SCSU At 150: Athletics Tradition Goes Back to the 1890s

ST. CLOUD -- St. Cloud State University is celebrating 150 years as a school, opening in the fall of 1869. SCSU Archivist Tom Steman and Athletic Director Heather Weems were on the News @ Noon Show on WJON Tuesday talking about the history of athletics on campus.

Steman says the first mention of an athletic competition was the second annual field day that was held in May of 1890 at Lake George.

The St. Cloud Normal School Athletic Club was established in May of 1892 and began organizing athletic competitions, such as a field day.

Football was the first team sport on campus with St. Cloud playing the North Dakota Agricultural College - now North Dakota State University - in Fargo on October 10th, 1896. The game ended in a 4-4 tie.

As for when the school officially adopted the Huskies nickname, Steman says that's not exactly clear.

There's this reference to a 1938 Chronical newspaper article calling the football team the "Huskies", but I've looked at this a few times and I haven't found any evidence of someone saying, "this is going to be the nickname from now on".

Selke Field was the longtime home of the football team playing there from 1937 until 2003.

This year St. Cloud State is also celebrating 50 years of women's intercollegiate sports on campus, with their first season in 1968-1969.

As for the future of Husky sports, Weems says she's happy where they are with most sports at the Division II level.

It would take a complete change of the program [to go Division I], so it wouldn't just be basketball or football.  I think we are soundly and happily Division II.

In honor of the school's 150th anniversary, they have brought back homecoming this year with several events planned both on-campus and around the community October 17th through the 21st.

SCSU At 150 with Tom Steman is a monthly feature on the News @ Noon Show on WJON.