Hamline University is a private university located in the Midway district of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. The college was founded in 1854 and is the first university established in Minnesota. Named in honor of Leonidas Lent Hamline, the university remains affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Hamline has a total enrollment of approximately 4,600 students, including a College of Liberal Arts, School of Business, the Hamline University School of Law and other Graduate Studies programs. Hamline is ranked first in Minnesota and ninth among 137 universities in the U.S. Best Universities-Master’s Midwest category by U.S. News and World Report.

History

Red Wing location (1854-1869)

Hamline University was named in honor of Leonidas Lent Hamline, a bishop of the Methodist Church whose interest in the frontier led him to donate $25,000 toward the building of an institution of higher learning in what was then the territory of Minnesota. Today a statue of Bishop Hamline sculpted by the late professor of art Michael Price stands on campus. The University of Minnesota is disputably older (having been chartered in 1851), although it did not begin enrolling students until 1857. Hamline is also distinct for being founded as a coeducational institution, a rarity in nineteenth-century America. Hamline’s first home was in Red Wing, Minnesota. The school’s charter stipulated that Hamline should be located "at some point on the Mississippi between St. Paul and Lake Pepin." The city of Red Wing pledged about $10,000 to enable construction of a building and the beginning of an endowment, and also donated a tract of land on a hillside overlooking the Mississippi River.

The first classes were held in rooms housed on the second floor of the village general store while the construction of the classroom building was in progress. Classes were in the second term when students moved into the Red Wing building in January 1856. The original building contained a chapel, recitation rooms, a school room, a library, laboratory, reading rooms, and dormitory quarters. Seventy-three students enrolled at Hamline in the opening year. The catalog lists them separately as “Ladies and Gentlemen,” but most of them were children or adolescents. All were enrolled in either the primary or the preparatory department. There was no collegiate division – the frontier had not yet produced students ready for college. Tuition ranged from $4.00 to $6.66 per term. The collegiate program was introduced in 1857, and in 1859 Hamline graduated its first class.

With the start of the American Civil War, enrollment in the college division dropped from 60 to 16 in one year. There was no graduating class in 1862. Records indicate that 119 Hamline men served in the Union armies during the war. In 1869, the university shut down. The first building at the Red Wing site was torn down in 1872.

Saint Paul campus (1880-1914)

had been expected that Hamline would reopen on a new site within two years after the closing at Red Wing; however, indecision in the selection of a new site caused a delay. In the end, a 77-acre Saint Paul prairie plot halfway between the downtowns of Minneapolis and Saint Paul was selected. Construction began in 1873, but by then an economic depression had overtaken the planners, and there were repeated postponements and delays. University Hall, begun in 1873, was constructed in installments as money came in, and was not completed until the summer of 1880.

The doors opened on September 22, 1880, and Hamline’s history in Saint Paul began. The catalog for that year lists 113 students, with all but five of them being preparatory students. Tuition in the collegiate division was $30 per year. Two degrees were offered at the time: the B.A. and the B.S. In 1883, the bachelor of philosophy degree replaced the B.S., and remained in use until 1914, when the faculty dropped the PhB. and restored the B.S. degree.

On February 7, 1883, University Hall, barely two years old, burned to the ground. To replace the structure, plans for a new University Hall were prepared. Eleven months later, the new structure, the present Old Main, was completed. Emergency space for classrooms was provided by Ladies’ Hall, which had opened in 1882. Other new construction included Science Hall, which was completed in 1887, the Carnegie library in 1907, and the new gymnasium, which was completed in 1909.

World War I and Postwar Years (1915-1929)

When World War I came in April 1917, track and baseball schedules for spring were cancelled when enlistments and applications of officers’ training depleted the teams. Hamline was designated one of 38 colleges in the country to supply men for ambulance work in France. Twenty-six men were selected for the unit and served in France with the 28th Division of the French Army. In the fall of 1918, a unit of the Students’ Army Training Corps was established at Hamline and almost every male student became an enlisted member. The Science Hall was used for military purposes, with the basement becoming the mess hall and the museum and several classrooms being marked for squad rooms and sleeping quarters. The campus became an army post; the bugle replaced the class bell.

