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1920 In 1920, the school paid the Childers family $4,000 and formally changed its name to Abilene Christian College. Additional land - 35 acres - south of the railroad, just one block west of the campus, was purchased to provide room to grow. The 1920 Prickly Pear featured a women's basketball team, a women's volleyball team and Miss Elizabeth Nelson's Hikers - a group of women who participated in vigorous hiking. |
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1923 The first Students' Association was established. Students raised money to build a gymnasium for basketball. Previously, basketball was played on an outdoor wooden floor with a wire screen around it, called the "Wildcat Cage." The student-built gymnasium on ACU's first campus is still in use by the Coca-Cola Company. Sam Cox of Ozona, Texas, donated a live Wildcat to serve as mascot. The cat was named "Bob Thomas" but died within a year of living in captivity. |
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1924 Batsell Baxter became the young school's sixth president when Sewell resigned in 1924. Baxter initiated more relaxed restrictions on the social privileges of students, and student activities and organizations increased in importance. Continued growth demanded more space, and in 1927 the Board of Trustees appointed a committee to investigate new locations for the school. San Angelo made an attractive offer of two sections of land and $50,000 for building, to which the Abilene Chamber of Commerce responded by raising $75,000 to help keep the college from moving. With this contribution, the college trustees decided to purchase 680 acres on a hill one mile northeast of Abilene known as the Hashknife Ranch. Nearby residents donated 75 additional acres. |
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1925 The annual school picnic began this year. One alumnus remembered it as a chicken roast where participants "would roast the chickens in sand holes." During the 1925 school year, seniors were given rather "wide privileges" - permission to go to town at any time during the day and be out until 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; to have social privileges after dinner every evening until 7:30 p.m. Formerly, seniors fell under the same rules as other students. |
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1926 Students wanted a yell leader for the football team after its defeat by the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets. Harvey "Bud" Porter was elected with "Double L" Blakney as his assistant. |
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1929 Life on the original campus continued as usual while construction began on the Hill. On January 28 the old administration building caught fire. Smith, then an employee in the business office, served as fire marshal and instructed the firemen to soak the southwest part of the building so the records could be saved. A human chain was assembled to move the library books, and some holdings were salvaged, but most of the building was gutted. The opening of the new campus was scheduled for Sept. 5. To meet the deadline the contractor put three shifts to work. New facilities included an administration building, two dormitories, an education building that housed the elementary and high schools, a dining hall, a president's home, a gymnasium and an auditorium. Only six weeks later, the stock market crashed on "Black Thursday," October 29. The Depression plunged the college deep into financial debt. Loans kept the school from closing each semester and salaries were cut in 1930. President Baxter and Dean James F. Cox took 15 percent salary cuts. Faculty salaries were cut 10 percent. The next year, all salaries were cut in half. |
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