- Valpo Fun Facts
- Valpo Fun Facts:
- VU was originally founded by Methodists in 1859.
It wasn’t until 1925 that The Lutheran University Association purchased the school and operates it to this day.
- The Crusader has not always been Valpo’s mascot.
The original mascot was the Uhlan (oo-lan), a violent German
knight. During WWII this fell out of favor and the Crusader was adopted
instead.
- The Chapel of the Resurrection is the largest collegiate chapel in the country.
Dedicated in 1959, the chapel will celebrate it's 50th anniversary in 2009.
- The chapel organ is one of the largest in the country.
It has more than 60,000 pipes in 103 rows.
- From 1917 until the 1960's, first-year students were required to wear colored beanies.
These beanies were actually intended for the first-year students to
identify one another, but upperclassmen could identify them as well,
leading to the hazing practice known as “buttoning.”
- Valpo once had a “campus dog” named George.
George belonged to a VU professor and was very well known
around campus. When George died, he was buried on old campus where a
gravestone still marks his final resting place.
- Valpo once boasted the “world’s tallest basketball team.”
A group of men who were too tall to join the military during WWII came to play basketball at VU.
