About NAU - Our History

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About NAU

 

Natural beauty and student-centered programs and services make Northern Arizona University a great choice for international students to pursue their studies and research.

 

Founded in 1899, the university offers 91 undergraduate programs and has approximately 13,000 undergraduate students attending from 50 states and over 65 different countries. With an average classroom size of 27 students, there is a focus on personal attention and numerous opportunities to interact with professors, staff and classmates. Our residential campus has 24 residence halls for our students interested in living on-campus and is located just a few blocks from historic downtown Flagstaff, Arizona.

 

For information about the Flagstaff area, click here.

 

Our History

 
 Old Main, 1901

1899 - Northern Arizona Normal School (NANS) opened its doors on September 11, 1899 with twenty-three students, one professor, and two copies of Webster's International Dictionary bound in sheepskin. The Normal School's first president, Almon Nicholas Taylor, later assisted by Ms. Frances Bury, had scoured the countryside in horse and buggy seeking students to fill the classrooms of the single school building, now known as Old Main. From the students they recruited, four women made up the first graduating class of 1901 and received lifetime teaching certificates for the Arizona Territory.

 

1909 - Under President Rudolph Blome's initiative, interscholastic sports were inaugurated, and it fell to the girls' basketball team in November to play the Normal's first game with another institution, Williams High School. The whole community was on hand to watch NANS win 11-3. Following the victory, the girls and all their classmates paraded through the Flagstaff streets blowing whistles, beating drums and ringing bells.

 

1914 - A few weeks after the beginning of the term, students, with Blome's encouragement, established a school newspaper, The Pine. Appearing sporadically at first, it was eventually evolved into a weekly publication. In 1946, the students voted to change the name to The Lumberjack. 

 

1915 - Fall marked the first time that the boys' athletic teams were referred to as the "lumberjacks," as they played their first interscholastic football game against Winslow High School. The Jacks won 26-0. Their coach was Clarence D. Thorpe, who taught English and directed campus theatricals.

 

1918 - The war brought turmoil to the campus as President Blome was forced from office by political adversaries, falsely naming him a German sympathizer. Outraged by the forced resignation, the students called a mass meeting attended by all but two of their number, and formally organized the Northern Arizona Normal School Student Body group that would eventually become the Associated Students or ASNAU.

 

1924 - In observance of the school's 25th anniversary, new preident Fassett A. Cotton scheduled the first homecoming celebration. Commerce teacher Tom O. Bellwood, who came to the school in 1922, set the pattern for subsequent homecomings, with a parade, football game, bonfire, and grand ball.

 

1925 - The school celebrated its new status as Northern Arizona State Teachers College, a four-year institution with the power to grant the bachelor of education degree. On July 1, 1929, NASTC became Arizona State Teachers College (ASTC) at Flagstaff.

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©2007 Arizona Board of Regents
Center for International Education, Northern Arizona University