Challenge yourself to Tom’s Trivia!
See if you know as much as King of UConn Trivia and University Deputy Spokesperson Tom Breen ’00 (CLAS).
Scroll to the bottom to reveal the answers.
What is the oldest UConn Storrs building to have been built specifically as classroom space?
A: Storrs Hall
B: Gulley Hall
C: Budds Building
D: Holcomb Hall
In 1952, UConn issued a new policy that brought an end to a decades-old tradition. What was it?
A: Throwing the senior class president into Mirror Lake
B: Staging a bonfire made from lecture notes and textbooks at the end of final exams
C: Kidnapping the University of Rhode Island mascot
D: Snowball fights between North Campus and South Campus
In the first decade of the 20th century, the horse and buggy was still the main means of travel to and from Storrs. There was naturally excitement when Prof. Frederic Putnam became the first automobile owner on campus, with the student newspaper celebrating his “record” journey of 3.5 hours from campus to what city?
A: Coventry
B: Willimantic
C: Hartford
D: New Haven
In 1989, the Board of Trustees was told there would be “no academic loss” to closing what building on campus?
A: The Student Union
B: Greer Field House
C: The Planetarium
D: The Dairy Bar
In 1920, a team of horses pulls a sled over snow-covered Willowbrook Road, which was a main campus entrance at the time.
Answers
- B. Built in 1908 during the first great expansion period in University history, Gulley Hall initially served as the home of the Department of Horticulture, and originally included a greenhouse next door that was later torn down. After World War II, the building served as the home of what was then the Department of Foreign Languages before becoming the campus office location of the president and other senior administrators, which it remains today.
- C. After a group of UConn students were arrested in 1951 and each fined the then-steep sum of $100 for damaging property at URI’s Kingston campus, UConn officials formally banned “ramnapping,” the tradition of stealing Rameses, the rival school’s mascot, prior to homecoming football games. URI officials in turn agreed to expel any students who attempted to kidnap Jonathan. No such treaty existed with UMass, leading to numerous “raids” by students on both campuses lasting well into the 1960s.
- B. A journey from the center of campus to Main Street Willimantic, which today typically takes between 20 and 30 minutes, lasted a bit longer in 1906, when Prof. Putnam made his trek by car. Although paved roads arrived soon after, for several years horse-drawn carriages remained the principal means of getting to and from Willimantic, for the princely sum of $1.50 per trip.
- D. Although it’s hard to believe, the Dairy Bar – more specifically, the UConn Creamery – was once on the chopping block for budget reasons. State health inspectors said the facility needed $2 million worth of renovations to meet code, and University officials considered simply shutting it down and licensing the UConn brand to other dairy producers. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, the Creamery and Dairy Bar were saved, and today only milk from UConn cows is used to make the roughly 50,000 gallons of ice cream produced every year by the Creamery.
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