This blog site will track and provide constant updates for The University of Central Florida: Campus History, a collaborative effort between the University of Central Florida Alumni Association and Arcadia Publishing. Set for an '09 release, this book will be the first (and, to date, only) complete book-length history of the school's first four decades.

UCF Reflecting Pond

UCF Reflecting Pond

The Project

The University of Central Florida has stood at the edges of Orlando for forty years, a major institution of research, culture, education, and professional development, stitched into the very fabric of one of the nation's most dynamic and influential metropolitan areas.

It is a school that, founded in 1963 (the same year Walt Disney made his fateful fly over Central Florida and chose the location for his now-famous Walt Disney World), has grown along with the surrounding community, year by year, in size, prominence, and power.

Over 50,000 students currently attend the University of Central Florida, and hundreds of thousands have earned their degrees here since the first semester of classes in 1968. Each has left a mark on the campus, and for the last forty years, it seems as if each new year has seen the school pass some new milestone: a living and working hospitality management school, an on-campus football stadium, a medical school. For a young university, this is a place whose history is being written and revised each year, whose accomplishments are far from over...but this is also an institution with a rich history and a rich tradition.

And, for the first time ever, we are attempting to collect that full history.

But this won't simply be a dry, newspaper-style account of the university's growth, nor will this simply be a bullet-pointed list of accomplishments, as you might see on a web site or brochure.

This will be your history, a collection that showcases the University of Central Florida through extensive photographs, archival material, and individual accounts. What were the most important moments to define the school, from 1963 to the present? What are the most lasting images? What have been the most important landmarks, the most important traditions, the most important events? Who are the people who have helped to build this school into what it is today?

UCF is a school that has been writing its history for the past forty years, and now we will truly have a document to capture that history. Check back to this blog site frequently for updates, calls for interviews and stories, and calls for photographs. This is a project that can only succeed with the help of the students and alumni who call UCF their alma mater.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Fan Traditions

Now that football season is officially over, I want to ask UCF fans to tell me their favorite fan traditions. Anything and everything. What sort of traditions and activities did you participate in when the UCF Golden Knights played downtown at the Citrus Bowl? What sort of activities have you participated in since the Knights took the field in Brighthouse Networks Stadium?

Trust me, nothing is too insignificant, and nothing is silly or stupid. There are a thousand small traditions when it comes to athletic events at this university (some forgotten, some still going on today), and a handful of publicized traditions (i.e. Spirit Splash). But in order to tell the entire story of the University of Central Florida, I need to know about all of it.

Send me stories, comments, and photos (of anything from tailgates to games to...whatever...I'll keep it general), at nholic@mail.ucf.edu.

This school has seen a lot in its nearly thirty years of football, and nearly forty years of basketball tradition. UCF has national championships in crew and in volleyball, conference championships in basketball, football, baseball, and softball, and tremendous fan support for such a young university. Show me what you've got, UCF fans.

In the meantime, check out this photo I unearthed of the very first UCF Knight mascot. Yes, this is a real photo.

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