Featured in this batch of fun facts: Teddy Roosevelt was the first nationally famous figure to appear at NIU, The East Lagoon used to host competitive events like canoe jousting, and Elzie Cooper was the first African-American student athlete at NIU.
NIU HISTORY
Everyday before class, NIU’s first president John W. Cook would lead students in scripture, prayer and song.
Teddy Roosevelt was the first nationally famous figure to appear at NIU. Roosevelt made a stop on his campaign for president in 1900, delivering remarks near the woods behind the Castle Drive gates.
Much of the NIU campus landscaping was designed by renowned landscape architect Walter Burley Griffin who was a former colleague of Frank Lloyd Wright!
NIU’s East Lagoon was originally just a “mud hole” that would fill with water during heavy rains. It was transformed into a seven-acre pond with a series of pools and miniature waterfalls by campus groundskeeper W.C. Claybaugh and campus gardener Frank Balthis in 1907!
The Easy Lagoon was the site of commencement ceremonies for many years. The pond also hosted many competitive events, including Tugs, the cardboard regatta, ice skating, ice hockey, and “canoe jousting!”
During its first fifteen years, Northern had no dorms! Students boarded with local families or lived in boarding houses in what is now known as the Ellwood Historic Neighborhood just to the east of campus.
Eventually, NIU’s first dormitory was built in 1913. The all-female building had 87 rooms and was named Williston Hall after President Cook’s middle name.
NIU ALUMNI
Jimmy Chamberlin, the drummer of The Smashing Pumpkins, attended NIU! He was featured in Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Drummers of All Time”
Pulitzer Prize-winner Deborah Nelson began her career at NIU’s newspaper ‘The Northern Star.’ She won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 1997 for a piece with the Seattle Times which exposed corruption in the federal government’s Indian Housing Program.
Rochelle native Elzie Cooper was the first African-American student athlete at NIU. He played football, basketball and baseball during the 1930s, lettered in all three, and was a two-time Athletics Hall of Fame inductee. He also worked as a football student coach under Chick Evans. The Rochelle Park District even named its baseball facility Elzie Cooper Field in his honor!