In 1933, Wilma Howard Garrison (A&S’35) helped the CU women’s field hockey team win the junior class championship — an accomplishment that gained her praise for an excellent play, and the likely reason why she acquired this laurel wreath pin from the Women’s Athletic Association (WAA).

Established by women students passionate about athletics, the WAA strove to promote interest in women’s sports. Membership was based on points, which were earned by participating and competing in the association’s sports. Members could then acquire accolades such as pins, letters and sweaters.

From its inception in 1905 to Garrison’s membership in the early 1930s, the organization experienced hard-earned growth. It expanded the variety of sports in which CU women could participate, adding options like volleyball, baseball, swimming and dance to the roster.

The association also helped CU women obtain a designated spot for their athletics. In 1912, women began using a space located on The Hill as an athletic facility (before this, they were required to schedule time at the Men’s Gymnasium). In 1928, the university built a dedicated Women’s Gymnasium.

Awards like Garrison’s pin reflect the history of CU women’s athletics and tell the story of women pursuing something greater.

Factoids:

Origins

Wilma Howard Garrison (A&S’35) earned this pin as a wing player in field hockey.

Debut

In 1905 on Gamble Field, CU women competed in athletics for the first time, playing field hockey against the University of Denver.

School Spirit

Garrison’s other student involvements included drama, a sorority, an honorary society and several women’s organizations.

First Four

Four sports originally made up the WAA: basketball, field hockey, gymnastics and tennis.

Est.

The CU Women’s Athletic Association (WAA) formed in 1905. 

CU Soulmates

Wilma married fellow CU alum, William Garrison (�������Բ���’33).

Design

Prior to the 1930s, the university was typically referred to as UC.

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Photo courtesy Mona Lambrecht/ CU Heritage Museum

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1942

When Muriel Sibell-Wolle traded the East Coast for the foothills of Boulder in 1926, she was immediately spellbound by the region’s rich natural beauty, declaring she planned to stay "until they kick me out." She began teaching fine art at CU Boulder and went on to lead the department for nearly 20 years. 

One of the first and most prolific ghost town guidebook writers in the nation, Sibell-Wolle visited and sketched over a thousand mining towns in the American West. Here, Sibell-Wolle is pictured with her lithograph “Gladstone, Colorado,” which is now part of the CU Art Museum collection.

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Photo courtesy Floyd Walters Colection, CU Heritage Center

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In 2003, nearly a decade after the death of Jacob Van Ek, former CU Boulder political science professor and College of Arts and Sciences dean, the CU Heritage Center received an anonymous donation of his desk items — including a miniature English-Dutch dictionary, which stands two inches high and less than 1.5 inches wide. 

Mini books, , were popular throughout history as they allowed the reader to conveniently and discreetly carry knowledge. Van Ek and his wife may have used the dictionary on their global travels, said Mona Lambrecht, Heritage Center interim director and curator of its history and collections. 

After winning a year-long travel fellowship in 1928, Van Ek and his wife, Eve Drewelowe, traveled around the world to familiarize themselves with different peoples, countries and civilizations. During this time, they spent time in the Netherlands, where Van Ek’s parents were born. 

The couple returned from their travels in 1929, and Van Ek assumed his role as Arts and Sciences dean, a position he held at CU Boulder for 30 years before teaching full time for several more years.

The experience left him with a broad worldview. 

According to the Jacob Van Ek collection housed in the Norlin Library, “When the ‘Red Scare’ gripped college campuses in the late 1940s and the 1950s, Dr. Van Ek won the respect and gratitude of his faculty and student body when he acted as a steadfast defender of freedom of expression.”

Facts about the dictionary: 

• Title: English-Dutch 12000 Words Liliput Dictionary 77

• Published by Schmidt & Günther

• Printed by F. E. Haag in Leipzig, Germany

• Published circa 1925

• 635 pages

• Dimensions: 1⅜ inches wide by 2 inches high by 3/8 inches deep

• Text 1/16 inches high

• Red linen fabric cover

• All the dictionaries published by Schmidt & Günther in this series have a number connected to them. The English-Dutch is number 77.

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Photos courtesy Mona Lambrecht, CU Heritage Center

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October 1998 

“I don’t think I’ll ever see anything like that again.” 

In an October 1998 Coloradan interview, iconic sports commentator Larry Zimmer shared his favorite CU Buffaloes play to date — the Sept. 24,1994 “Miracle in Michigan,” where quarterback Kordell Stewart (Comm ex’95; BA’16) threw a game-winning 64-yard Hail Mary pass to Michael Westbrook (Comm ex’94) in Michigan Stadium. 

Zimmer saw much more excitement from there. The served as “The Voice of the Buffaloes” for 42 seasons, which included 486 CU football games and 525 men’s basketball games. He called his last game in 2015. 

