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UTEP History: Timeline

Resources for the history of the University of Texas at El Paso formerly known as Texas Western College, Texas State School of Mines and College of Mines, and University of Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy.

Highlights 1910s-1980s

 *Source: University of Texas at El Paso Library Special Collections Department.

1913 - Senate Bill 183 creates the State School of Mines and Metallurgy in El Paso.

 *Source: University of Texas at El Paso Library Special Collections Department.

1916 - The School of Mines held its first commencement in the assembly hall of the Fort Bliss campus on May 30, 1916, when three Miners received their degrees.

 *Source: University of Texas at El Paso Library Special Collections Department.

1923 - Students paint "M" for Miners on Franklin Mountains

1929 - College of Mines welcomes new band director for Texas College of Mines Band. Musical leader Rayo Reyes at right. *Photo from UTEP Transformations website.

John Gerald Barry

1931 - John Gerald Barry becomes College of Mines' first president.

 *Source: University of Texas at El Paso Library Special Collections Department.

1934 - Aerial view of the campus.

 *Source: University of Texas at El Paso Library Special Collections Department.

1949 - College of Mines name changed to Texas Western College of the University of Texas.

1952 - Student pranksters "borrow" a live alligator from San Jacinto Plaza.  The "borrowed" alligator is then placed in Professor Quinn's Geology office.

1961 - TWC trains the nation's first Peace Corps class.

 *Source: University of Texas at El Paso Library Special Collections Department.

1966 - Don Haskins leads men's basketball team to NCAA National Championship, stunning Kentucky 72-65.

1968 - Sophomore Bob Beamon makes world-record long jump at Olympic Games in Mexico City.

1974 - Paydirt Pete becomes Miners' mascot.

*Source:  El Paso Times.

1984 - Construction on the University Library began in 1982 and was completed in 1984.

1988 - Diana Natalicio becomes first woman UTEP president.

 

Highlights 1990s-2010s

1990 - Minerpalooza festival created

1993 - Heritage House opens

 *Source: University of Texas at El Paso Library Special Collections Department.

1997 - Don Haskins inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame & Special Events Center renamed Don Haskins Center

1998 - UTEP celebrates its 100th commencement

2000 - Legacy Campaign started in 1997 ends raising $66 million

2005 - Glory Road, a movie about the 1966 Texas Western College national basketball champions, premiered in El Paso

*Photo by J.R. Hernandez

2007 - Alumnus & NASA astronaut John "Danny" Olivas traveled to the International Space Station abroad the shuttle Atlantis (www.utep.edu/dannyolivas)

2008 - Diana Natalicio marked her 20th year as president of UTEP

2009 - UTEP Library celebrates 25th birthday (1984-2009)

2010 - UTEP launched At the Forefront: The Centennial Campaign for UTEP, the most ambitious fundraising campaign to date witha goal of raising $200 million by 2014

2011 - UTEP Master Plan 2011 (PDF available on website)

2012 - Former Miner Sean Kugler was named the 25th head football coach (UTEP Magazine Winter 2013 pg. 65)

The Best is Yet to Come!  Go Miners!

1910s

1913

  • Texas Gov. O.B. Colquitt signs Senate Bill 183, creating the State School of Mines and Metallurgy in El Paso

1914

  • El Paso citizens donate 22 acres and three buildings east of Fort Bliss—the site of the former El Paso Military Institute—for the School of Mines
  • Regents adopt the first budget: Dean Stephen Howard Worrell to be paid $2,500 annual salary
  • Twenty-seven students enroll on opening day, Sept. 23

1915

  • First issue of student paper The Prospector published

1916

  • First commencement ceremony, May 30
  • First women, Ruth Brown and Grace Odell, enroll
  • Fire destroys the new school's Main Building
  • Discouraged by General Pershing's military buildup crowding Fort Bliss, a water shortage, and the Main Building fire, Dean Worrell looks for a new school location

1917

  • Civic leaders donate land overlooking Sunset Heights and Downtown for the new campus
  • Construction begins on the first buildings, modeled after the architectural style of the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan

1918

  • Enrollment is 100

1919

  • Name changed to U.T. Department of Mines and Metallurgy
  • Students' Association forms

1920s

1920

  • Name changed to College of Mines and Metallurgy, El Paso
  • Oldest tradition, the St. Patrick's initiation, first reported in The Prospector

1922

  • First Flowsheet yearbook published

1923

  • Students paint "M" for Miners on Franklin Mountains

1925

  • Fort Bliss Air Terminal named for James Biggs, College of Mines student who died in a plane crash in France during WWI

1927

  • El Paso Junior College merges with the College of Mines
  • Enrollment over 400 after merger

1929

  • First Homecoming; Miners beat New Mexico State 8-0

1930s

1931

  • John Gerald Barry becomes College of Mines' first president

1932

  • Poor economic times cause Texas Legislature to consider closing some state institutions including College of Mines

1933

  • Athletic field constructed and named after popular professor and dean John W. "Cap" Kidd