The Great Depression and World War II (1930-1945)

The Great Depression and World War II created significant challenges for Hamline. The most difficult were the years in the early 1930s, in which the repercussions of the depression were intensified by conflicts over internal reorganization. The problems of the depression centered on reduced income. Increased enrollments reflected the belief that it was better for students to be in college than to be sitting at home in idleness and despair. The college tried to help by providing jobs and financial aid and lowering charges for tuition and room and board. Jobs of any kind were at a premium, with the most prized being board jobs in the Manor House and at the Quality Tea Room on Snelling Avenue. Also in top demand were board and room jobs for women in private homes. In the meantime, the portion of the college endowment invested in farmlands turned unproductive and the university's income fell following reductions in tuition. All of this led to annual deficits and substantial cuts in faculty salaries. It was not until 1935 that Hamline began to recover from the depression. During the war years, Hamline’s enrollment held above 600, except in 1943 and 1944. Although males registrations dropped as men entered the armed services, the women's enrollment increased as nursing students arrived.A new venture was launched in 1940 when Hamline and the Asbury Methodist Hospital of Minneapolis established the Hamline-Asbury School of Nursing, which offered a five-year program leading to a bachelor of science in nursing. Hamline moved with a growing trend to provide academic training for women preparing for careers in nursing. A three-year program leading to a diploma in nursing was also offered. In 1949, the Mounds-Midway School of Nursing joined the school, and the newly-enlarged institution took the name of the Hamline University School of Nursing.

Post World War II (1946 – 1966)

A flood of veterans entered or returned to college after World War II under the G.I. Bill of Rights. The first reached the campus in the fall of 1946, when registrations passed 1,000 for the first time. Enrollment reached a new high in 1949 when 1,452 students, including 289 in the School of Nursing, registered for classes. The School of Nursing, which had been an integral part of Hamline since 1940 and had won wide recognition for the excellence of its program, was discontinued in 1962 following a decision to concentrate resources and staff on the liberal arts program. The last class in the three-year program graduated in 1960 and the last class in the degree program graduated in 1962. A total of 447 women completed the degree program, and 758 women finished the three-year program.

After World War II, two new residence halls were built – Drew Residence for men and Sorin Hall for women. A new fine arts center was completed in 1950, and the Drew Hall of Science was dedicated in 1952. The old science building was taken over by the social science and other departments and was renamed Social Science Hall. In 1963, the A.G. Bush Student Center was completed, and at the time, its modern facilities made it at once the social, recreational, and cultural center of the campus. Throughout this period, buildings were enlarged or remodeled to keep pace with new needs and standards. Wings were added to the Manor House and Drew Residence. The seating capacity of the library was increased to 100 with the completion of a new periodical room, and the old student union was remodeled and turned into a laboratory with classrooms and office space for the language departments. In the summer of 1966, extensive alterations and improvements were made in Norton Field House and in the theatre of the fine arts center.

Between 1953 and 1966, faculty members received grants totaling more than $600,000 for special education and research programs.

New academic publications (1966–1987)

Hamline broke ground in May 1970 for the $2.6 million Bush Memorial Library. The library, a three-story, building housing some 240,000 volumes, opened in the fall of 1971. The Paul Giddens Alumni Learning Center, linked to the Carnegie library and named for a former university president, opened in October 1972. The social science and humanities divisions and the department of education are now housed within the center, which also contains classrooms, study areas, and laboratories.



The university began construction on a new $4 million law school building in January 1979, which was dedicated in October 1980. The Hamline School of Law had received accreditation from the American Bar Association several years earlier in 1975. The law school began publishing the Hamline Law Review in 1978 and a second student-edited journal in the spring of 1980 – the Journal of Minnesota Public Law (since 1986, it has been known as the Hamline Journal of Public Law and Policy). In 1983, in collaboration with the Council on Religion and Law at Harvard University Divinity and Law Schools, the Hamline School of Law launched a faculty-edited journal, the Journal of Law and Religion.

After the Charles M. Drew Fine Arts Center opened in 1950, Hamline began to gradually acquire a permanent art collection, especially after Paul Smith became chair of the department of fine arts in 1965. By 2003, the permanent collection included more than 600 original works of art.

New construction and discoveries (1988–2003)

The $1.3 million Sundin Music Hall opened in October 1989. On May 9, 1991, the Orem Robbins Science Center was dedicated. The center became the home of the biology, chemistry, and physics departments. Old Main, the campus landmark, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places; Old Main was renovated during the summer of 1978 and again after a fire on September 2, 1985, caused $10,000 in damage. In October 1990, workers began a $290,000 renovation. They removed and rebuilt a -high section of the tower, covered the 106-year old building with new concrete shingles, and installed a four-sided clock in the tower. In 1993, an electric carillon was added to the tower that can ring a bell and play selected music.

