1920s
1921: Athens-area alumni of Ohio University gather to discuss the University’s need for an auditorium. A budget of $300,000 is set; the state promises the pay the balance if the University can raise $200,000 toward that goal.
Fundraising begins in 1922, drawing contributions from more than 2,000 alumni, all faculty, and $20 each from enrolled students.
1924: The University’s $200,000 share still is not collected. Eager to get things going, University President Elmer Burritt Bryan invites members of the state Financing Board to Athens to attend a meeting at Ewing Hall. Every faculty member and student attends, packing the meeting hall well beyond capacity. Impressed by the turnout – and, perhaps, by the demonstrated need for a larger meeting space – the board votes to supply the remaining funds.
1927: Ground is broken for the new building in July. The site is the northeastern corner of the College Green. The alumni committee overseeing the project had proposed tearing down Cutler Hall for the auditorium, but President Bryan wisely vetoed the idea and suggested the opposite corner of the green.
Landscaping crews working behind the auditorium find more than they bargained for beneath a large tree stump: the remains of an old well. Research determines that the well was dug between 1808 and 1910, making it one of the oldest wells in the state.
1929: On January 20, Memorial Auditorium is dedicated to the University’s war dead and to all alumni.
An audience of 2,200 attends the first theatrical production in the auditorium: a performance of “Macbeth,” starring John Alexander and Genevieve Hamper.
1930s
1932: Legendary singer-actor Paul Robeson spends a day roaming the campus visiting students and faculty before performing in the new auditorium. He comes back for encore after encore; finally, he says he will give the audience what it wants - and launches into his signature song, “Old Man River.”
1934: Thousands of students and faculty members file past the body of beloved University President Elmer Burritt Bryan, which lies in state in the auditorium lobby for 3 hours before a special memorial service.
1936: Poet Robert Frost makes the first of two campus visits.
1939: The OU Revue, a two-night all-campus variety show, includes four large production routines, 16 vaudeville acts, dance chorus, showgirls, special music, and elaborate staging and lighting – involving more than 100 people.
1940s
1940: As war in Europe and Asia seemed about to pull America into the maelstrom, some 350 male students, ages 21 to 35 registered for the draft in the auditorium lobby.
1941: The flu epidemic strikes more that 1,000 students – some of whom still attend a Russian duo-piano concert at Memorial Auditorium. “It was like the sharp notes of a trombone blasting into the soft music of a string section,” said Health Director E. Herman Hudson in The Post. “It’s up to the audience to give more glaring looks, stare harder and make the cougher conscious of his own unconscious act.”
1941: Women students take over the auditorium to present and view “The Women Only,” a cavalcade of OU coed life over the years. A sign over the entrance reads “No Men Allowed,” and several varsity wrestlers were on hand to enforce the ban.
1942: Students gather at Memorial Auditorium to mourn those lost in the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
1942: Commencement exercises are held in the auditorium in May – one month earlier than usual – to allow those called for military service to participate in the ceremony.
1947: Maurel Hunkins, director of Public Occasions, institutes “Movies in the Auditorium,” giving students an inexpensive (nine cents) way to see the latest Hollywood releases. The series entertains students over three decades, from returning GIs in the 1940s to war protesters in the 1960s. Funds raised by MIA help to build Baker Center and Bird Arena.
1950s
The 1950s were a good time for pop concerts in the auditorium. Stan Kenton and his orchestra and Buddy Morrow played there in 1952; 1954 brought Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians and Wood Herman and the Third Herd.
1954: Eleanor Roosevelt, America’s wartime First Lady and its first ambassador to the United Nations, talks to students of April 26 about America’s challenges with spiritual and moral leadership.
1959: A young senator from Massachusetts named John F. Kennedy urges students to use their education to aid society. A few months later, he delivers a similar message – in his inaugural address.
