Iowa State’s 160th birthday is March 22, 2018. How should you celebrate? Check out 160 fun facts about the history and culture of Iowa State.  

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1. Before the days of Destination Iowa State t-shirts and drawstring bags, freshmen were required to wear beanies on their heads. The beanies, worn circa 1916, were typically burned in a ceremonial bonfire after students’ freshman year, but one survived those fires and made its way to the university archives.

2. Iowa State decided on being called the Cyclones back in 1895 after a Chicago Tribune article that said the Northwestern football team had been “struck by a cyclone” after playing Iowa State. 

3. Over 254,000 Iowa State alumni live in 149 countries, as of June 2017.

4. Jack Trice was the first black athlete at Iowa State in 1922 and was the second black athlete to play football at a major university. Trice died in 1923 following injuries sustained in a game against the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. 

5. Iowa State is tied as the 115th best national university, according to U.S. World and News Report.

6. In fall 2016, the Department of Residence housed about 70 students in the former Memorial Union Hotel (floors 4, 5 and 6).

7. Erected in 1897, the Marston Water Tower was the first elevated steel water tank west of the Mississippi.

8. The Farm House Museum is the oldest building on campus.

9. In total, 6,537 trees are located on campus.

10. The “That’s another Cyclone…first down!” cheer was started in 1997 by Lance Heimsoth, a frequent football game attendee.

11. James Hilton, 10th president, increased enrollment from 7,800 to 12,400 during his 12-year tenure at Iowa State, with the value of the university increasing from $38 to $471 million.

12. Iowa State student Jean Nesinwanger won $10 for submitting the names Lancelot and Elaine in 1935.

13. Dan Gable was a three-time All-American who went 117-1 as a wrestler at Iowa State. He also won gold at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, and didn’t surrender a point in the entire tournament.

14. Former United States President Ronald Reagan was once the grand marshal for the Veishea parade.

15. Iowa State students set a Guinness World Record for creating the world’s largest Rice Krispie treat in 2001.

16. Students at Iowa State represent all 99 of Iowa’s counties, as well as all 50 states and 127 countries.

17. Hilton Coliseum was flooded twice throughout the its history of a building in both 1993 and 2010.

18. The first electronic digital computer was created at Iowa State. John Vincent Atanasoff, a former Iowa State professor of physics and mathematics, and Clifford Berry, a former physics graduate student and electrical engineering undergraduate, finished the computer at Iowa State in 1942, according to the electrical and computer engineering department. It took about five years to build the model.

19. The first time Cy was shown to the world was during Homecoming of 1954.

20. U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds both graduated from Iowa State.

21. ISU Extension and Outreach serves all 99 counties in Iowa.

22. The “touchdown cannon” which is shot off after the Cyclones score a touchdown, has been owned and operated by Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity since 1967. The current cannon is the fourth-generation cannon.

23. Raymond Pearson, 7th president, also served as the 20th president of the University of Maryland.

24. Lisa Uhl (then Lisa Koll) is one of the nation’s most decorated distance runners. She still holds the American college record for best time in the 10,000-meters with a time of 31:18.07 and she was one of three finalists for the 2010 NCAA Woman of the Year.

25. Iowa State has the most diverse workforce of the three public universities in Iowa, due to the percentage of faculty and staff of color increasing significantly in the past decade.

26. Nawal El Moutawakel received a bachelor’s in physical education in 1987 and was the first Muslim woman from Africa and first Moroccan citizen to win an Olympic gold medal. Moutawakel was also the first woman who attended Iowa State to win a gold medal.

27. Lake LaVerne is named after LaVerne W. Noyes who donated $10,000 in 1916 for the creation of the lake.

28. Christian Petersen was the first U.S. artist-in-residence at a university when he worked at Iowa State between 1934 and 1955.

29. Iowa State alum George Washington Carver was an African American scientist best known for devising over 100 products using the peanut and was the first African American student at Iowa State, graduating in 1894.

30. ISU Extension and Outreach educational programs directly benefit more than one million people every year.

31. There are approximately 140 buildings on campus.

32. East of the Campanile on Central Campus lies a lone Scarlet Oak tree and plaque which commemorates a tornado from 2005 that destroyed 70 trees on Central Campus.

