Facts 2008: Historic contributions

In 1971 when Don Hudson was named Macalester College’s head football coach, he became the nation’s first African-American to hold that position at a predominantly white college.

Angelina Weld Grimké, often credited as the first historically significant black woman playwright, attended Carleton’s prep school from 1895 to 1897.

Concordia University, St. Paul is home to the Center for Hmong Studies — an academic center dedicated to the preservation and study of Hmong culture.

Bethel University is the alma mater of current Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter ’63.

The award-winning Benedicta Arts Center at the College of Saint Benedict is the only venue outside of the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area offering an annual Minnesota Orchestra series.

Minnesota Public Radio, one of the largest and most successful public radio systems in America, was founded at Saint John’s University in January 1967

In 1887 the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet established St. Mary’s School of Nursing, which would become part of the College of St. Catherine and home to its School of Health.

In 2001 the College of St. Scholastica’s Master of Arts in Health Information Management program was the first in the nation to be approved by the American Health Information Management Association.

Gustavus Adolphus College (once known as St. Ansgar Academy) has given Minnesota four governors — Adolph Eberhart, Harold LeVander, John Lind and Luther Youngdahl.

The first woman elected to Congress from Minnesota, Coya Knutson, graduated from Concordia College in 1934.

The University of St. Thomas, founded as the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in 1885, did not enroll women as undergraduates until 1977. Today, 50 percent of St. Thomas students are women.

Since 1996 St. Olaf College students have been awarded more Rhodes Scholarships than students from any other baccalaureate liberal arts institution.

Hamline University offered Minnesota’s first legal curriculum in 1856-57.

In 1950 Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota offered its first graduate program in St. Paul. It now has campuses and centers in Winona, the Twin Cities, Rochester and Nairobi, Kenya, and 100 more course-delivery sites.

In the dark days of the Depression, a few rural congregations in Iowa challenged each other to see which one could supply the Bethany Lutheran College cafeteria with the most eggs.

Minneapolis College of Art and Design alumni include Wanda Gág (Millions of Cats), Nancy Carlson (Martha) and Mary GrandPré (Harry Potter), all illustrators of well-loved children’s books.

Augsburg College’s move to Minneapolis from Wisconsin in 1871 was possible with funding from local civic leaders who hoped to encourage the city’s growth as a Scandinavian-American cultural center.

All Facts 2008