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25 unusual facts about Oberlin College


1908–09 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team

Michigan won its first intercollegiate basketball game, and played in its first overtime game, on Saturday, January 16, 1909, against Oberlin College.

The team won Michigan's first intercollegiate basketball game, and played in its first overtime game, defeating Oberlin College, 27-25, on January 16, 1909.

Anthony Burns

With proceeds that came from his biography, combined with a scholarship, Burns received an education at Oberlin College in Ohio.

Babe I'm Gonna Leave You

A fellow folk singer who guested on The Midnight Special, Janet Smith, took up the song and developed it further, playing it live at hootenanny folk-song events at Oberlin College, one performance of which was attended by Joan Baez.

Dirk Andries Flentrop

To honor his achievements, in 1968 Flentrop was awarded an honorary doctorate in musicology by the American Oberlin College, Ohio for his "pioneering work in classic organ building".

Eva Emery Dye

When her father opposed her seeking a college education, she worked as a school teacher and saved the funds to attend Oberlin College independently.

Frits Lugt

During the Second World War, the couple fled to the United States, where Wolfgang Stechow secured a temporary position for him lecturing at Oberlin College, Ohio.

Howard Taubman

He was the recipient of honorary degrees from the Philadelphia Academy of Music, Oberlin College and Temple University.

Jewel Lafontant

Jewel earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Oberlin College in 1943.

Joel Dewey

He entered Oberlin College in 1858, but withdrew in October 1861 when he accepted a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the 58th Ohio Infantry.

Lucy Boscana

Boscana graduated from high school and decided to continue her education by enrolling in Oberlin College located in Ohio, where her cousin, Madeline Willemsen, was studying a French language degree.

Luther Halsey Gulick, Sr.

Daughter Sarah Frances Gulick (1854–1937) married Professor Frank Fanning Jewett (1844–1926) of Oberlin College on July 30, 1880.

Maidens IV

She began vocal lessons at age 15 under Kay Raplenovich and attended classes at Oberlin College in 2003.

Milo Goodrich

He attended the South Cortland district school, Cortland Academy (in Homer) and Oberlin College in Ohio.

Mohammed Ibn Chambas

His working in the United States includes teaching at Oberlin College, Ohio and practising law with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and the Cleveland, Ohio, Law Office of Forbes, Forbes and Teamor.

My Name Is Jonas

"My Name Is Jonas" was inspired by Rivers's brother who got into a car accident at Oberlin College and was having a problem with his insurance.

Oberlin High School, Jamaica

The school was started in January 1946 as Oberlin College (not to be confused with Ohio's Oberlin College).

Oberlin University

The university's name was derived from that of pastor and philanthropist J. F. Oberlin, and the name also shows the university's historical ties with Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, which the university's founders attended.

Oszkár Jászi

He came to the United States in 1925 and joined the faculty of Oberlin College, where he settled down to a career as a history professor and wrote a series of books, the best known of which is The Dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy, first published by the University of Chicago Press in 1929.

Roger Wolcott Sperry

Sperry went to Hall High School in West Hartford, Connecticut, where he was a star athlete in several sports, and did well enough academically to win a scholarship to Oberlin College.

Shields Green

Professor James Monroe of Oberlin College, a family friend of Copeland from Oberlin, Ohio, searched for Copeland's body, but found Green's, and was unable to retrieve either body.

Spalding–Rigdon theory of Book of Mormon authorship

In 1884, a Spalding manuscript known as Manuscript Story was discovered and published, and the manuscript now resides at Oberlin College in Ohio.

The Shadow over Innsmouth

As the story ends, the narrator, by then a student at Oberlin College, tells us that his horror at the idea is changing into acceptance, and that he will be quite happy living forever in the city Y'ha-nthlei, deep beneath the sea.

Thomas Ebbesen

Thomas Ebbesen received his bachelors from Oberlin College, and a PhD from Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris in the field of photo-physical chemistry.

Tsiang Tingfu

Having been urged to study in the U.S. by his teacher from a missionary school, in 1911, he was sent to study in the United States, where he attended the Park Academy, Oberlin College and Columbia University.