33. Gold, silver and black were the official school colors in 1891. When the Athletic Council decided to provide sweaters to the student athletes, the council found that it was too difficult to dye the sweaters in those colors, among other issues. In October of 1899, the Athletic Council voted to change the colors to cardinal and gold.

34. William Robert Parks, 11th president, is the longest-serving president of Iowa State — 1965 to 1986.

35. Cap Timm Field was opened in 1968 to allow a baseball field for Iowa State’s Division I baseball team. It became the field for Iowa State’s baseball club team after the sport was dropped in 2001.

36. Lancelot and Elaine were originally trumpeter swans until 1999 when they were switched to mute swans because trumpeters had been too aggressive.

37. Six Iowa State programs rank in the top 25: aerospace, civil, chemical, materials engineering, industrial and manufacturing systems and electrical/electronic, according to U.S. World and News Report.

38. Iowa State has the largest public art collection in the United States, with over 2,000 pieces.

39. Friley Hall is one of the largest residence halls in the nation.

40. Due to the win of an Iowa State football game, there was a three-night student rampage on October 18, 19 and 20, 1953.  Students set fires, tipped over sheds, blocked Lincoln Way and at one point demanded more tear gas.  Following the riots, there was a three page photo spread in Life magazine covering the riots.

41. Gary Thompson was the first true star of the Iowa State men’s basketball program. He was the first player to tally 1,000 career points and had the first 40-point game in school history as well. Thompson also led the Iowa State baseball team to the College World Series in 1957, where the Cyclones finished in third place.

42. Ada Hayden was the first woman to earn a Doctor of Philosophy degree at Iowa State. She was a botanist and the herbarium at Iowa State was later named after her.

43. Over 14 percent of undergraduate students are involved in Greek Life.

44. Hilton Coliseum was opened on December 2, 1971, after it broke ground on June 16, 1968.

45. Iowa State employed 17,075 employees, from part-time workers to faculty in 2017. That’s up from 14,374 employees in 2008.

46. Seaman Knapp, Iowa State’s 2nd president, only served in the role for one year — 1883 to 1884.

47. Old Main was the first academic building on campus, but it was part of a fire and was burnt down.

48. Knute Heglund, an immigrant from Norway, was hired as the first night watchman at Iowa State in 1905.

49. Iowa State alumna Mildred Day was the inventor of Rice Krispie treats and also prepared pancakes for the first color ad in an American magazine.

50. Along with a team of student researchers, agricultural engineering professor Wesley Buchele invented the round hay baler in the 1960s.

51. Iowa State has won National Championships in men’s cross country (two), men’s gymnastics (three) and wrestling (eight).

52. The first official class at Iowa State in 1869 had 24 men and two women.

53. William Beardshear, Iowa State’s 5th president, served in the Union Army at age 14 during the Civil War. Beardshear Hall, where administrators offices are housed today, is named after this president.

54. Iowa State alum Henry Agard Wallace was the 33rd vice president under Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1941-1945, the secretary of agriculture from 1933-1940 and secretary of commerce from 1945-1946. He also unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1948 election on the Progressive ticket.

55. There are 29 themed, life-size Cy statues that can be found in the Ames community.

56. Researchers in the aerospace engineering department developed the nation’s first moving tornado simulator.

57. Iowa State alumna Christine Romans was the anchor of “Early Start” with John Berman, CNN’s chief business correspondent and the host of CNN Money. She also authored two books: How to Speak Money and Smart is the New Rich.

58. In 2017, Growing Together Iowa volunteers harvested nearly 225,000 servings of fresh produce for low income Iowans.

59. Many of the buildings that were built between 1875 and 1898 are still on campus and popular today. These include The Hub, Morrill Hall, Sloss House and the Campanile.

60. There are 22,448 shrubs located on campus.

61. Homecoming has been an Iowa State tradition since 1912 — that’s 106 years of events like Yell Like Hell, parades and mass campaniling.