Jan. 20, 2024 at the age of 88. 

“His voice was synonymous with our athletic program, and he was most beloved by our coaches, players and fans,” said athletic director Rick George. “He is truly a part of our overall athletic history.”

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Photo by Cliff Grassmick/Heritage Center, Coloradan Collection

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In 1968, Sandy Hildner (A&S’67) was among CU’s first woman Olympians after training with the men’s ski team under coach Bob Beattie. In 1967, she won the Roch Cup downhill in Aspen, Colorado (pictured), and was the U.S. National Giant Slalom Champion before racing in the Olympic women’s downhill event in Grenoble, France, the next year.

Hildner died in January 2019. On Aug. 27, 2023, she was inducted into the in Vail, Colorado.

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Photo courtesy Hildner family

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In the summers of 1958 and 1960, CU Boulder’s first curator of

• This skull was found near Kit Carson.
• The remains from about 200 bison were found in a dry arroyo bed.
• These bison lived about 10,000 years ago.
• More than a dozen well-preserved skulls were found at the site.
• 3D scanning helps reconstruct broken specimens. 

 anthropology, Joe Ben Wheat, excavated the Olsen-Chubbuck site, an area near Kit Carson, Colorado, that contained remains of bison dating to 8200 B.C.

The site gave insight into techniques Native hunters used to kill the approximately 200 bison more than 10,000 years ago, which would have provided them with about 60,000 pounds of meat.

“Wheat’s detailed analysis of the bison remains helped researchers under-stand the sophistication of ancient bison hunting tactics; reconstruct how and why they were processed, butchered and prepared; and demonstrated the importance of the bison and buffalo in the lives of the earliest people of Colorado and the Front Range,” said William Taylor, assistant professor and archaeology curator at the CU Museum of Natural History.

Now, with the help of a grant from the History Colorado’s State Historical Fund, Taylor’s team is working to preserve these bison artifacts for the

 future, including making 3D scans of the fossils, such as the one pictured here. The team is also rethinking the ways they care for the animal remains in the museum collections, said Taylor, who also teaches and conducts research in archaeozoology, the study of ancient animal remains.

“We are working with tribal partners to develop culturally informed practices and policies that will restore respect, transparency and care of these resources to the communities they belong to,” he said.

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Photo © University of Colorado Museum of Natural History

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When you were hungry and didn’t have any money, the Pied Piper had your back.

The owner of the small Pennsylvania Street diner on The Hill, John Parker, had a book where you could chalk up your debts. Although, in the late 1950s, most people seldom let it get past $20, Parker never squawked, and a couple of people, it is told, ran it up to $100. But as long as you paid Parker before summer break or made some arrangement with him, it was OK.

I have only heard it referred to as the Pied Piper once or twice. True enough, the red letters above the door said that, but nearly everyone called it Parker’s.

Parker — a small man with ruddy cheeks and a hard-worked face — worked every day from 6a.m. to 6 p.m. except on Friday afternoons, when he closed at 2 p.m. because that’s when many of his customers were drinking.

Parker’s place had seven stools, a cash register and a small upraised counter on the right side of the diner where “the book” was kept. In addition to the money owed for food, various bets were placed under different customers’ names. One could open the book to their name, for example, and the total owed would be near the bottom of the page: “$13.72.” The right side of the page could read, “White Sox to win the pennant, $5.”

The place had a small grill where Parker cooked hamburgers, eggs, ham, bacon, steak, hot dogs and morning rolls. He turned the grill on in the morning with a pair of pliers. He had a tin to cook poached eggs, along with a toaster, coffee pot, small freezer, shelf for rolls and pies, and a milkshake maker. That was it. The menu remained the same; the prices remained the same. You could get a hamburger steak dinner, which included a double hamburger portion, fries, bread and butter, soup or juice for $0.65 or a small steak with the same extras for $1.25.

You had to take two napkins and throw them down on the fries before you ate them. But you only did this when Parker was facing the grill, otherwise he’d tell you to “get the hell out” if you didn’t like the food. Jack Wyrick (A&S’61) was the expert at sopping up the grease before Parker turned around.

But everyone, especially CU athletes and fans, went to Parker’s. His coffee was good, his prices were cheap and, of course, you could eat on credit.

The last time I ate at Parker’s was the summer of 1960. Sadly John died suddenly in January 1962 and Parker’s was no more.

