This is the first in a five-part series highlighting UH’s 80-year history
Many may regard the University of Houston as nothing more than an inner-city commuter school or the infamous "Cougar High." However, when looking to the past, one is given the sense that this isn’t the case.
Throughout its existence, UH has seen many challenges and changes. What sprouted from borrowed high school classrooms and a gift of 105 swampy acres 80 years ago has since – with the help of dedicated students and benefactors – become the university it is today.
In 1927, Houston Independent School District Superintendent Edison Ellsworth Oberholtzer proposed Houston Junior College as a response to the concerns of graduating high school students who couldn’t get into the elite Rice Institute and those who didn’t want to leave the city to attend another college.
Oberholtzer, the first president of the University, envisioned an institute of higher learning accessible to a wide variety of Houstonians and on June 6, 1927 in the form of a junior college the school had night classes at San Jacinto High School, offering basic freshman and sophomore courses to 230 students.
The college was offically recognized as the University of Houston in 1934 and had its first day classes at Second Baptist Church that fall. By the fall of 1935, the school’s enrollment grew to more than 1,000 and day classes were moved to South Main Baptist Church.
In an effort to make the University a mainstay in Houston, Oberholtzer began looking for a site to establish a permanent campus. In 1936, philanthropist Ben Taub donated 105 acres of swampy land southeast of downtown for the new UH campus.
Hugh Roy Cullen, a San Antonio native in the oil business, would become UH’s most ardent benefactor. One of his first contributions was the money for the liberal arts building which was named the Roy Gustav Memorial Building, and in fall of 1939, day and night classes were in session in the first air conditioned university building in the United States.
UH severed ties with HISD in 1945 following the creation of a Board of Regents, chaired by Cullen, and 1961 marked the year of the legislative battle in which UH was recognized by Texas as a state-supported institute of higher education, despite other universities’ zealous efforts to keep that from happening.
Now in it’s 80th year of existence, the University of Houston has an enrollment of about 34,660 students. The campus is swarming with student organizations ranging from the Student Government Association to the Aikido club and even student-literary journals. UH offers an array of colleges including the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, Rebecca and John Moores School of Music and the Bauer College of Business to satisfy the needs of its diverse student body.
For a chance to show appreciation for what so many have helped create during the past 80 years, take part in one of the school-spirited events happening this week of homecoming as the campus’ celebrates its 80th anniversary.
Go Coogs Day is Wednesday in Cullen Family Plaza, the annual Cougar Marching Band Gala is slated for Friday at Moores Opera House and homecoming football game that pits the Cougars against Marshall University’s Thundering Herd is Saturday at Robertson Stadium.