Hamline broke ground on September 27, 1996, for the $5.6 million, Law and Graduate Center/Conference Center, which was dedicated on October 10, 1997. Hamline began construction on a $7.7 million student apartment building at 1470 Englewood for 142 graduate and law students on September 29, 1998. The building was completed in 2000, in time for students to move in for the fall term.After four years of planning, ground was broken on October 18, 1996, for a $8.5 million sports, recreation, and health complex named the Lloyd W. D. Walker Fieldhouse, though construction did not begin until the following spring. The completed fieldhouse, at Snelling and Taylor, opened on September 10, 1998. Klas Center, a modern, $7.1 million multi-use facility which includes the football field and a track, was built in 2003 to replace the aging Norton Field.

As the campus was transformed by construction projects, attention turned to Hamline's roots in the summer of 1996. An archaeological dig headed by John McCarthy of the Institute of Minnesota Archaeology and anthropology professor Skip Messenger began at the site of Hamline's original building in Red Wing. The three-story brick building, constructed in 1855 and open in time for classes to begin in January 1856, closed in 1869 and was demolished in 1871. Since few records exist from that time, the exact location and dimensions of the original building were unknown until the archaeological dig. The dig found that the original building's foundation was insufficient for its size, leading to speculation that structural problems might have contributed to the building's closing and eventual demolition.

A new era and schools (2004-Present)

In 2004, Hamline celebrated its 150th anniversary. Throughout the year, every department held a public event related to the anniversary. The slogan for the event was "Looking back. Thinking forward." In July 2005, Linda N. Hanson became Hamline’s 19th president. Hanson is also Hamline’s first woman president. Prior to coming to Hamline, Hanson was the president the College of Santa Fe.

Schools and colleges

College of Liberal Arts

The College of Liberal Arts houses Hamline’s undergraduate programs. Hamline University College of Liberal Arts students can earn a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree in 38 areas of study. Hamline University is one of only 276 Phi Beta Kappa institutions in the country. Bachelor of Arts degrees are available in 33 areas of study. The majors offered are typical of a Liberal arts college and include the physical and social sciences, humanities and fine arts such as anthropology or women’s studies. Hamline University also offers a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry, biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. Students may also minor in 35 areas of study within the college.

The foundation of Hamline’s undergraduate liberal arts program is the Hamline Plan, which is tied directly to graduation requirements and is designed to ensure that students receive a well rounded education. The plan requires students to conduct independent studies, participate in internships and apprenticeships, and to develop their skills in such areas as writing, speaking, computing, and cultural awareness.

The student to faculty ratio is 13:1 and the median class size is 18. Almost all (94%) faculty hold the highest degree in their field. Research opportunities are not restricted to the University’s graduate students, meaning the College of Liberal Arts students are afforded a chance to engage in research as well.

College of Liberal Arts students also have the option to participate in a variety of activities. Hamline competes in 19 intercollegiate sports in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Conference, which is Division III. In addition to sports, Hamline has over 70 clubs and organizations. Hamline also has an “alliance” with Hancock-Hamline elementary school, which is located across the street from the University. Hamline students involved with the elementary school will tutor their elementary school colleagues or act as “buddies.”

School of Education

Hamline University’s School of Education houses only the graduate school programs. Undergraduate students interested in licensing in Minnesota are tracked through the undergraduate Education department.

The School also offers the following programs:

• Master of Arts in Education

• Master of Arts in Education: Natural Science & Environmental Education

• Master of Arts in English as a Second Language (ESL)

• Master of Arts in Teaching

• Doctorate program in Education

The graduate programs are designed to accommodate students that are currently teaching already and are furthering their education for either their own pleasure or to meet Minnesota law.

Graduate School of Liberal Studies

The Graduate School of Liberal Arts (GLS) offers three degrees:

• Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS)

• Master of Fine Arts in Writing (MFA)

• Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults.

The GLS attempts to create a meaningful dialogue and inquiry across disciplinary boundaries, enabling students to gain a deeper understanding of the human cultural heritage and the issues of contemporary life. The school also prepares students who wish to specialize in creative writing and to teach writing at the college level.

The MALS program is designed to offer the serious student opportunities to range freely among academic, spiritual, artistic, and professional issues and ideas. Students learn basic concepts in a range of disciplines such as literature, art, philosophy, history, psychology, sociology, and science and how to relate these concepts to the broader world.

In contrast the MFA program is a terminal degree for students who wish to pursue careers as writers and/or who want to teach writing at the college level. Despite their differences the two programs share some common themes; they both require interdisciplinary study, elective courses, capstone projects as well as significant amounts of writing.

