May 25, 2023
Works Progress Administration workers take a lunch break during construction of the Field House — later renamed Memorial Field House — in 1930. A WPA crew of 400 men built the Field House and University Hall in 11 months, with both buildings opening the University’s “new campus” on Bancroft Street in February 1931.
April 13, 2023
Since Rocky the Rocket’s introduction in the late 1960s, UToledo’s mascot has gone through many iterations, including briefly wearing an authentic NASA spacesuit in the late 1970s.
March 30, 2023
Since 1959, there had been dreams of a beautiful green space in the heart of Main Campus. But work really began in the mid-1970s, when the University unveiled plans to replace a parking lot with a mall that included grass, walkways, trees and a fountain. Centennial Mall was officially dedicated in 1980. And in 1999, the American Society of Landscape Architects named it “one of the most beautifully landscaped spaces in America.”
March 23, 2023
Bill Harris, a reporter at WTVG, interviews a mascot during the Children’s Miracle Network Telethon to benefit Children’s Services at the Medical College of Ohio Hospital, later renamed The University of Toledo Medical Center. The televised fundraiser debuted in 1983 as part of the national Children’s Miracle Network Telethon, and was hosted by Harris, Jack Mitchell, left, from Toledo radio station K-100 (WKKO-FM), among many others in local media.
March 16, 2023
An outstanding college athlete from Akron, Harold Anderson was hired as UToledo’s basketball coach, then a part-time job, in 1934. He took a “Cinderella” team to the National Invitational Tournament in 1937, and in 1942, he led his team to a third-place finish. Anderson also recruited and supported Black players during a time when basketball was predominantly a white sport.
March 9, 2023
In this 1960s-era photo, Astronomy Professor Helen Brooks, right, and Physics and Astronomy Chair John Turin, center, meet with renowned science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, author of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” in Ritter Planetarium. During Women’s History Month, UToledo celebrates Brooks as a trailblazer.
March 2, 2023
The U.S.-Soviet Union space race more than 60 years ago helped give birth to the UToledo Phonathon fundraisers in the 1960s.
February 2, 2023
The area’s recent snow was a reminder of Toledo’s great blizzard, Jan. 25, 1978, which closed The University of Toledo campus for four days. The Collegian, UToledo’s student newspaper, published this photo of a student trudging through thigh-high snow in front of the East Parking ramp on Feb. 2 of that year, a full week after the blizzard.
January 19, 2023
The Dancing Rockettes were formed by a local dancer at the request of UToledo’s sports information director, who wanted entertainment during halftime at basketball games. The dance troupe debuted on March 16, 1961, at the Kent State-Toledo basketball game, becoming the first recognized collegiate dance team in the nation. The Dancing Rockettes merged with the Rocket Marching Band in 1978.
December 15, 2022
In celebration of Saturday’s Commencement, we wind back the UToledo clock more than a century to students graduating from the College of Education circa 1918. For details on the celebration for the Class of 2022, visit utoledo.edu/commencement.
