The celebration began in New York City in September 2000, when 570 Northwestern alumni watched alumna and “Saturday Night Live” regular Ana Gasteyer kick off a year of honoring Northwestern in its 150th year.
Since then, the festivities have included a 600-pound birthday cheesecake, purple lights shining from many of Chicago’s tallest skyscrapers, University President Henry Bienen throwing out the first pitch at a Cubs game in front of 8,000 Wildcats, and free burritos at Chipotle for students wearing purple.
But tonight, NU’s year of sesquicentennial events will come to a close with a San Francisco alumni club reception expected to draw 200 graduates now living in Northern California. Although the celebration may be over, organizers and alumni said they have fond memories of the numerous events throughout the year that served to reconnect them to the university.
“I’m very happy with everything that we’ve done,” said Monica Metzler, NU’s sesquicentennial director. “We have had so many different occasions on which to highlight the university and its fascinating history. It’s been a lot of fun and really rewarding.”
In addition to the New York and San Francisco events, galas in Washington, Los Angeles and Chicago allowed alumni from all over the country to exhibit their purple pride as prominent alumni and students, including director Gary Marshall and Music senior and former Miss Illinois Jenny Powers, provided entertainment.
As more alumni increased their interaction with NU through the events, alumni clubs turned to University Archivist Patrick Quinn to give lectures on the history of their alma mater. Quinn, who made stops in San Antonio, Kansas City, Mo., and Palm Springs, Fla., among other cities, said he spoke to more alumni clubs during the past year than he ever has.
“There was a tremendous enthusiasm out there for learning about the history of the university,” Quinn said. “After being out of the university for 10 to 15 years, alumni realize they didn’t really know much about the history and traditions while they were there.”
But although alumni across the country used the sesquicentennial as an excuse to rediscover their NU roots, most of the birthday action took place in Evanston and Chicago.
On Oct. 20, 2000, students joined in on the celebration with a weekend of festivities and lectures commemorating NU’s 1851 founding. The events included an on-campus picnic, a 5K run and speeches by Quinn and Prof. Gary Willis. At Deering Meadow, officials also unveiled a 600-pound cheesecake, which was swiftly devoured.
The Chicago alumni sesquicentennial party, held June 20 at Navy Pier’s Grand Ballroom, attracted more than 1,000 people. Marc Blakeman, president of the Chicago alumni club, said many of the alumni were happy to see the event being used to build goodwill instead of for fund-raising purposes.
“There was no mention at all of Campaign Northwestern; it was simply a celebration,” he said. “Alums appreciated that all the events weren’t billed as fund-raising tools.”
Cubbage said there was no soliciting of donations at any of the sesquicentennial events.
Blakeman also said he appreciated Chicago’s and Evanston’s efforts to unite behind NU during the year of celebration. During the last week of January, Chicago skyscrapers and bridges lit the sky with purple.
“The cities became a part of Northwestern, and that is something you don’t see a lot of,” Blakeman said. “It’s nice to see both Evanston and Chicago getting involved in demonstrating pride for NU.”
Metzler said the success of the events could serve as a model for NU’s next big birthday celebration — the bicentennial in 2051.
“Obviously a lot has changed in the past 50 years and an awful lot will change in the next 50 years,” Metzler said. “But the experience of looking back at the whole history has been a great exercise. I hope students who were here for the sesquicentennial make it a plan to come back 50 years from now for that celebration. They should know they are a part of history.”
