Category Archives: Uncategorized

Mercy College of Detroit Women’s Basketball Team

While the rest of the sporting world is focused on the March Madness of the NCAA Basketball Championship, I am going to write about a team few people probably even knew existed-Mercy College of Detroit women’s basketball team. I would also guess even fewer people would know the team name: Crusaders. The colors for Mercy College were blue and white. The colors for University of Detroit were red and white, so when the two schools merged, UDMercy colors are now...

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Uncategorized , , Updated: March 27, 2014

Eta Zeta Sigma and Kappa Beta Pi-First Sororities at the University of Detroit

Eta Zeta Sigma became the first sorority to be organized at the University in 1919-20 school year. Membership was restricted to women students of the school of Commerce and Finance. The first sorority function was a Christmas party at one of the University parlors. The sorority was organized to promote college spirit among women of the University and to foster true loyalty. In the 1929 Tower Yearbook, there is a description of some of the initiation rites to train the...

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Uncategorized , , , Updated: March 13, 2014

The Irish Connection at University of Detroit Mercy

Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy, was born in Dublin, Ireland. After her parents died, she moved to live with Protestant relatives. She became a household manager and companion with friends of the relatives, the Callahans, a wealthy and childless couple. When they passed away, she inherited a considerable fortune which she used to open a house to shelter and educate women and girls. From that first House of Mercy in Dublin Ireland in 1827, the Sisters of...

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Uncategorized , , Updated: February 24, 2014

1990 University of Detroit Dental School Yearbook

Except for 1976, the U of D Dental School had their yearly activities included in with the annual Tower yearbook editions. The Tower yearbooks ended in 1988, but the Dental School put out their own yearbooks for a few more years.  I don’t think anyone does yearbooks any more which is too bad. Something like Facebook can only go so far in maintaining the kind of memories that comes with the printed copy of a yearbook. Its hard to tell...

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Uncategorized , Updated: March 7, 2014

Mardi Gras Time!

University of Detroit used to have big Mardi Gras celebrations with parades, dances , and  elect a king and queen to reign over the festivities. In 1967, as part of the Town and Gown concert series, Al Hirt and his band from his New Orleans Bourbon Street Club played on campus in the Memorial Building (now called Calihan Hall). I guess I am dating myself, but I always associate Al Hirt with Mardi Gras like Guy Lombardo with New Years...

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Uncategorized , , Updated: April 24, 2014

Celebrating Winter? Enough Already!!!

Record snow, record low temperatures and a new term “poplar vortex” that only meterologists ever used, has even us native Detroiters  anxious for temperatures just to get above freezing! For anyone who is new to this area, this has not been a normal winter. Unlike the residents of Atlanta, Georgia, a couple of inches of snow in Detroit is not a reason to panic. We do have to put up with some extra long drive time, but at least the...

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Uncategorized , , Updated: February 21, 2014

Valentine’s Day: Male vs Female

I thought since this blog would come up on February 14, I would find some nice Valentine’s Day article in the student newspapers. Did not expect it to be such a problem! Such a difference when I looked through the student newspapers of Mercy College of Detroit and the University of Detroit. The predominately female Mercy College paper always seemed to have a Valentine’s related item, but not true for the UD student newspaper. For example in 1975, Mercy had...

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Uncategorized , , , Updated: February 6, 2014

Black Madonna Statue at University of Detroit Mercy

In 1968 the University of Detroit created the Special Projects Office to assists students who had been considered unprepared to successfully negotiate the college curriculum. The  Project 100 students in the program met and discussed the need for the University to become more relevant to black students. These discussions led to the decision by the students that a statue of the Black Madonna and Child would be a symbolic representation of their presence on campus. When they met with Rev....

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Uncategorized , Updated: July 11, 2018

Chinese New Year-The Year of the Horse

On my calendar, January 31, 2014 is Chinese New Year. I thought I would take this time to note some of the items that are in the archives that have a Chinese influence. The most notable is the 1933 Tower yearbook, the entire edition has a Chinese theme. What has got me really puzzled is “Why?”  Most of the other yearbooks do not seem to have much in the way of a theme the way this one does. As far...

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Uncategorized , Updated: January 24, 2014

Ski Club at University of Detroit 1951-1973

According to the Varsity News, the UD Ski Club was first formed in October 1951. The skiing was done at Cadillac, Michigan, Pontiac Ski Club, Snow Valley at Boyne Mountain, Caberfae and West Branch. They even had an occasion to travel outside of Michigan to Aspen, Colorado, Blue Mountain Ski Resort near Collingwood, Ontario for a four day ski trip and Mount Tremblant located in the Laurentian Mountain range, Quebec, Canada. All students regardless of experience could join the club....

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Uncategorized Updated: January 24, 2014
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