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St. Olaf College was founded in 1874 by a group of Norwegian-American immigrant pastors and farmers, led by Pastor Bernt Julius Muus, as a coeducational, residential, four-year private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
History of the College
Founding of the College
In Rice County Minnesota and the surrounding area in the late 19th century, many new Norwegian immigrants arrived in the area. With nearly all the immigrants being Lutheran Christians, they desired a non-secular post-secondary institution in the Lutheran tradition that offered classes in all subjects in both Norwegian and English. The catylist for founding St. Olaf was Rev. Bernt Julius Muus. He sought out the help of Rev. N.A. Quammen and H. Thorson. Together they petitioned their parishes and others to raise money in order to buy a plot of land on which to build this new institution. The three men succeeded in receiving around $10,000 in pledges, and thus went on to form a corporation and to buy a plot of land and 4 buildings (old [[Northfield%2C_Minnesota| Northfield]] schoolhouses) for accomodations for the school. St. Olaf, then called St. Olaf's School, opened on January 8, 1875 at its first site under the leadership of its first president Thorbjorn Mohn.Music at St. Olaf
St. Olaf's music program, founded by F. Melius Christiansen in 1903, is renowned. Its band, choir and orchestra tour the continental U.S annually and have made many critically-acclaimed international tours. The St. Olaf Band was the first American college musical organization to conduct a concert tour abroad when it travelled to Norway in 1906. The orchestra was the first college orchestra ever to be a part of the Community Concert series.
The St. Olaf Choir, currectly directed by Anton Armstrong, was founded by Christiansen in 1907 as the St. John's Lutheran Church Choir, and is regarded as one of the premier a cappella college choirs in the United States. It has toured Europe several times, as well as China, Korea, and Australia, performing before heads of state and producing over a dozen recordings. The choir performs in the nationally-broadcast annual St. Olaf Christmas Festival along with St. Olaf Orchestra and 4 of the college's other choirs.
In 1990, graduates of the St. Olaf choral program founded Magnum Chorum, a Twin Cities based a capella choir. Magnum Chorum strives to continue the St. Olaf tradition once members leave "The Hill."
One of the most popular ensembles at St. Olaf is a men's acapella group known as the Limestones. This seven-voice student-run group is very popular on campus, especially with the first-year female students. The group was founded in 1989, and sing a boy band variety of songs, which they arrange themselves. The name "Limestones" is a reference to the limestone that most of the campus building are made from. One of their most popular songs is an original called Malt-O-Meal, a song about a St. Olaf student who makes the mistake of eating "Cream of Wheat in a Malt-O-Meal town." Northfield, MN is the birthplace of Malt-O-Meal.
Athletics
St. Olaf College is a member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC). St. Olaf athletic teams and students are nicknamed the "Oles". St. Olaf competes in the following sports:
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St. Olaf also has many student coached club and intramural teams that compete within the student body and also intercollege. Most notably is the St. Olaf Ultimate Frisbee team, which makes an annual trip to a national collegiate tournament (Spring Ultimax) in North Carolina.
Rivalry with Carleton College
St. Olaf is a traditional athletic and academic rival of its neighbor across town, Carleton College. Each year in football, Carleton and St. Olaf compete in a contest recently coined the "Cereal Bowl" in honor of the Malt-O-Meal factory which is headquarted in Northfield. In this contest, the Oles have not lost to Carleton since 1995, and hence have retained the "Goat Trophy", which is awarded annually to the winner of the contest. The rivalry between St. Olaf and Carleton is one of the oldest in all of college football, and the only to feature 2 colleges from the same ZIP code.
A lesser known fact about the Cereal Bowl is that along the main street (Division Street) in Northfield, there is a veterans' memorial featuring an American eagle. From this point, St. Olaf is to the west, and Carleton is to the east. Each year, the eagle is turned to face the college that wins the once-a-year football match between the two schools.
College fight song
The college song, Um Ya Ya, is in 3/4 time and has the following lyrics:
| We come from St. Olaf, we sure are the real stuff. Our team is the cream of the colleges great. We fight fast and furious, our team is injurious. Tonight Carleton College will sure meet its fate. |
It is one of the few college songs to mention another college in its lyrics (Texas A&M University's "Aggie War Hymn" is another, as well as UCLA's and Georgetown University's fight songs), and is also the only college fight song with a waltz beat.
Presidents of the College
St. Olaf has had 11 presidents since its founding:
- Thorbjorn N. Mohn 1844-1899
- John N. Kildahl 1899-1914
- Lauritz A. Vigness 1914-1918
- Lars W. Boe 1918-1942
- Clemens M. Granskou 1943-1963
- Sidney A. Rand 1963-1980
- Harlan F. Foss 1980-1985
- Melvin D. George 1985-1994
- Mark U. Edwards Jr. 1994-2000
- Christopher M Thomforde 2001-2006
- David R. Anderson 2006 to Present
Notable alumni
- Ole Rolvaag (1876-1931), Author, Professor
- David R. Anderson, Future President of the College (Effective July, 2006)
- August Andresen (1890-1958), U.S. Congressman
- Anton Armstrong, Conductor of the St. Olaf Choir
- Andrew Volstead, U.S. Congressman and author of the National Prohibition Act of 1919
- Arlen Erdahl, U.S. Congressman
- Harold Hagen, U.S. Congressman
- Einar Haugen, renowned linguist
- Howard and Edna Hong, authors, translators of complete works of Søren Kierkegaard
- Paul Henze, CIA Middle East Station Chief
- David Minge, U.S. Congressman
- Mark Olson, U.S. Federal Reserve Governor
- Sidney Rand, U.S. Ambassador to Norway
- Joan Ericksen, U.S. District Court Judge
- Al Quie, U.S. Congressman and 35th Governor of Minnesota
- Steve Sviggum, Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives
- Erik Paulsen, Majority Leader of the Minnesota House of Representatives
- John Marty, State Senator and 1994 Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate for Governor of Minnesota
- Russell A. Anderson, Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court
- Sam Hanson, Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court
- Andrew Roberg, Newspaper Editor and Genealogist
- Chris "Rock" Torstenson, US Presidential Advisor
- Barry Morrow, Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Rain Man
- Ernest Orlando Lawrence (1901–1958), physicist and Nobel laureate
- Aurora J. Adamson, Musician
- Robert Bly, poet
Miscellaneous
St. Olaf is mentioned in the works of Minnesotan F. Scott Fitzgerald (Jay Gatsby of "The Great Gatsby" attended briefly and worked as a janitor), and in Garrison Keillor's radio program "A Prairie Home Companion". A fictional Minnesota city was often mentioned by Rose in the TV show "The Golden Girls." Word is that one of the writers attended cross-town rival Carleton College, and hence made the crazy Rose character from the fictional town "St. Olaf, Minnesota". In the TV show, the fictional city's sister city was St. Gustav, Minnesota, a nod to Gustavus Adolphus College located nearby in St. Peter, Minnesota.
External links
- St. Olaf College
- St. Olaf Records
- Northfield Visitor Information
- The Limestones A Capella
- College history resources
Associated Colleges of the Midwest | Universities and colleges in Minnesota | Liberal arts colleges | Historically Norwegian-American colleges | Lutheran colleges and universities | Universities and colleges affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America | Rice County, Minnesota
"St. Olaf College"