1959: The Performing Arts Series kicks off its first season. Through the years, the series has become southeastern Ohio’s primary cultural outlet, bringing to the area such renowned artists as Itzhak Perlman, Duke Ellington, and the premiere of the national tour of “Agnes of God,” starring Geraldine Page and Amanda Plummer.
1959: The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., issues his call for social justice in a speech delivered on December 30.
1960s
1961: Students were treated to appearances by two masters of their crafts: jazz great Louis Armstrong and poet laureate Robert Frost, in his second visit to the auditorium.
1962: Edwin L. and Ruth Kennedy’s gift to the John C. Baker Fund establishes the Kennedy Lecture Series to discuss “major issues in American life.” Among speakers it has brought to campus are former president Jimmy Carter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough, feminists Gloria Steinem and Naomi Wolf, scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., political humorists P.J. O’Rourke and Molly Ivins, philosopher Cornel West, and political advisers James Carville and John Sununu.
1962: Alumnus John Galbreath donates a $75,000 pipe organ for the auditorium. Comprising 3,381 pipes, the organ is installed in the auditorium balcony.
1963: A special memorial service for President Kennedy draws students, faculty, and community members to the auditorium. The service climaxes with the University Singers performing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” as mourners file out for a retreat ceremony by the Army and Air Force ROTC units.
1964: During a visit to campus, President Lyndon Johnson describes his vision of America as the “Great Society” to kick off his war on poverty.
1964-65: Highlights of the academic year were performances by the Lettermen, the Four Preps, Dave Brubeck, and Peter, Paul and Mary.
1965: While picking up an honorary doctorate in October, for President Dwight Eisenhower advises students to “enjoy life and keep a good sense of humor.”
1965: The Ohio University Board of Trustees dedicates 18 bronze plaques mounted on the West Portico commemorating some of the University’s most illustrious visitors. Nearly half bear the names of presidents: William McKinley, William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson. Other plaques are dedicated to William Jennings Bryan, Carl Sandburg, Dag Hammarskjold, William O. Douglas, and John Glenn, among others.
1967: Faced with unprecedented enrollments in introductory psychology courses, the University schedules classes in Memorial Auditorium – making it one of the largest classrooms in the country.
1968: The Grateful Dead bring their never-ending tour to Mem Aud. Although many bands bypass it for the much larger Convocation Center, the auditorium hasn’t lacked its share of rock and roll.
1968: The College of Communication tops its first Communication Week with a lecture by Walter Cronkite, anchor for the CBS Evening News – often described as “the most trusted man in America.”
1970s
1974: The 70’s renovation – the only significant update since its construction – is completed, with minor improvement is lighting an the installation of speakers, among other upgrades to the sound system.
1974: Concert-goers choose from two musical extremes: Big Band impresario Duke Ellington and rock legend Bruce Springsteen. The Springsteen concert does heavy damage to the auditorium – not by the musician, but by the rowdy concert attendees who ripped two outside doors from their hinges, broke three seats, and smashed two windows.
1977: A production of “Show Boat” becomes the last College of Fine Arts musical performed in the auditorium for nearly two decades.
1980’s
1986: David Copperfield wows a packed house with his magic stunts.
Former President Jimmy Carter receives a warm welcome from a full Mem Aud house, whom he encourages to use the University’s resources to make the world a better place.
1990s
1991: Saturday Night Live star Dennis Miller brings his brand of wise-cracking topical humor to the auditorium in a Parents’ Weekend performance. Parents’ Weekend and Moms’ Weekend often feature top comedians, including Jerry Seinfeld, Paula Poundstone and Carrot Top, in Mem Aud shows.
1993: Ohio University’s Board of Trustees rechristens the auditorium Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium to honor the University’s first male and female African-American graduates, John Newton Templeton and Martha Jane Hunley Blackburn.
1997: The auditorium closes its doors for a 24-month, $5.8 million renovation and restoration project.
1999, Homecoming Weekend: Painstakingly restored and thoughtfully updated, the all-new Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium opens its doors to the University and regional community.