Hamline University School of Law

Hamline University School of Law offers full and part-time legal education in pursuit of the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree, as well as the Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree for international lawyers. The School of Law is well-recongnized by its Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) program. The program, founded in 1991, offers courses in both domestic and international dispute resolution. It is enhanced by agreements with international institutions that bring international students to Hamline University and send U.S. students overseas. US News & World Reports 2008 ranks the ADR program fourth among its class across the United States. The general law school is placed in the third tier. The first-time bar passage rate for Hamline students is nearly 91 percent and the highest in Minnesota. The Wisconsin first-time bar passage rate for Hamline students is 100 percent.

Hamline University School of Business

Hamline University School of Business contains both the undergraduate and graduate business programs. The undergraduate program offers degrees in Business Administration (B.A.) and Economics. The B.A. allows students to concentrate on any of the following: general business, international business, finance, management, or marketing.The graduate program offers the following degrees:

• Master in Business Administration

• Master in Nonprofit Management

• Master in Public Administration

• Doctorate degree in Public Administration.

Partnerships and associations

Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities

Hamline is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities, (ACTC) which is a consortium of five private liberal arts colleges, all located in either Minneapolis or Saint Paul, Minnesota. This program allows students to take classes at any of the associated campuses as long as the class is not offered at their home university. Students enrolled at one institution are able to take courses at ACTC member institutions. Students are limited to one ACTC course per semester.

Bilateral exchange programs

Hamline also has partnerships with foreign universities that allow students to study abroad and pay the same rate as they would at Hamline. The program also guarantees that credits earned abroad will transfer back to Hamline. The other universities are:

Universitat Trier, Germany

Universität Trier was founded in 1473 in the city of Trier. The university closed in the Napoleonic era and was reestablished in 1970. The university campus was relocated to the outskirts of Trier (near the village of Tarforst) in 1975. The town of Trier dates back to 16 BC, when the Romans established a political and religious center in the area. Among many surviving landmarks of the city's past are a Roman city gate, throne room, baths and arena; Romanesque churches; and a Renaissance palace. The town is on the Mosel River in the Rhineland Palatinate, near the country's western border.

Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Chile

Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso is distributed in different campuses. University centers are located in the main cities of the Valparaiso region. The region is located next to beaches, the Cordillera de Los Andes, and has a population of more than one million. The city of Valparaíso is the cultural and legislative capital, and the main commercial harbor, of Chile. Valparaíso is located seventy miles from the capital city of Chile, Santiago.

Universite Gaston Berger, Senegal

Universite Gaston Berger is located in St. Louis, a historic French colonial city near the Senegal River. In the late 19th Century, after centuries of French presence, it served as the point of departure for the French colonial conquest of West Africa, and then as capital of L’Afrique Occidentale Francaise until shortly before Senegal’s independence in 1960. The University Gaston Berger celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2001. Its campus is 14 kilometers from the center of town.

Akita International University, Japan

Akita International University is a small, liberal arts college, with a global orientation, located in Akita Prefecture in the midst of the cedar forests on the northern Japanese seaboard. Akita Prefecture with a population of 1.2 million people is located in the northeast part of Honshū Island on the Japan sea. The campus is in a rural area, with forest on three sides and a large sports facility across the road from it. The campus is 30–40 minutes by car from the center of Akita City, 7 minutes from Akita Airport and just a few steps away from a large forest preserve.

Student life

Hamline University students have the opportunity to partake in various on campus activities. All clubs, inter-mural teams, student events are run through the Office of Residential Life. Hamline’s clubs include organizations with focuses on various academic subjects, the arts, journalism, culture, advocacy/social justice, social/recreational, and spiritual/religious. Hamline also has two Greek organizations: Delta Tau Sorority and Theta Chi Fraternity, both of which are located a block west of campus. The two largest on campus organizations are the Hamline University Student Congress (HUSC) and Hamline Entertainment and Activities Team (HEAT).

HUSC is the governing body of the Hamline undergraduate students with the purpose of providing an organized medium for expressing student concerns to the administration. It is also responsible for overseeing and funding the majority of student organizations on campus. HEAT plans many student events such as the homecoming dance, end of the semester party, and a battle of the bands.

Dormitories and dining

Dormitories

Drew Hall houses 200 undergraduate men and women. The hall is staffed by Resident Advisors on each floor, an Assistant Hall Director and one Area Coordinator. Drew was built in 1946 as a men’s residence after a donation by Charles M. Drew.

Manor Hall is the oldest dormitory on the Hamline campus. It was built in 1922 as a women’s dormitory, although today it is coed. In the 1940s the side lounge was called the "Mush Lounge" because only here could a gentlemen caller bid farewell to his sweetheart away from the stern eyes of the housemother, Miss Ackerman. the atmosphere in Manor tends to be quieter with second, third and fourth year undergraduate, graduate and law students.

