
USC was one of several universities involved in the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal.
2020: President Carol L. Folt announced a major financial aid expansion to benefit low- and middle-income families, extending USC’s long-time commitment to need-based funding by pledging more than $30 million in additional aid annually to expand the current pool. +
In 2020, USC was penalized for its faulty Title IX processes by the United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.
By 2020, 49 accusations of misconduct had been made against Doctor Kelly, all by gay or bisexual students and former students.
2021: USC hires Christopher Manning as its first chief inclusion and diversity officer.
The university extends its fundraising through 2021 to support high ambitions and access for students.
In The Shrink Next Door (2021), a miniseries based on a podcast, Ferrell played an insecure man who becomes a patient of a manipulative psychiatrist (Paul Rudd).
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| Company Name | Founded Date | Revenue | Employee Size | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stanford University | 1885 | $720.0M | 24,916 | 883 |
| Washington State University | 1890 | $110.0M | 1,500 | 151 |
| San Francisco State University | 1899 | $210.0M | 5,946 | 9 |
| Cal Poly | 1940 | $49.9M | 1,000 | 297 |
| Pepperdine University | 1937 | $383.6M | 3,096 | 16 |
| Quincy University | 1860 | $50.0M | 200 | - |
| Occidental College | 1887 | $130.8M | 1,217 | 22 |
| Rivier University | 1933 | $50.0M | 200 | 23 |
| Charleston Southern University | 1964 | $96.4M | 745 | 174 |
| Chapman University | 1861 | $483.1M | 3,588 | 248 |
University of Southern California history FAQs
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