1935

  • First Sun Bowl Game played at El Paso High School
  • Dossie Marion Wiggins named College of Mines president

1937

  • Centennial Museum opens
  • Miners' first-ever bowl game; football team loses 34-6 to Hardin-Simmons in the Sun Bowl

1939

  • Enrollment over 1,000

1940s

1940

  • Regents approve first graduate degree, Master of Arts

1941

  • Campus radio WTCM established

1943

  • With young men and women serving in war, enrollment hits 10-year low of 561 students
  • War Department assigns Army Specialized Training Unit to College of Mines

1944

  • No Flowsheet is published because of the war

1947

  • Veterans' GI Bill benefits helps push enrollment past 2,000
  • Radio WTCM becomes KVOF

1948

  • Army ROTC established

1949

  • Wilson Homer Elkins named president of the College of Mines
  • College of Mines name changed to Texas Western College of the University of Texas
  • Miners lose to Virginia 21-12 in the 14th annual Sun Bowl

1950s

1950

  • KVOF-FM becomes first FM station in El Paso
  • Miners beat Georgetown 33-20 in 15th annual Sun Bowl

1951

  • Magoffin Auditorium, Science Building, Women's Gym, Miners Hall and a dormitory constructed

1952

1953

  • Schellenger Research Laboratories established
  • Kidd Seismic Observatory opened

1954

  • ROTC Rifle Team wins national championship
  • Miners beat Southern Mississippi 37-14 in 19th annual Sun Bowl

1955

  • Dysert Edgar Holcomb named TWC president
  • TWC becomes first white Texas public college to admit black students
  • Miners beat Florida State University 47-20 in the 20th annual Sun Bowl

1957

  • Miners lose 13-0 to George Washington University in 22nd annual Sun Bowl

1958

  • Joseph Royall Smiley named TWC president

1960s

1960

  • Joseph M. Ray named TWC president

1961

  • TWC trains the nation's first Peace Corps class

 1962

  • Enrollment over 5,000
  • John M. Kidd Memorial Seismographic Observatory established

1963

  • Sun Bowl stadium constructed
  • Larry Durham scores first Miner touchdown in Sun Bowl
  • TWC wins 34-4 over North Texas State in first Sun Bowl stadium game

1964

  • TWC's 50th anniversary Golden Jubilee celebrated

1965

  • “Turning Point” game: Miner football team defeats Utah 20-19 and wins every remaining game that season
  • Miners beat Texas Christian University 13-12 in the 31st annual Sun Bowl
  • First issue of NOVA published

1966

  • Don Haskins leads men's basketball team to NCAA national championship, stunning Kentucky 72-65
  • Last Mining Engineer graduates

1967

  • TWC's name changed to the University of Texas at El Paso
  • Miners beat University of Mississippi 14-7 in the 33rd Annual Sun Bowl

1968

  • Sophomore Bob Beamon makes world-record long jump at Olympic Games in Mexico City
  • Enrollment over 10,000

1969

  • UTEP men's cross-country team wins NCAA National Championship
  • Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity paints a new “M” overlooking the Sun Bowl
  • Joseph Royall Smiley named UTEP president

1970s

1970

  • Bob Hope performs at Sun Bowl

1971

  • National Teacher Corps program established
  • Arleigh B. Templeton named UTEP president
  • MEChA and La Mesa Directiva protest administration policies

1972

  • Last Flowsheet yearbook published
  • First endowed professorship (geological sciences) named for Lloyd A. Nelson, early student at School of Mines and long-time professor

1974

  • UTEP men's track and field team wins NCAA National Indoor Championship
  • Streaking fad opens eyes on campus
  • Paydirt Pete becomes Miners' mascot
  • UTEP's first doctoral degree—Geological Sciences—approved

1975

  • Men's track and field team wins NCAA Outdoor and Indoor National Championships
  • Men's cross-country team wins NCAA National Championship

1976

  • Men's track and field team wins NCAA Indoor National Championship
  • Men's cross-country team wins NCAA National Championship
  • Engineering-Science Complex completed
  • College of Nursing created

1977

  • Enrollment over 15,000
  • Special Events Center completed
  • College of Engineering begins solar research program

1978

  • Men's track and field team shares the NCAA Outdoor National Championship with UCLA and wins Indoor National Championship
  • Men's cross-country team wins NCAA National Championship
  • Public television station KCOS-TV goes on air
  • First doctoral degree awarded (Geological Sciences)

1979

  • Men's track and field team wins NCAA Outdoor National Championship
  • Men's cross-country team wins NCAA National Championship
  • Heritage Commission established

1980s

1980

  • Men's track and field team wins NCAA Outdoor and Indoor National Championships
  • Men's cross-country team wins NCAA National Championship
  • Haskell M. Monroe, Jr. named UTEP president
  • Tradition of fall and spring convocations begins
  • UTEP colors changed to include Columbia blue

1981

  • Men's track and field team wins NCAA Outdoor and Indoor National Championships
  • Men's cross-country team wins NCAA National Championship
  • President Monroe creates Presidential Scholarship program
  • Professor Emeritus Wilbert H. Timmons originates Four Centuries '81 celebration of El Paso's history
  • Student Union allowed to sell beer and wine

