Timeline

WVU Alumni Association founded

Marmaduke Dent serves as the group's first president.

First medical courses

Dr. Hugh W. Brock teaches the University's first medical courses.

Hick House constructed

West Virginia’s first medical school building, the Hick House, is constructed in Falling Run Hollow below Woodburn Hall.

First woman graduates

Harriet Lyon graduates first in her class, becoming the first woman to earn a WVU degree.

First football team

WVU loses 72-0 in its first game against Washington and Jefferson.

Chitwood Hall completed

West Virginia Law Review founded

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences formed

First Agricultural Experiment Farm acquired

Woodburn Hall north wing added

Blanche Lazzell enrolls

Lazzell, a West Virginia native, enters WVU in 1901 to study fine art. She becomes a pioneering early modernist and abstract painter, printmaker and designer known especially for her woodcuts. The WVU Art Collection holds the largest public collection of Lazzell's art.

First library opens

School of Medicine established

Purinton House built

First Rhodes Scholar

Charles Frederick Tucker Brooke is among first group of Rhodes Scholars. Brooke, who graduated from WVU with an A.B. in 1901 and an M.A. in 1902, studies at St. John's as a Rhodes Scholar and earns B.A. and B.Litt. degrees from the University of Oxford in 1906.

Woodburn south wing added

WVU completes construction of Woodburn Hall's south wing. The Seth Thomas clock originally part of Martin Hall is moved to Woodburn.

WVU Extension Service established

School of Pharmacy founded

Enrollment exceeds 1,000

Mining extension established

WVU establishes the nation’s first mining extension program to train coal miners.

First county 4-H camp

In July 1915, Randolph County Extension Agent J. Verus Shipman holds the first county 4-H camp on the Jackson Crouch farm.

Reserve Officer Training Corps organized

Oglebay Hall completed

County 4-H camps expand

Extension holds 17 county 4-H camps throughout West Virginia.

Influenza pandemic

WVU suspends operations temporarily in the fall of 1918 during the influenza pandemic.

Stalnaker Hall opens

Woman's Hall (now Stalnaker Hall) opens as the University's first residence hall.

Old Mountaineer Field completed

Clark Hall completed

College of Education becomes independent

Stansbury Hall completed

Stansbury Hall opens as the WVU Field House, home of the Mountaineer basketball team.

Graduate school established

College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences established

The Athenaeum becomes The Daily Athenaeum

First Mountaineer mascot

Lawson Hill, the first official Mountaineer mascot, appears at sports events.

University High School completed

University High School opens at the top of North Price Street and serves as a "laboratory school" for the College of Education.

First Mountaineer to wear buckskins

Boyd “Slim” Arnold is the first Mountaineer mascot to wear the traditional buckskin uniform.

Reed College of Media established

White Hall opens

Dadisman Hall completed

Known as Terrace Hall, the building serves temporarily as a mess hall for 300 men of the 48th College Training Detachment who are living, training and studying on WVU’s campus during World War II.

Victorine Louistall earns M.Ed.

Victorine Louistall is the first-known black woman to earn a WVU graduate degree. In 1966, she returns to WVU to teach library science, becoming the first-known black faculty member.

Photo courtesy of West Virginia and Regional History Center, WVU Libraries

Core Arboretum established

Don Knotts graduates

Comedian, performer and star of the “Andy Griffith Show,” Don Knotts is still known as one of the greatest TV actors of all time. Born in Morgantown, he attended WVU after returning from the service in World War II.

WVU selected as site of state’s new medical center

College of Business and Economics established

Brooks Hall completed

Hodges Hall completed

WVU Foundation incorporated

John Reuben Sheeler earns Ph.D.

Eiesland Hall completed

Sam Huff graduates

School of Dentistry created

Annette Chandler-Broome graduates

Hot Rod Hundley goes to NBA

Legendary two-time first-team All American Rodney Clark "Hot Rod" Hundley is the first pick in the NBA draft and goes on to play for the Lakers from 1958 to 1963. He graduates from WVU in 2000, 43 years after leaving for the NBA.

Basic Sciences Building completed

Arnold Hall completed

Boreman North completed

University Hospital completed

School of Nursing founded

Arnold Apartments completed

Blaney House acquired

John Russo graduates

Soon after graduating from WVU, Russo co-authors the 1968 film “Night of the Living Dead." His brilliant — and perhaps twisted — imagination laid the foundation for some of our most iconic horror films. He's written, produced or directed more than 20 films and authored more than 20 books.

Parkersburg Center established

Parkersburg Center, first community college in West Virginia, established.

First M.D. degrees awarded

Charles M. Vest graduates

Vest graduates with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. He goes on to serve as the president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1990 to 2004.

