During the first three years of his administration, the campus was embroiled in the social unrest of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Peace marches, sit-ins and protests against the Vietnam War were a regular occurrence on campus. Though none of the protests were ever violent, the new president found himself in a rather unique position upon taking office — having to deal with politics not only from an administrative level, but from a newly conscious student level as well.

Students openly expressed political opinions in the college newspaper, The Central Ray, and social/political activism was a common activity for most of the campus. Weller deftly bridged the gap between nervous school financial donors who were not yet sure if they supported the new politically charged atmosphere of Central, and students who were experiencing for the first time moving within a political framework to effect change.

During the May 1970 Tulip Time festival, Weller delivered an address at the memorial service organized by the student body in honor of the Kent State student slayings. Junior Gary Grant later wrote of the speech: “(President Weller) did more than bridge the communication gap that everyone says exists between college students and administration. He achieved a UNION OF FEELING…I realized that we weren’t ‘hippie creeps’ descending on a colony of people in wooden shoes … Pella’s Tulip Time is an established tradition. A college community marching for peace is establishing a tradition for the future. Establishing a tradition means newness and change — with the hope of betterment.”

It was also during this time that the African American students on campus founded the Afro-American Culture Center in 1970, a project developed and organized by black students on campus led by Al Dortch. The widespread state of national political consciousness faded quickly from the student body as the 1970s gave way to the 1980s, and has all but disappeared today.

The 1970s certainly weren’t all about politics. One of Central’s most cherished traditions began in 1977 during the homecoming festivities — the Lemming Race. First conceived and organized by the men of second floor Gaass Hall, with Larry Happel ’81 receiving credit for the original idea, the event was eventually taken over by the Theta Kappa Alpha fraternity.

The Lemming Race takes as its inspiration the urban legend that lemmings, an arctic animal, leap to their death in mass suicide migrations each spring. Though not a fact of nature, Central’s lemmings pay homage to this unusual ritual. Donning creative costumes and led by a new “Grand Lemming” each year — Jack Grubaugh being the first — the lemming racers congregate in front of the Geisler Library fountain late on Friday afternoon of homecoming weekend and await their leader.

The Grand Lemming, normally arriving in unusual style such as the 1999 Grand Lemming and his attendants who re-created the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, delivers an inspirational speech to his or her followers, and then deposits himself or herself onto the island in the middle of the pond. The lemmings then wait for the signal to race, and sprint down Peace Mall to the edge of the pond, throwing themselves into the murky water. In 1977 there were approximately 40 racers. In 1978 that number had jumped to over 100, and today approximately 200 racers brave the questionable muck of the pond each year.

Though homecoming originally began with the football game as a sideline activity, today it has grown into the centrifugal point of the weekend’s events. Football was first recorded at Central in 1893 though early game records are not complete. Early teams were not considered school-supported organizations, so players organized themselves into intramural clubs that arranged their own practices along with supplying their own coaches and uniforms.

Two games are recorded in 1894 and 1895 respectively. There is no record of the first game, but it is known that the second was played on a field in Monroe against Des Moines College. A player from the opposing team was badly hurt during the game and later died as a result of his injuries. The game was not finished, and football was dropped at Central until 1899 when one game was played against an independent town team from Knoxville.

Regular football schedules were played from 1903 to 1905, dropped until the 1909 – 1916 years of regular games, and then dropped again until 1920. A regular schedule of games has been played yearly ever since. Central’s first Iowa Conference title for football was won in 1939 under coach Richard Tysseling, as were the second and third in 1945 and 1946. In total, Central has captured 25 Iowa Conference titles. The longest Conference winning streak appearing between 1983 through 1987 during which Central came out on top each year.

One of the greatest football highlights is the 1974 National Championship title brought home by the team coached by Ron Schipper, the first in Central’s history. After the Des Moines Register published the headline, “Central Wins National Title,” a copy of it arrived in Schipper’s mailbox with an inscription written around the edges: “Congratulations to you and your team. All Iowa is proud of your team victory. From a former quarterback who played against Central some 65 years or so ago. Central was always good.”

Athletes and activists did not take up all of Central’s time during the 1970s. President Weller, between keeping the peace on Central’s campus during rallies and cheering on winning teams, there was still the growth of the college to think of. In December 1972, the 10-year $2,500,000 “Central Challenge” campaign fund drive was launched. This fund drive aimed at fully changing the face of Central by building a new library, 12 new residence units and introducing new academic innovations.

The Central Challenge Campaign was a great success. The imaginative townhouse system begun by Lubbers expanded during the 70s until 15 such houses dotted the campus. Four of the townhouses facing West Third Street, called the William G. Wing Center, consisted of International House, French House, German House and Spanish House, all connected by a basement commons. Another two houses facing Independence Street were named the Herbert G. Mentink Center, and the final six units were placed to the east of Kuyper Gymnasium named the Collegiate Center. The Quonset Huts of the post World War II-years facing Peace Mall on what is today the north side of Geisler Library were demolished in preparation for constructing townhouses.

In 1974 the award-winning Geisler Library was built housing 200,000 volumes when it opened and a full media center. In September of that year, several hundred students, faculty, staff and community volunteers spent an entire day moving 90,000 books from Ludwig Library to Geisler. Alum volunteers C.A. DeBruin ’24 and E.E. Heeren ’19 each recalled moving the library one other time from its former location in the basement of Jordan Hall to its quarters in Ludwig, salvaged from the YM/YWCA fire of 1917.