Alex Halberstadt

He graduated from Oberlin College in 1992, and for some time worked at NYANA, a refugee resettlement agency in New York City (his co-workers there included Todd Solondz, Gary Shteyngart, Alexander Gelman and Roman Turovsky).

Arthur Tappan

Throughout their careers, the Tappans devoted time and money to philanthropic causes as diverse as temperance, the abolition of slavery, and the establishment of theological seminaries and educational institutions, such as Oberlin and Kenyon colleges in Ohio.

Carl A. Zimring

Before arriving at Roosevelt University, Zimring taught a variety of environmental history seminars at Oberlin College, and history surveys at Michigan Technological University and the University of Canterbury.

Charles Joseph Chamberlain

(February 23, 1863 – February 5, 1943) was an American botanist, born near Sullivan, Ohio, and educated at Oberlin College and at the University of Chicago, where he earned the first Ph.D. in that institution's botany department, and where he was a long-time employee, becoming associate professor in 1911.

Cleveland University

It was founded by Asa Mahan in 1851, the then-recently resigned president of Oberlin College located in nearby Oberlin, Ohio.

College Terrace, Palo Alto, California

All of the street names in the College Terrace neighborhood are named after East Coast colleges and universities such as Amherst, Bowdoin, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Oberlin, Princeton, Cornell, Wellesley, Williams and Yale.

Edward Fauver

After his year at Alma, Fauvner became the head coach at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio for 5 seasons, from 1900 to 1904, three of those seasons alongside his brother Edgar Fauver.

Extramural Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone at Cyrene, Libya

Following the renewal of relations between Libya and the United States in 2004, the Cyrenaica Archaeological Project (CAP), under the direction of Professor Susan Kane of Oberlin College, was granted permission to resume the work of its predecessors.

Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden

He graduated from Oberlin College in 1850 and from the Albany Medical College in 1853, where he attracted the notice of Professor James Hall, state geologist of New York, through whose influence he was induced to join in an exploration of Nebraska Territory, with Fielding B. Meek to study geology and collect fossils.

Jolyon Stern

"Jolyon Stern himself is also quite attuned to the entertainment environment. He is a graduate of Oberlin College, known for its performing arts program. And, he is married to Nelle Nugent, a multiple Tony award winner. Ms. Nugent has produced some 30 Broadway shows."

Juba Kalamka

He has been a speaker, panelist, and curator for numerous organizations and conferences, among them the San Francisco Black Gay/Lesbian Film Festival, GLAAD, Hip Hop as a Movement at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Burning Closets/Working Our Way Home at Oberlin College.

Lenny Seidman

A 75 minute solo piece performed by Seidman for tabla and frame drum approximately 12 times during 1994 and 1995 for Helmut Gottschild’s “Meet Mr. R” performed at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, Allegheny College, Meadeville PA, University of the Arts Theater, Philadelphia PA, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia PA.

Maggie Thompson

Thompson graduated in 1964 from Oberlin College as an English major, then worked as an assistant children's librarian in the Cleveland Public Library system through the summer of 1966, when she quit to have children (Valerie and Stephen).

Robert M. Kingdon

He completed his undergraduate education at Oberlin College before moving on to Columbia University where he earned a doctorate under the noted Tudor historian Garrett Mattingly.

Samuel Anderson Architects

One of their current projects will intervene into Cass Gilbert and later, Robert Venturi's Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College.

Samuel Swinfin Burdett

He studied law at Oberlin College, Ohio, was admitted to the bar in 1858 and commenced practice in DeWitt, Iowa.

Stefan Lano

He studied Biology and Composition concurrently at Oberlin College and Oberlin Conservatory of Music before attending Harvard University on a full fellowship.

Theodore Dwight Weld

When the school's board of directors, including president Lyman Beecher, prohibited them from discussing slavery, about 80% of the students left Lane seminary, most of these enrolling at the new Oberlin Collegiate Institute (later renamed Oberlin College).

William H. Frankhauser

He attended the public schools, Michigan State Normal School (now Eastern Michigan University at Ypsilanti, Michigan, and Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.