First computer installed

WVU Press established

First two Towers open

Percival Hall erected

College of Education and Human Services organized

Voluntary giving tops $1 million for the first time

100th birthday

Jay Chattaway graduates

Chattaway earns a bachelor's degree from the School of Music. He goes on to get a master's degree from WVU and compose scores for the Star Trek television series.

Raymond J. Lane graduates

Stephen Coonts graduates

Allen Hall completed

Henry Louis Gates Jr. graduates from Potomac State College

PRT construction begins

Marching band becomes co-ed

Dress codes and curfews for female students abolished

Proposal for women’s intercollegiate athletic teams approved

Law Center completed

John T. Chambers graduates from College of Law

After completing a bachelor's degree in economics from the College of Business and Economics, Chambers graduates with a law degree and goes on to serve CEO and executive chair of Cisco Systems.

Natatorium opens

Knapp Hall acquired

Charleston Division of Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center dedicated

Last game at old football stadium (WVU vs. Pitt)

Irene Keeley graduates from College of Law

In 1992, Keeley becomes the first female federal judge in West Virginia when President George H.W. Bush appoints her U.S. District Judge for the Northern District.

New Mountaineer Field opens

Mountaineer Field opens and John Denver sings “Country Roads” before the game.

Evansdale Library opens

Rouzbeh Yassini-Fard graduates

WWVU goes on the air

First WVU All-American in a women’s sport

Gymnast Shari Retton is WVU's first women's sport All-American, earning first-team honors in the all-around, floor exercise, uneven bars and vault at the 1982 AIAW national gymnastics championships in Memphis.

First WVU female Rhodes Scholar

Barbara Schamberger is the first WVU woman to earn a Rhodes Scholarship. She studies international relations and politics at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford.

Center for Black Culture and Research established

State's first Level 1 trauma center opens at Ruby

First female Mountaineer mascot – Natalie Tennant

College of Engineering and Mineral Resources opens new building

Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center opens

Physician Office Center opens

Mountainview Rehabilitation Hospital opens

Dr. Patrice Harris graduates from School of Medicine

National Research Center of Coal and Energy construction begins

Health Sciences Center named Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center

Caperton Indoor Practice Facility dedicated

WVUp All Night starts

Doctoral/Research University designation

First crime scene house opens

Don Nehlen retires

Streets renamed in honor of Jerry West and Don Knotts

WVU Eye Institute opens

College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences named Davis College

Renovated Downtown Library opens

Life Sciences Building opens

Life Sciences Building opens as the new home of the Departments of Biology and Psychology.

Eastern Division of Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center established in Martinsburg

Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium opens

President George W. Bush delivers Fourth of July address at WVU, in Woodburn Circle

WVU Chabad Jewish Center established

Mountaineers upset Oklahoma in Fiesta Bowl

Interim head coach Bill Stewart leads the Mountaineer football team to a surprise 48-28 victory over No. 3 Oklahoma. A day later, Stewart is named the permanent head coach.

New Erickson Alumni Center opens

Biomedical Research Center dedicated

FBI names WVU lead academic partner in biometrics research

Men’s basketball wins first Big East championship and advances to NCAA Final Four

Renovated White Hall reopens as home to the Department of Physics and Astronomy

Vandalia Hall purchased

WVU ranked in the top 20 Best Places to Work in Academia by The Scientist

WVU is one of only two land-grant institutions on the list.

Carnegie Foundation selects WVU for Community Engagement Classification

School of Public Health founded

Plans for University Place development in Sunnyside announced

To honor a $34-million gift, the College of Engineering renamed Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Ground broken for Mon County Ballpark, home of WVU baseball

College Park complex opens

Health and Education Building opens as new home of CPASS

Accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission continued

WVU Libraries becomes permanent home of the John D. Rockefeller IV Senatorial Archives

Rosenbaum Family House opens new location

Mon Hills Records student-run record label founded

Physics Frontiers Center created

University Park apartments/Oakland Hall residence hall complex opens

WVU purchases campus in Beckley for new home of WVU Tech

Center for Alternative Fuel Engines and Emissions breaks emissions scandal about Volkswagen

WVU Art Museum opens

Evansdale Crossing opens

WVU team wins NASA Robot Return Challenge

LGBTQ+ Center opens

New Agriculture Sciences Building dedicated

Pride of West Virginia leads Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Women’s Soccer plays for national championship in NCAA College Cup Final

WVU Medicine is state’s largest employer and named job creator of year

Women’s soccer player Kadeisha Buchanan wins Hermann Trophy

Floors open in the Southeast Tower of Ruby Memorial Hospital

150th birthday, February 7