Weller also found funding to build the Kruidenier Center for Communications and Theatre. The building was named for Daniel Kruidenier (1805-1893) and his descendents for their significant contributions to Central College and the community of Pella since 1855. In 1981, the Kuyper family of Pella funded the building of Kuyper Chapel, and in 1989 the Kuyper Fieldhouse. The final building project of Weller’s presidency was the 1990 Maytag Center, which replaced the old Student Memorial Union.

After the passage of Title IX in 1972, Central found itself in the happy position of having two sets of sports teams — men’s and women’s — to set loose on the other competitors of NCAA Div. III athletics and bring home Central glories. Before this time, female athletes on intramural teams provided their own uniforms and transportation to and from games.

The Central volleyball and softball teams both had their official beginnings in 1972, though they were played as intramural sports for years before that date. Just one year after the founding of women’s golf in 1973, Central’s female athletes were given the opportunity to participate in Division III basketball, track and field and cross country. In total women’s sports have amassed 11 national championships between track, basketball, softball — four championships, the most recent just this year, volleyball — three successive championships 1998-00 and cross-country.

Just two years before the beginning of volleyball’s ’98 to ’00 streak, the Central College Men’s Golf team, begun in 1969, finished the 1996 season with yet another Iowa Conference title — their 16th in a row, a feat no other team in the college’s history has matched. In total, the Men’s Golf team has steadily gone about their business of gathering an unprecedented 24 Iowa Conference titles — a sobering statistic for all of their opponents with no intention of easing off anytime in the future.

By 1990, President Weller was ready to retire from Central College. His successor, Dr. William Wiebenga, served as president for seven years. In the beginning of the 1990s, the United States was still in the midst of an economic recession begun in the 1980s. This recession exacerbated a disturbing trend of decreasing enrollment across Iowa campuses, and Central was no different. Lower class sizes combined with other difficulties to create a strangely tense time on Central’s traditionally united campus.

Despite lower enrollment, Central was operating with an endowment of $30 million, sports teams were taking no prisoners on the athletic fields and unique opportunities to experience renowned visual and performing art events on campus abounded.

Dr. David Williams, along with other Central College and Romanian representatives, brought to campus an international celebration of music with “An Enescu Celebration” featuring internationally celebrated Romanian violinist and conductor Lord Yehudi Menuhin. The four-day event of lectures, recitals and discussions culminated on April 20, 1997, with a concert conducted by Menuhin at the Des Moines Civic Center.

The Mozart Festival celebrating the 200th anniversary of the great composer’s death brought the Minnesota Opera Company to campus for a performance of the comedic opera “Cosi Fan Tutte” on Oct. 4, 1990. That same year, internationally recognized voice and movement coach Arthur Lessac conducted a six week workshop on campus attended by actors from five different countries along with Central students.

In 1991 the fire engine red English utility phone was donated by Cottingham and Butler Co. and installed in its current location by the pond. In 1997, four years after the retirement of legendary art professor Larry Mills, the grand ceramic sculpture “Kan Kal,” created by Des Moines artist David Dahlquist, was installed in the front entrance of the Mills gallery to honor professor Mills’ 43 years of service.

After Wiebenga’s resignation in January 1997, Central spent the next year and a half interviewing potential candidates while Dr. Thomas Iverson, professor of mathematics and chair of the natural sciences division, took over as interim president. One of the most important qualities the faculty and administration felt the new president must possess was strong leadership — strong enough to re-unite rocky relationships and once again build the sense of community, trust and family that Central had become famous for over the years.

By choosing Dr. David Roe as the 19th president to lead Central into a new century, everyone felt that a true leader had been found. Former Air Force Brigadier General, Rhodes Scholar, corporate businessman and professor of physiology at the Air Force Academy, Roe has put into practice many ambitious plans for the college in all areas from new buildings to new academic programs to a new endowment campaign. During his inauguration ceremony Oct. 2, 1998, Roe wore a brand-new presidential medallion created by art professor John Vruwink.

The previous medallion, a lovely carved walnut circlet with the college seal in the middle, was first worn by President Weller during his inauguration more than 25 years before. With a new president, a new century looming around the corner, and a new outlook of hope for the future, Vruwink took a new approach for this medallion from the one that he used to create its predecessor in 1969. The medallion Roe sported that day was a sterling silver wing-like piece with a delicate silver chain, a piece that inspires optimism while at the same time reflects the past.

At the end of 1997, Central’s enrollment had dipped to a decade-low of 1,100. Today the enrollment numbers are approaching 1,700 and steadily increasing each year. Other improvements seen during Roe’s presidency are the new Weller Center for Business and International Studies along with the Schipper Fitness Center, which both opened in 1999, the Carlson-Kuyper Field Station and Firth House in 2000, the new Graham Hall Conference Center and in 2003, a $20 million expansion on the Vermeer Science Center was completed. In fall 2003, a new pod-style residence on the far west side of campus opened.

The entire community celebrated its heritage with the April 2003 public launch of The Campaign for Central, a capital campaign designed to net $50 million for the endowment of Central’s next 150-year legacy. The last class of the first sesquicentennial graduated on Sunday, May 11, 2003, marked by an appearance and commencement address by President Emeritus Weller.

The past 150 years have, overall, been good to Central College. The influences of a Central education are some of the most important in the lives of the people that have spent significant years on its campus. This sentiment is summarized by Merle Hamre ’40.

“Over the years I have from time to time wondered why I have kept such an affection for Central … As I have grown older I realize that the basic foundation of the school is love. It exists, as I see it, for the sole purpose of perfecting young persons … I love the school because I know of the love it has shown me.”

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