62. Leigh Hunt, Iowa State’s third president, was a businessman before taking over as Iowa State’s president. His business included serving as a newspaper publisher in 1886 and operating a gold mine in Korea in 1893.

63. Mary Evelyn Victoria Hunter was the first black woman to receive a master’s degree from Iowa State and did so in 1931.

64. Lake LaVerne is a man-made lake.

65. Iowa State’s undergraduate engineering program is tied as the 40th best program, according to U.S. World and News Report.

66. The Fountain of the Four Seasons (in front of the MU) was installed in 1941.

67. Iowa State is one of the “50 Most Haunted Colleges and Campuses,” in part due to the rumor that a former student committed suicide in a room in Friley Hall, which caused the room to be closed permanently. The official university reason for the room being closed is because it has no access to a fire escape.

68. From 2006 to 2016, enrollment increased by about 10,000 students.

69. Barbara Forker, who worked at Iowa State from 1948 to 1990, was known for her work with advancing women in athletics, even working on the Olympics. In 1977, she was a United States Delegate in the Second Educationists Session at the International Olympic Academy, in Olympia, Greece, according to University Archives.

70. Iowa and Iowa State compete in the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series. The two schools compete for the points that are received from winning a respective sporting event and academic success. The winning school is awarded a trophy.

71. Troy Davis holds a special place in the hearts of many college football fans. He was the first — and only — player in Division I history to run for 2,000 or more yards in back-to-back seasons. He finished fifth in Heisman trophy voting in 1995 — one spot ahead of Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning — and second in 1996.

72. Just over 11 percent of Iowa State’s total enrollment consists of international students.

73. The Sukup Basketball Complex was an $8 million facility built in 2009 to give Iowa State men’s and women’s basketball a practice area for future years.

74. Iowa State became the nation’s first designated land-grant institution.

75. The first ever Cy costume weighed so much that the person in the costume had to be 5’11 to 6’2 and 175 to 210 pounds.

76. Iowa State alumna Carrie Chapman Catt graduated in 1880 and was a women’s suffrage activist that helped women gain equal voting rights.

77. Iowa State Parking Services generates over $4.18 million in revenues each year.

78. The original campus had 14 buildings, some of those being barns.

79. There are 35,558 total plants that have been identified on campus.

80. Students have been avoiding walking on the zodiac since 1929.

81. William Chamberlain, Iowa State’s 4th president, was the State Secretary of Agriculture of Ohio before serving as Iowa State’s president from July 1886 to November 1890.

82. Jack Trice Stadium was opened on September 20, 1975, after the stadium broke ground on October 26, 1973.

83. Fall 2017 was the first semester enrollment dipped after 8 years of record breaking enrollment.

84. Zaid Abdul-Aziz (Don Smith) played basketball at Iowa State from 1965-68. He led the Big Eight in scoring twice and in rebounding three times, and was drafted fifth overall by the Cincinnati Royals in 1968 NBA Draft. Abdul-Aziz played 10 seasons in the NBA.

85. Iowa State has been at or over 8.5 percent minority enrollment, a goal set by the Iowa Board of Regents.

86. Students used to be able to skate or play hockey on Lake LaVerne before aerators were installed in the early 2000s to keep oxygen levels high.

87. Geoffroy Hall is the newest residence hall on campus. The eight story building has 14 houses (784 beds) on the upper seven floors.

88. The agricultural and biological engineering undergraduate and graduate programs each rank as the #1 program in the country, according to U.S. World and News Report.

89. Charles Friley, 9th president, served from the end of the Great Depression through World War II, 1936 to 1953.

90. The Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship was established in 1997. The center was established to provided “assistance, connections, and resources for ISU faculty and students with the business and corporate world,” according University Archives.

91. The College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State ranks as the thirteenth best program in the country, according to U.S. World and News reports.

92. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources officially classifies Lake LaVerne as a pond, not a lake.

93. The men’s ice hockey team won the 1992 National Championship and the women won in 2014.

94. Cael Sanderson, who wrestled at Iowa State from 1997-2002, went 159-0 in his career and won four straight national championships at 184 pounds. He also won the 2004 Olympic Gold medal in Athens at 84kg.

