By Mike Falco
News Editor

Warning: the following article contains copious amounts of history.

In an attempt to recap 125 of the most important events in Creighton’s 125 years, I have scoured old Creightonians, ransacked the archives and examined several books and Web sites.

The following are the first lists outlining important events in Creighton’s history. Other categories will include pioneers, people, buildings and tragedies. However, be forewarned: these events are subjective based on a highly non-scientific formula that only this author can possibly understand.

The all-time top 5

After much deliberation, I chose these five events as the most important in Creighton History. These are in no specific order.

1. Jan. 23, 1876: Mary Lucretia Creighton dies. Morbid, I know. However, upon her death, Creighton left $100,000 in a trust for CU.

2. Fall 1878: Creighton opens. Easily the most important day, without it, none other would exist.

3. 1888: St. John’s Church is dedicated. The church is uniquely Creighton and to this day remains as one of the most dominant aspects of the campus.

4. 1951: Women are fully accepted into the College of Arts & Sciences. Although women attended Creighton well before 1951, this marked full acceptance.

5. Aug. 13, 1980: The Rev. Carl Reinert, S.J., dies. It signaled the end of an era. During his lifetime Reinert raised over $200 million for campus expansion.

125 years of scandalous events

Any university this old is bound to make mistakes or generate controversy. Here are some interesting examples.

6. March 1921 - Aug. 1921: Jesuit is overworked? According to unclear archival reports Fr. Dinneen, who worked at the university, went to the hospital for exhaustion and disappeared to St. Louis in August.

7. 1967: Former president Richard M. Nixon receives Distinguished Citizen Citation from Creighton. Enough said.

8. 1970: Billy Bluejay scares children. The university created a tougher Bluejay, terrifying children and alarming alums. Nice Billy returns.

9. Feb. 21, 1978: Creighton University African-American Student Association protest. Following an event sponsored by student government and Sigma Alpha Epsilon, 40 students protested around the university in response to a skit. The skit involved students painting their faces black.

10. Sept. 24, 1982: Kevin Ross takes the cake for all-time CU scandal. After four years of playing basketball for the Jays, Creighton enrolled Ross in a grade school to fix deficiencies in reading and writing. Ross’ ACT score before coming to CU? 9 out of 36.

11. Oct. 6, 1986: The Ross saga continues as he appears on the “Phil Donahue” show. Among other accusations, Ross alleged that Creighton used him. In response, Creighton mailed 44,000 letters to people associated with the university, pointing out the exaggerations or holes in Ross’ story.

12. March 21, 1988: St. John’s is dangerous. While attending midnight Mass, two students were robbed at gunpoint.

13. Oct. 30, 1988: Maggots got the best of Creighton...in Brandeis. Hundreds of maggots formed near the bread and toaster area. Not very appetizing.

14. Summer 1989: Ross again. Apparently, making the scandals list is not nearly as difficult as I thought. Ross sued the university for breach of contract, saying that the university recruited him for basketball, while knowing he was unable to successfully participate in a university setting.

15. Winter 1994: University of Nebraska-Lincoln tattletales. UNL claimed that Creighton baseball was guilty of 33 NCAA violations. After an internal probe, Creighton found issues of recruiting, extra benefits, gambling and outside employment.

16. February 1994: Creightonian protest. After publishing the names of students ticketed with minor in possessions at a Alpha Pi Kappa event, students signed a petition to boycott the paper.

17. April 7, 1995: The Law School reports wrong LSAT score to U.S. News and World Report. The school accidently gave scores from the 1993 graduating class and not the 1994 class to U.S. News and World Report. As a result Creighton fell from the third-tier Law School category to the fifth and final tier in the magazine’s annual ranking.

18. May 1, 2003: Creighton graduate, Kenneth Rice, former Enron Broadband Services CEO, is indicted for conspiring to deceive investors. Rice received Creighton’s 2001 Alumni Merit Award.

Sporting accomplishments

Throughout the years Creighton athletics have given Creighton fans heavy doses of joy and some disappointment.

19. 1893: First football team.

20. 1915 or 1916: Old Gym completed.

21. 1916 - 1917: Basketball program begins.

22. March 20, 1919: The Creighton Chronicle paper proclaims the men’s basketball team National Champions of collegiate and professional levels. The team went undefeated for two consecutive seasons.

23. Jan. 18, 1924: Creighton changes its mascot from Hilltopers to Bluejays. During this time the mascot is a bluejay perched on a tree limb.

24. 1925: Football stadium is completed for the price of $375,000.

25. 1940: Billy Bluejay changes. The mascot starts looking more like a mascot.

26. Throughout 1942: Basketball ranked No. 1 in the Dunkel Rankings.

27. 1945: Football program cut.

28. 1955: Billy needs a diet. For a while Billy takes on a more husky look, eventually returning to his present form.

29. 1955-56: Future Baseball Hall of Famer, Bob Gibson leads the basketball team, yes the basketball team, in scoring.

30. 1960: South stands of football field torn down.

31. 1962: North Football stands razed for Criss buildings.

32. 1968: Bob Gibson inducted into Creighton Athletic Hall of Fame.

33. 1968: Intramurals for women begin.

34. 1971: Softball becomes the first women’s sport at Creighton.

35. 1973-74: Women’s basketball and volleyball play in their first games.

36. 1974: Basketball star Paul Silas is inducted into the athletic hall of fame.

37. Oct. 23, 1988: Current baseball stadium is dedicated.

38. Summer 1991: Creighton reaches College World Series for the first time, electrifying Omaha.

39. Week of Oct. 15, 1993: Soccer team receives Creighton’s first No. 1 ranking since 1942.

40. Dec. 13, 1996: Soccer advances to the College Cup final four for its first time.

41. Dec. 10, 2000: Men’s soccer loses to UCONN in the College Cup championship.

42. March 15, 2002: Men’s basketball upsets No. 5-seeded Florida in the first round of the NCAA tournament

43. Dec. 13, 2002: Men’s soccer loses to Stanford in the first round of the College Cup.

44. Jan. 20, 2003: Basketball reaches No. 10 ranking from The Associated Press for the first time in team history.

45. Jan. 29, 2003: Dana Altman becomes CU basketballs all-time winningest coach.

Next week

The lists will continue until we reach 125 of the most important events in Creighton history. Here’s a preview:

46. Jan. 15, 1895: John A. Creighton, university founder, is made a Knight of St. Gregory by Pope Leo XIII.

47. 1901: William M. Gordon becomes the first African-American to graduate from Creighton University. Gordon graduated from the medical school.

48. 1940: Beal’s Grill, a popular Creighton hang-out, opens. Beal’s grill was located near the site of the Lied Center.

49. Sept. 1977: The Boys Town National Institute opens.

50. Feb. 1, 2003: Creighton graduate, Michael P. Anderson, dies aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia during re-entry.