Tag Archives: alumni

Laundry day at the university-hanging out the wash

Ever wonder how much laundry a family of four can go through in a year? To dramatize how many clothes and linens the average family of four must wash and dry, Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. used the University of Detroit Stadium, three miles of clothesline and 7,000 articles of clothing provided by Goodwill Industries. According to the September 9,1960 Free Press article: “…the hard work was done by 10 unhappy husbands. They toiled for nine hours, using 14,000 clothespins, three...

From UD High School Student to UD College Student to UD President-THREE Times!

The initial founding of the University of Detroit in 1877 included a collegiate and an academic or what we would consider today “high school” division. This system continued until 1928, when the UD high school was academically separated from the collegiate division. It was not until 1947 that the administration and financial connections between the high school and college were separated into two distinct institutions. In another one of my ebay purchases, I picked up a 1929 University of Detroit...

City of Detroit Mayors: UDMercy Alumni- Miriani, Cavanagh and Gribbs

As the city of Detroit votes for its next Mayor, the University of Detroit Mercy is no stranger to having former students get elected into the position.The University of Detroit Law School produced three students who eventually succeeded in their run for the office.  Don’t know what the odds could be, but it would be three mayoral administrations in a row; Miriani, 1957-1962, Cavanagh, 1962-1970, and Gribbs, 1970-1974. Louis C. Miriani graduated from University of Detroit Law School in 1922....

There she is – our Miss America! Pamela Eldred, Mercy College of Detroit Alumni

Pamela Eldred had a goal since she was in the third grade: Walking down the runway at the Miss America Pageant. Not only did she get to represent Michigan in the Miss America Pageant, she won the title of Miss America 1970. She was a senior at Mercy College with a major in speech and drama. In the talent portion of the pageant she performed a ballet for which she won the talent award. A brief account of her experience...

Author! Author! Joyce Carol Oates (Smith), Instructor and Elmore Leonard, Alumni at UDMercy

At the University of Detroit Mercy you never know if the instructor in front of you or the scrawny kid sitting next to you could be a future famous writer. That was the case at the University of Detroit. Elmore Leonard earned a degree from the University of Detroit in 1950 and has written many novels, some have been made into movies that include: Get Shorty, Mr. Majestyk and 3:10 to Yuma . His most recent work includes working as...

Take me out to the ball game: University of Detroit baseball team 1895-2004

The first team to officially represent the college was in baseball in 1895. Detroit won the first game against the Polish Seminarians of Orchard Lake on May 23, 1895. Browsing through a series of articles “The Story of the University” in the Varsity News 1927-1928, some of the early games were played against the High School. Back in those days the Detroit College and the High School were under the same institutional umbrella.The games were not always played under ideal...