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 was the first year UConn freshmen had to have a high school diploma in order to enroll?
A: 1914
B: 1891
C: 1919
D: 1893
Prior to becoming one of the seven founding schools in the Big East in 1979, UConn had been a regional basketball power, winning 18 championships in which conference?
A: The New England Conference
B: The Eastern College Athletic Conference
C: The Yankee Conference
D: The Athletic League of New England State Colleges
James “Angie” Verinis ’41 was co-pilot of the famous Memphis Belle flying fortress during World War II. What did he name the bomber he piloted later in the war?
A: The Hellfire Husky
B: The Connecticut Yankee
C: The Lady of Mirror Lake
D: The Spirit of ’81
Frances Osborne Kellogg dropped out of high school and never attended class at UConn, yet her legacy has become one of the most prominent aspects of the University. What did she contribute?
A: She donated the basketballs and uniforms for the first women’s team
B: She applied the first coat of gold paint to the cupola atop Wilbur Cross
C: She gave the school the Husky puppy chosen as Jonathan I
D: She left a bequest that enables the production of Dairy Bar ice cream
Bonus: 2021 is not the first year UConn has held stadium graduations. For a few years in the early sixties during the Homer Babbidge administration, commencement was held in Memorial Stadium in Storrs. What was the final year UConn graduation was held at Memorial Stadium?
Answers
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A.
In the 1880s, many graduates of what was then Storrs Agricultural School went on to attend high schools elsewhere in the state. Even though the school became a college in 1893, it wasn’t until 1914 that high school diplomas were required to enrolled, the change being one of many innovations brought to the University by President Charles Beach.
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C.
Although the original athletic conference for UConn teams was the Athletic League of New England State Colleges, and although UConn basketball had an impressive run in the New England Conference (including winning the 1941 conference championship), and although UConn would play in the ECAC tournament in the late 1970s, it was the old Yankee Conference where the Huskies became a power, winning 18 conference championships between 1948 and 1975.
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B.
As pilot, Verinis – who played on the New England Conference championship basketball team during his senior year – was given the choice to name his aircraft, and he chose a moniker rich in home-state pride. His constant companion during the war was Stuka, a Scottish terrier Verinis adopted while training in Britain.
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D.
Kellogg (1876-1956) may have dropped out of Ansonia High School, but the Derby native was a successful businesswoman and farmer, running four separate businesses at a time when women weren’t even allowed to vote. A committed supporter of agricultural education, at her death she left a bequest to UConn that funded the creation of the Kellogg Dairy Center, which houses the Department of Animal Science’s milking cows – whose milk is used by the UConn Creamery to make the famous Dairy Bar ice cream and cheese.
Bonus: 1990
UConn historian Mark Roy tells us that commencement was held in Memorial Stadium for a few years during the Babbidge administration, first in 1963. Weather concerns moved it back indoors. It was held in the Stadium once more in 1990 under President John Casteen, when the rain left only a measly crowd by the time the final students received their diplomas.
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