In honor of NIU’s 125th anniversary, a committee came together to compile a list of NIU’s 125 memorable moments. They asked people on campus for their opinion and also drew from their personal experience to create the list.

As of now the first 11 moments in “Chapter 1: The Beginning” can be found at https://125keymoments.niu.edu, which spans 1895 to 1906.

In addition to NIU’s moments, there will also be a year-long celebration featuring special events, history projects, music and fine arts, and service projects, beginning in January 2020, according to the website.

Deciding on 125 moments out of 45,625 days was a difficult process, Community Communicator Melanie Magara said. The committee of employees, faculty and trustees all have diverse and long histories at NIU, so the discussion took a while. They met throughout summer and early fall to select the key moments. 

What they found while sorting is that while one may have been important, other universities experienced something similar, so many were not special to the identity of NIU. 

Besides important events unique to NIU’s development, many were sources of pride, Magara said. While some events did not change the direction of the university, they represent philanthropy and generosity within NIU’s history that made a difference in the university’s life, she said.

Magara found the fact that NIU’s colors were yellow and white before officially becoming cardinal red and black interesting.

“[The committee] went to the archives and found some old tenants and buttons that showed [NIU] was called Northern Illinois State Normal School” Magara said. NIU claimed 4 names before being called Northern Illinois University. 

It wasn’t until the university developed a football team that the colors changed. Because the colors showed grass stains easily, among other undesired messes, football players were not wild about dressing in yellow in white, Magara said.

NIU’s identity didn’t stand out with such plain colors either, so the athletic department adopted cardinal and black.

The virtual repository of 125 moments will remain a permanent part of NIU’s online presence so it can be built upon in the future.

“Someone will have to do the 150 year anniversary,” Magara said.