President
John X. Jamrich
Campus
- Jamrich Hall (original building)
- Academic Mall
- Cohodas Administrative Center
- Physical Education Instructional Facility
- Lee Hall Gallery
- The Skill Center
- Vielmetti Health Center
- More apartments on Lincoln Avenue
Traditions
The Wildcat Den restaurant becomes a popular spot on the ground floor of the new University Center, with its cozy wooden booths eventually carved with many names and messages. In Magers/Meyland, an eating spot known through time as the Lower Deck, Golden N and the Ancient Mariner becomes another favorite hangout.
Events and speakers: Boxer Muhammad Ali; Athlete Bill Russell; Chair of the Atomic Energy Commission Dixy Lee Ray; Authors Maya Angelou and Donald Hall; Newscaster Charles Kuralt; Dr. Timothy Leary; Musicians Gordon Lightfoot, B.J. Thomas, Richie Havens, The Association, Doc Severinson, Floyd Westerman, Sha Na Na, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Seals and Crofts, Uriah Heap, Brownsville Station, Foghat, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, Bachman- Turner Overdrive, Chicago, B.B. King, Peter Frampton, Steven Stills and Manassas, War, Frank Zappa, Maynard Ferguson, Iron Butterfly, Charlie Daniels, Harry Chapin, Ozark Mountain Daredevils
John X. Jamrich
The Vietnam War was still a major event in the early 1970s. Tragic events dominated the era, including the deadliest earthquake of the century, the Jonestown massacre, the Munich Olympics massacre, the taking of American hostages in Iran, and the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island.
Culturally, disco became extremely popular, M*A*S*H* premiered on television, and Star Wars hit theaters—one of the biggest films of the 20th century. In the landmark case Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court made abortion legal, and the Watergate scandal reached its climax when President Richard Nixon resigned.
Nishnawbe News is first published by the Organization of North American Indian Students at Northern Michigan University in 1971. The Anishinaabe News 50th Anniversary Edition is published online in 2021. Anishinaabe Radio News, co-produced by The Center for Native American Studies and Public Radio 90, WNMU-FM, can regularly be heard online today.
The in loco parentis philosophy, where a university assumes the role of a parent, is virtually abandoned in the early 1970s as students demand and are given more freedom to adopt their own lifestyles. In January 1972, the Legislature lowers the voting and drinking age in Michigan to eighteen and Northern liberalizes strict policies… visitors of the opposite sex are now even allowed in rooms.
Student radio station WBKX starts broadcasting in 1971 from Lee Hall and later moves to the University Center. It was renamed WUPX in the ’90s.
Continuing Education offers credit courses at the Marquette prison, K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base and centers across the U.P.
There are fifteen fraternities and nine sororities on campus. Northern’s Black fraternities and sororities form the Black Panhellenic Council, after numerous snubs from existing Greek organizations, and elect their own Miss BlackPride.
The Bachelor of Fine Arts degree is first awarded in 1973.
In 1975, Northern’s first official logo is selected from more than 30 entries in a contest. It features a lone, leaning pine tree and the letters NMU. It is designed by the Reverend Raymond Johnson ’64 BS.
125th Memories
“If I had to narrow down my favorite thing to do in Marquette to just one thing, I'd say drive around Presque Isle. However, there were lots of favorite haunts that I and my siblings shared: the Blue Link on Presque Isle Avenue, Andy's Bar on Front Street and Peanut Night, the old Wildcat Den with its wooden tables and benches etched with names of hundreds of students past; Sandy's Restaurant and its 10-cent hamburgers, special events in the old Hedgcock Fieldhouse, winter carnivals, watching skaters and hockey games at the Palestra on Fair Avenue, and so much more. In January 1973, I, my sister, and a couple of our friends gathered together in one of the dorm rooms to watch Elvis Presley's concert from Hawaii on TV. I remember playing many a game of Euchre in the dorms. It was my fi rst experience of being able to have food delivered to me. Togo's deliveries were a regular, and welcome, occurrence at the dorms.”
—Mary J. Feldhusen ’76 BS
The 1975 NCAA Championship Football Team
First staff of the Nishnawbe News
Microcomputers come on the scene in 1975, with students and faculty building their own from a kit, such as the Altair 8800 and the Z80 Zitan. Apple computers are introduced in 1976 and soon after a Mac Lab opens in Thomas Fine Arts.
On November 16, 1978 former President Gerald R. Ford makes a special visit to NMU following the conclusion of his presidency the previous year.
The Alibi Rock Theatre opens in 1974 for decades of dancing, drinking and debauchery. Ten O’Clock Charlie’s, at the former Tip Top, midway on Third Street, is a favorite watering hole and the place to be at 10 p.m., where for 10 minutes, a mystery drink or shot is 50 cents.
Lecture hall in Jamrich 1970s