Lesser-known Marquette Stories?

October 17, 2007 2:05 PM

What's your best obscure fact/story about Marquette University?

I'm looking for information about Marquette that's outside the marketing speak of the university's own materials. So, if you either went to Marquette, or considered going there, what's some lesser known fact or story about the University?

(Say, 75% of all Dentists in Wisconsin went to school there or a personal experience of the school)

posted by dial-tone to Education (9 answers total)

I don't know how known this is outside of libraryland but the reasoning for all of Tolkien's manuscripts being there is sort of a neat one.

Tolkien manuscripts reside at Marquette because of the vision of William B. Ready (1914-1981), director of libraries from 1956 to 1963. Ready was appointed with the understanding that he would aggressively collect material for the newly-constructed Memorial Library. He recognized The Lord of the Rings as a masterpiece soon after its publication, long before the work and its author gained enormous popularity. With administrative approval, Ready approached Tolkien in 1956 through Bertram Rota, a well-known rare book dealer in London. At the time, no other institution had expressed an interest in Tolkien's literary manuscripts. After a relatively brief period of negotiation, an agreement was reached whereby Marquette purchased the manuscripts for 1,500 pounds (or less than $5,000). The first shipment of material arrived in 1957; The Lord of the Rings manuscripts arrived the next year. Tolkien accepted offers to visit and speak at Marquette in both 1957 and 1959, but on each occasion he canceled the anticipated visit due to family concerns.

posted by jessamyn at 2:40 PM on October 17, 2007

Chris Farley was an alumnus, as was his character in Tommy Boy.
posted by emd3737 at 3:01 PM on October 17, 2007

The St. Joan of Arc chapel at Marquette contains a stone that Joan prayed at and reportedly stays colder than all of the other stones in the building. I touched it and it did feel cool.
posted by emd3737 at 3:04 PM on October 17, 2007

My Marquette friend says Chris Farley used to be the king of sliding on his bare belly on a beer-soaked Slip N Slide at a bar near campus. And the bar got in trouble for doing it, so they would lock down the doors before they let him do it.

Also, students were regularly stopped by gawkers outside campus and asked about various Jeffrey Dahmer landmarks during that case's heyday.
posted by GaelFC at 3:09 PM on October 17, 2007

Senator Joe McCarthy (law school I believe) and Chris Farley (broadcast electronic communications in the communications school) are the most famous alums.

In Tommy Boy he wears an MU rugby jersey, a team known more for it's partying than its sports prowess (and supposed date rape).

Thanks to a tannery and a yeast factory, the campus smells nasty more often times than not, especially after Ambrosia Chocolates closed, thanks to the publicity around Jeffery Dahlmer.

There was much controversy in the early '90s when a math teacher was asked to leave for covering over a crucifix with a backpack because it was "threatening the educational atmosphere."

The last (I think) MU student to make it to the final round in College Jeopardy! lost because she thought the cartoon was "Ren & Stumpy" (eeediot)

The gallery contains original Dali works, but there is (or wasn't in the mid-'90s) an art program at the school. All the Dali's are references to Christ.

The sororities aren't allowed to have houses because a house full of women is too dangerous in a city.

Cheap keggers. I mean, desperately cheap keggers thanks to it's Milwaukee location.

The Golden Eagles? Come on. It'll always be the Warriors to some people, despite the ethnic sensitivity.
posted by Gucky at 3:47 PM on October 17, 2007

"Naked" beer slides were a MU tradition, the way for frats to use up old kegs. All the Farley on campus stories tend to be, "So?" when you're there, as there are three guys just as drunk doing stuff just as stupid.
posted by Gucky at 3:58 PM on October 17, 2007

Gucky: "The sororities aren't allowed to have houses because a house full of women is too dangerous in a city."

Whaaaat? Can you back that up?

Or explain this?

Sounds a lot like this urban legend to me.
posted by GaelFC at 4:37 PM on October 17, 2007

Not sure if it's part of the campus literature (I'd guess it probably is), but I can't hear the word Marquette without thinking of Flash himself.
posted by saladin at 4:48 PM on October 17, 2007

Woah, GaelFC. Nice catch. Things have changed since my margarita-soaked rush week in the early '90s.

Not an urban legend. I'm just an old lady :)
posted by Gucky at 4:38 AM on October 20, 2007