1982

  • Men's track and field team wins NCAA Outdoor and Indoor National Championships
  • Ground breaking of University Library
  • Sun Bowl addition raises seating capacity to 52,000

1983

  • Men's cross-country team wins NCAA National Championship
  • UTEP leads nation among schools producing Hispanic engineers

1984

  • Six-story University Library completed
  • Women's Center opens

1985

  • Miner football team shocks defending national champion BYU 23-16

1986

  •  UTEP recognized as the leader in U.S.-Mexico cooperative research

1987

  • Vice President George Bush speaks at May commencement

1988

  • Diamond Jubilee Celebration begins
  • Diana Natalicio becomes first woman UTEP president
  • National Science Foundation recognizes UTEP with a Minority Research Center of Excellence Grant
  • Miners lose to Southern Mississippi 38-18 in 13th annual Independence Bowl

1989

  • Second doctoral program approved—Electrical Engineering

1990s

1990

  • Minerpalooza festival created

1991

  • Computer Engineering doctoral program enrolls first students
  • Nurse Midwifery Master's Degree Approved
  • Season of Lights created

1992

  • Material Research Institute established
  • Border Biomedical Research Institute established

1993

  • Materials science and engineering doctorate enrolls first students
  • Psychology doctorate enrolls first students
  • Heritage House opens

1994

  • Franchise Center established

1995

  • Kinesiology master's degree approved
  • Environmental science and engineering doctorate enrolls first students
  • UTEP designated as Model Institution for Excellence by National Science Foundation
  • UTEP divides commencement into two ceremonies

1996

  • Educational leadership and administration doctorate enrolls first students
  • Pharmacy cooperative doctorate enrolls first students
  • Swimming and Fitness Center opens
  • African-American Studies program established

1997

  • Don Haskins inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame and Special Events Center renamed Don Haskins Center
  • Biological sciences doctorate enrolls first students
  • UTEP launches $50 million Legacy Campaign
  • Undergraduate Learning Center opens

1998

  • UTEP celebrates its 100th commencement
  • Rio Bosque Wetland Park dedicated

1999

  • Don Haskins retires
  • History doctorate enrolls first students
  • MBA online degree program launched
  • Chihuahuan Desert Gardens dedicated

2000s

2000

  • Legacy Campaign ends, raising $66 million
  • Nursing cooperative doctorate enrolls first students
  • Miner Village completed
  • UTEP designated as a Doctoral/Research-Intensive University
  • Miners lose to Boise State University 38-23 in the Crucial.com Humanitarian Bowl

2001

  • Paso al Norte Immigration History Museum and Research Center established
  • Sun Bowl gets AstroPlay artificial turf; Don Haskins Center gets new hardwood floor

2002

  • Larry K. Durham Sports Center opens
  • Maymester and Wintermester 10-day accelerated semesters offered
  • Graduate enrollment hits record 2,848
  • Sam Donaldson Center for Communication Studies established

2003

  • Enrollment reaches record 18,542, including record Graduate School enrollment of 3,457
  • $44 million in construction begins on Academic Services and Biosciences buildings and an addition to the Engineering-Science Complex
  • Construction begins on the Helen of Troy Softball Complex
  • International business, civil engineering and rhetoric and composition doctorates approved

2004

  • UTEP celebrates 90th anniversary

2005

  • The Academic Services Building and Engineering Building addition opened
  • UTEP opened the Internet2 high-capacity connection with Mexican universities
  • UTEP Athletics joined Conference USA
  • Glory Road, a movie about the 1966 Texas Western College national basketball champions, premiered in El Paso

2006

  • The UT System approved $124 million for new and upgraded Science and Engineering Buildings at UTEP
  • The W.M. Keck Center for 3-D Innovation opened in the College of Engineering

2007

  • The 1966 Texas Western College national champions were inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
  • UTEP joined the Army High Performance Computing Research Center
  • Alumnus and NASA astronaut John "Danny" Olivas traveled to the International Space Station aboard the shuttle Atlantis (www.utep.edu/dannyolivas)

2008

  • Diana Natalicio marked her 20th year as president of UTEP
  • UTEP was designated as a Center for Excellence for Border Security and Immigration
  • The UTEP Center for Inland Desalination Systems opened
  • Construction began on the College of Health Sciences/School of Nursing Building

2009

  • UTEP Library celebrates 25th birthday
  • Construction began on the Chemistry and Computer Science Building
  • The new University Bookstore opened
  • The Foster-Stevens Basketball Center opened
  • Construction began on the Glory Road Transfer Center and Parking Garage and the Swimming and Fitness Center expansion

2010s

2010

  • The men's basketball team took first place in the Conference USA regular season and competed in the NCAA Tournament
  • UTEP launched At the Forefront:  The Centennial Campaign for UTEP, the most ambitious fundraising campaign to date witha goal of raising $200 million by 2014

2011

2012

UTEP History Lines

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