Old Missouri, Fair Missouri, Dear Old Varsity

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Written by Megan McConachie, from Columbia, Missouri on Jan 30, 2009

Old Missouri, Fair Missouri, Dear Old Varsity…

The University of Missouri’s tradition of excellence stretches back over 150 years to its founding. Mizzou was founded in 1839 as the first public university west of the Mississippi River and the first state university in the Louisiana Purchase territory. Since then, Mizzou’s academic and athletic reputation are world renowned, and its campus and the students who population are integral parts of making Columbia great. (Facts are derived from Mizzou’s Pride Points list)

MU’s 1,372-acre main campus features more than 5,000 trees and 650 varieties of plants and is designated as a botanical garden.

On the first day of class in fall 2008, MU welcomed a record 29,761 students representing every county in Missouri, every state in the nation and more than 100 countries.

Sixty Missouri School of Journalism students were among a select group of 300 students from around the world to serve as Olympic News Service interns during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

MU’s Museum of Art and Archaeology possesses the third-most-extensive art collection in Missouri, and the campus’s Museum of Anthropology is the only anthropology museum in the state.

MU is one of only six public universities in the country with medicine, veterinary medicine, law, engineering and agriculture all on one campus.

The University of Missouri started the tradition of Homecoming in 1911 when MU football coach and Director of Athletics Chester Brewer invited former students to “come home” to Columbia for the annual football game between the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas. This tradition has spread throughout the world, but the University of Missouri still boasts the largest student-run Homecoming in the nation.

The University of Missouri is a Division I-A member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Big 12 Conference. Over 500 student-athletes compete in 20 varsity sports throughout the school year, claiming both athletic and academic honors along the way.

Now you can see why they say, “There’s only one Mizzou!”

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