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Photo courtesy Carnegie Library for Local History

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Restoration for CU’s First Building 

In the mid-1920s, Old Main — CU Boulder’s three-story, red brick building designed by architect Erastus H. Dimick — was in poor shape after only a half-century of use. Some even called for its destruction, including then-campus architect Charles Klauder, who designed several university buildings in the Tuscan Vernacular style. But high construction costs in the 1920s and a lack of funds to follow Klauder’s original campus design plan saved Old Main. The building went through a major structural renovation instead, solidifying its status as a campus classic. In early 2024, pending Board of Regents approval, work will begin on a new structural restoration project to benefit the building. Old Main’s legacy will live on. 

1876

Old main completed; classes began in the building the following year

40,000

Artifacts will be moved to a temporary East Campus location during the restoration 

$13M

Approximate cost of the project

CU's first president, Joseph A. Sewall, and family members — his wife and their five children — lived in Old Main when it first opened

The second floor of the building contained a room in 1878 that housed the university’s first library, which held 1,500 books

The third floor of the building is where the CU Medical School began. There were two students, and CU's first president taught classes.

Old Main History

1920s

Major structural rennovation

1984

Old Main building refurbishment completed with improvements to windows and the Old Main Chapel

2020

Structural evaluation begins

2024

New structural restoration project begins 

During the renovation of the 1980s, the Old Main Chapel was rotated 90 degrees.

2024 Restoration's Major Components:

Replacing about 10% of the building’s outer brick

Replacing windows

Repairing cracks in bricks and sandstone

Repairing the sandstone foundation

Drainage and landscaping improvements

Roof repair

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Photos courtesy Heritage Center (Sewall, chapel, sketch); Denver Public Library Special Collections, X-11813 (library); Richard Ebert/Encircle Photos (middle photo); AbobeStock/arybickii (bricks) 

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When CU Boulder’s Department of Computer Science began more than 50 years ago, it had fewer than 10 faculty members, and all students were at the graduate level. They accessed computers on campus through terminals and punch cards. Results were slow. 

“In the early days, computers were what businesses used for payrolls and data processing and what scientific organizations used to model scientific phenomena,” said Bobby Schnabel, computer science professor and external chair of the department who joined the faculty in 1977. In the mid-1980s, the department received its own computer, a VAX-11/750 from the computing company Digital Equipment Corporation, said Schnabel. 

“These were the ubiquitous research computing machines,” he said. “We had to have our own computing staff for the first time.” 

The department chose computer science professor Evi Nemeth as the inaugural staff member to run the computer, said Schnabel. In addition to her work building a new staff, her mentorship and teaching helped solidify the positive trajectory for the entire computer science department. “She is an absolute legend,” said Schnabel. “People can tell stories about Evi till the end of the Earth.” 

Nemeth — a system administration expert — worked at CU Boulder for 21 years. Hundreds of students benefited directly from her guidance. She also helped establish a scholarship program with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (ElEngr ex’72; HonDocSci’89). 

Nemeth was lost at sea with six others in 2013, more than a decade after her retirement in 2001. But the impact she had on CU students still shines. 

Terri Hogan (CompSci’94), executive director of the Boulder-based National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), was inspired by Nemeth as a college student. She recalled an early memory from an evening after a computing conference where she saw Nemeth enthusiastically swinging a mallet to try to ring a bell at a local fair.

“I was a shy freshman, and seeing her fearlessly swing that mallet even though she was three times the age of everyone else was a testament to her zest for life,” said Hogan. 

As computing faces a new age with the rise of artificial intelligence, the Department of Computer Science — now with about 2,000 students and 80 faculty members — will rely on its luminaries of past and present to forge ahead. 

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Photo courtesy College of Engineering and Applied Science

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In 1936, Helen Rodeck collected this mason bee (Hoplitis albifrons) likely at what is now the CU Mountain Research Station in Nederland, Colorado, about 23 miles from CU Boulder’s main campus. Helen was married to Hugo G. Rodeck (BioChem’28; MA’29), who became the long-serving director of CU’s Museum of Natural History three years later. The museum’s entomology curator of nearly 30 years, Urless Lanham (Btny, Zool’40), identified this bee in 1939.

CU research associate Adrian Carper found this specimen again as part of his National Science Foundation grant awarded to allow for historic bee specimens to be photographed and added to a gigantic digital network that will feature more than 5,000 bee species worldwide. 

The museum’s entomology collections manager Virginia Scott has discovered that Colorado is home to nearly 1,000 bee species — about a quarter of all the bee species found in the United States. Boulder County has the highest recorded number of species in the state, said ecology and evolutionary biology assistant professor Julian Resasco, because of its extensive natural areas and the university’s long history of bee research. 

“In just one small meadow at CU’s Mountain Research Station, I’ve recorded almost a hundred species of bees including Hoplitis albifrons,” Resasco said. “It’s very rewarding to admire the beauty of bees and learn about their natural history.”

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Photo by Jordan Longley and Bekka Shupe

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