95. Iowa State’s Department of Mechanical Engineering passed up Georgia Tech in 2016 as the largest undergraduate mechanical engineering program in the country.

96. The Cyclone Hockey club team played at Hilton Coliseum starting in 1972. The team is currently playing in the Ames/ISU Ice Arena that was built in 2001.

97. A tree was planted in 2011 on the northeast corner of the Campanile to commemorate First Amendment Day. The tree was given the nickname “Liberty Tree”.

98. The Department of Housing was established in 1930 and the name was changed to the Department of Residence in 1937.

99. Through 4-H Youth Development, more than 100,000 youth are reached in order to help them improve their leadership skills, explore future careers and shape the future of Iowa.

100. Football became a sport at Iowa State in 1892.

101. The first public college of veterinary medicine was established in 1879 at Iowa State.

102. The first female to become Cy was Betsy Thomas Bailey in 1975.

103. Iowa State alum Dwight Ink was one of the first two ISU students to graduate in government. He was an adviser for seven consecutive U.S. presidents between Eisenhower and Reagan.

104. There was huge growth between 1875 and 1898 when the number of buildings reached 52.

105. Campaniling got its name for the love story behind it — President Edgar Stanton had it built as a monument to his late wife, Margaret Stanton, the first dean of women.

106. Welch Avenue, one of the main streets in Campustown, is named after Iowa State’s first president Adonijah Welch.

107. The Steve and Debbie Bergstrom Indoor Training Facility opened in March of 2004 to give Iowa State football a place to practice indoors. It was a $10 million facility and in 2012, there was a $20.6 million addition to the facility. 

108. Anson Marston, the former dean of the Division of Engineering at Iowa State, established the Iowa State Highway Commission, which is now the Iowa Department of Transportation.

109. Iowa State previously fielded NCAA Division I teams in men’s baseball, men’s gymnastics, men’s tennis and men’s swimming.

110. Forty-three percent of Iowa State students are female.

111. Lake LaVerne is only six feet deep at its deepest.

112. Iowa State ranks as a Best Buy School, according to Fiske Guide to Colleges.

113. During the Great Depression, Iowa State president Raymond Hughes was controversial in keeping Christian Petersen as an artist in residence even though one third of the faculty had to be cut.

114. There used to be four Towers but two of them, Knapp and Storms halls, were demolished on July 19, 2005, leaving just Wallace and Wilson halls.

115. Iowa State’s concert venue the Maintenance Shop has seen the likes of Jack Johnson, The Lumineers, OK GO and the Smashing Pumpkins.

116. While Iowa State hasn’t had much success historically in football, Matt Blair is one of the shining stars. He played at Iowa State from 1971-73 and was an All-American as a senior. Blair played 12 seasons in the NFL. He was named to the Pro Bowl six times and was first-team All-Pro in 1980. He was a vital part of the 1976 Vikings defense, which is the last time the Vikings make the Super Bowl.

117. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences was the largest college until Engineering passed them up in Fall 2013.

118. Over 54 percent of Iowa State’s student body are Iowans.

119. Cy’s birthday is celebrated on Homecoming due to that being the day of his first appearance.

120. Iowa State alumna Nawal El Moutawakel, who graduated in 1988, was the first African woman and first Muslim woman to win Olympic gold and first woman to chair the International Olympic Committee commission.

121. More than 9,000 people visit the Ag Decision Maker website to learn more about agricultural issues in 2017.

122. Morrill Hall used to house the library, a museum and chapel.

123. There have been swans in Lake Laverne since 1935, when at the climax of Veishea, a float carrying four swans floated down to the lake, leaving the swans in their new home.

124. In 2006, Hilton Coliseum added video and sound systems in the building that equaled $2.5 million.

125. The fall 2017 freshman class had an average GPA of 3.61 and ACT score of 25.

126. The Iowa State men’s basketball team has reached the Sweet Sixteen five times, Elite Eight two times and Final Four one time.

127. Linda Evans is one of 14 Cyclones in the 1,000-dig club, one of 10 in the 1,000-kill club and one of only four Cyclones to be in both. When she left Iowa State in 1987, Evans held program records in kills, attacks, digs, solo blocks and service aces. She was also named Iowa State’s female athlete of the year in 1988.

