Wichita State University history

The school's mascot, the "wheatshockers," came about during a football game in 1906 and referred to the fact that many of the football players also shocked wheat during the harvest.

Fairmount College's Carnegie Morrison Library built in 1907.

During the fall of 1926, the school saw its first official semester under its new name and ownership.

The school had always placed a strong focus on music, and in 1944, a group of representatives from Wichita University and alumni Robert and Myrabel Hollowell gathered and formed the Wichita Symphony Orchestra.

In 1954, a cheerleader by the name of Dave Johnson developed the first costume for the new mascot.

Two Wichita State students, brothers Dan and Frank Carney, started the Pizza Hut business in 1958.

Wichita State University students passed a referendum that authorized half the cost of Cessna Stadium in 1968 and it was built shortly thereafter.

In April 1974 Rader targeted a 21-year-old woman who was another Coleman employee.

The Shocker women's bowling team won the national title in 1975, beginning a tradition of outstanding achievement for both men and women in the sport.

Following the death of his next victim in December 1977, Rader grew irritated by the lack of media coverage.

Baseball returned to intercollegiate sports in 1978, and four years later the Shockers finished second in the College World Series.

Rader then waited eight years before murdering a neighbour in her home in 1985; he reportedly later took her body to his church, where he photographed her in bondage.

They went on to win the national championship in 1989.

During this time he began working for ADT, a home-security company, and in 1991 he became a compliance officer in Park City, Kansas.

In 1996, Wichita State's Centennial Year, Professor Emeritus and Centennial Coordinator George M. Platt presented a new lamp to Dean David C. Glenn-Lewin during the spring commencement ceremony.

In 2004, on the 30th anniversary of Rader’s first murders, a local paper ran a feature in which it speculated that the killer had either died or been imprisoned.