128. Willa J. Ewing received degrees from Iowa State in 1926 and 1935 and is the first-known woman of color to graduate from Iowa State.

129. LaVerne Noyes was a member of the first ever graduating class at Iowa State in 1872.

130. Iowa State’s interior design program ranks ninth in the country and the landscape architecture program ranks eleventh, according to DesignIntelligence.

131. Many of Iowa State’s recent art acquisitions have been acquired through the Art in State Buildings Act, which required that one half of one percent of the funds for a state building be devoted to fine art to be displayed in the building. However, the act was repealed in the spring of 2017.

132. Lyon Hall was also used to house the Navy in 1943 during WWII. 

133. Cy once had an “offspring” that was named Clone.

134. Through FLEx, Forward Learning Experience, more than 12,000 youth tried virtual reality, 3D prototyping and circuit bending, which will help them practice 21st century design thinking in the future.

135. Baby swans, called cygnets, have been born in 1944, 1970 and 1971.

136. Margaret Hall, the first women-only dorm, was built where LeBaron Hall currently stands.

137. Each of the original 10 bells installed in the campanile are inscribed. The largest bell notes that the carillon is dedicated to Margaret MacDonald Stanton.

138. Iowa State’s fashion merchandising program ranks #3 in the U.S., according to Fashion Schools.

139. Thirteen percent of Iowa State’s total enrollment are U.S. minorities.

140. Betsy Saina improved throughout her career as a distance runner at Iowa State, eventually finishing in first at the 2012 NCAA Division I Cross Country championships with a time of 19:27.9. Saina ran in the 10,000 meters at the 2016 Olympics in Rio and finished in fifth place.

141. Iowa State has fielded 69 individual wrestling National Champions.

142. The university mace, which has been used at commencement since 2004, is 60 inches long and weighs 14 pounds.

143. The Iowa Government Finance Initiative provides all 945 cities in Iowa specific fiscal and socioeconomic information.

144. Iowa State alum Bruce Roth invented Lipitor, the largest-selling drug in U.S. history, which lowers cholesterol.

145. Maple and Willow Halls were originally built as all-female halls.

146. The panthers located outside of Morrill Hall are viewed as a turning point in Christian Petersen’s art style from smaller, modest sculptures to larger, grand ideas.

147. Iowa State’s graduate school is ranked as the fifth best value college in the U.S. and its criminal justice program as the ninth best value by Value Colleges.

148. Angie Welle was a four-year star for the Iowa State women’s basketball team and still holds career records for points (2,149), rebounds (1,209), field goals (791) and free throws (557). She is the only player in Iowa State women’s basketball history to record 2,000 career points and is one of three with 1,000 or more rebounds.

149. Mechanical Engineering is the largest undergraduate major at Iowa State while some majors only have one student including international business and pre-early childcare education and programming.

150. Veishea got its name in 1922, when a professor suggested the name highlight all of the colleges involved in the weeklong festivities.

151. The Iowa State University BioCentury Research Farm is the first facility in the United States dedicated to biomass production and processing.

152. Iowa State was ranked as the top school in Iowa for producing the “most altruistic” students, according to Pillrs.

153. In 2017, there were 23,968 undergraduate applications submitted to Iowa State.

154. The women’s volleyball team has competed in 13 NCAA Tournaments.

155.  The University Honors Program started in 1960 with 40 students and now has 1,400 students. One main goal of the program is to give the students a breadth of knowledge outside of their major.

156. Over 54 percent of Iowa State’s student body are Iowans.

157. Prior to the 2015 football season, Iowa State athletics department added an addition of the Sukup End Zone Club at Jack Trice Stadium that totaled about $50 million.

158. Educating dairy farmers and industry personnel on transition cow management has resulted in $400 more in income per cow.

159. The Cyclone Sports Complex was built in the fall of 2012 to give a home field to Iowa State’s track and field, soccer and softball teams.

160. Wendy Wintersteen, 16th president, is the first female president of Iowa State University.