Sorin Hall was built in 1958 and houses just over 100 men and women on single-gender floors, including two female floors and one male floor. Hamline’s main dining service is located on the first floor of the building.

Osborn, Peterson and Schilling Residence Halls collectively known as the Heights, are identical buildings built in the late 1960s, each houses nearly 100 first-year men and women.

Dining facilities

The primary dining hall is located on the first floor of Sorin Hall. The facility is operated by a private food management firm, ARAMARK. The dining hall charges a flat rate for entry regardless of how much food is consumed. As is typical of most colleges and universities meal plans are available for students. Included in the purchase of a meal plan is a certain amount of money that can be used at other facilities on campus. This money can be spent by using the student ID card, much like a debit card.

The Klas Center has a deli/coffee shop style food counter that is open longer than Sorin dining hall and offers a different selections of food. Unlike Sorin it does not accept meal plans, instead declining balance or a traditional form of payment must be used.

Located in the Law School basement is a food cart that sells sandwiches, hot soups, fresh salads, beverages and snack items and it also does not accept meal plans.

Declining balance can also be spent at the Hamline Hopper or C-Store, (short for convenience store) which is located on the first floor of Sorin Hall next to the dining hall. The store sells some food items, an assortment of toiletry items, and laundry soap.

Newspaper and other publications

Hamline's student newspaper is the Oracle. The Oracle was founded in 1888 and has been published regularly ever since. The paper began as a monthly journal of letters and evolved into a modern weekly college newspaper over the years. The Oracle receives its funding from and is published by the Student Media Board, which serves as an umbrella organization for the Liner, the university's yearbook, and the Fulcrum, the university's literary magazine.

Notable alumni

Duane Benson

a successful athletic and academic career at Hamline University, Duane Benson was drafted into the NFL and played 11 seasons as a linebacker for the Oakland Raiders, Atlanta Falcons and Houston Oilers. After his football career, Benson served in the Minnesota Senate from 1980 to 1994 and was the Senate Minority Leader for a period during that time. He also was the executive director of the Minnesota Business Partnership from 1994 to 2003. Currently Benson is the executive director of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation. He also continues to own and operate a cattle farm outside of Lanesboro, where he lives and is active in numerous civic and charitable organizations.

Coleen Gray

Coleen Gray was a Nebraska farm girl who made it to Hollywood in the late 1940s. After graduating from high school, she studied dramatics at Hamline University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She then traveled to California, stopping at La Jolla, where she worked as a waitress. After several weeks there, she moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in a drama school. She had several leading roles in the Los Angeles stage productions Letters to Lucerne and Brief Music, which won her a 20th Century Fox contract in 1944. Gray is primarily known for her work in westerns and crime melodramas.

First Lieutenant Robert M. Hanson

First Lieutenant Robert M. Hanson was a Hamline University student when the Second World War began. He enlisted in the Marine Corps, where he proceeded to shoot down 25 enemy planes from the South Pacific skies. First Lieutenant Hanson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Anna Arnold Hedgeman

Anna Arnold Hedgeman was an African-American civil rights leader, politician, educator, and writer. In 1918, Hedgeman graduated from high school. In the same year, Hedgeman attended Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and was the college’s first African American student. After graduation Hedgeman taught English and History for two years at Rust College in Holly Springs. In 1944, Hedgeman became the executive secretary of the National Council for a Permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC). In 1946, Hedgeman served as assistant dean of women at Howard University.

In 1954, she became the first African American woman to hold a mayoral cabinet position in the history of New York. In 1958, she held a position as a public relations consultant in Fuller Products Company. She became an associate editor and columnist for New York Age in 1959. Then she held a position as a Coordinator of Special Events for the Commission of Religion and Race of the National Council of Churches in 1963.

Hedgeman held memberships in numerous organizations, such as the Child Study Association, Community Council of the City of New York, National Urban League, NAACP, and the United Nations Association. Hedgeman is author of The Trumpet Sounds (1964), The Gift of Chaos (1977), and articles in numerous organizational publications, newspapers, and journals.

Vern Mikkelsen

Vern Mikkelsen was born in Fresno, California and entered Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota on a basketball scholarship at the age of 16. His senior year at Hamline, Mikkelsen was voted an All American in 1949. After a successful career at Hamline University, Mikkelson was drafted by the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBA. As a member of the Lakers, he won five NBA championships and was a six time NBA All-Star.

Mikkelsen ended his career after ten seasons in the NBA in 1959 and as one of the NBA's true Iron Men playing in 798 of a possible 800 games. He is known best as the NBA's first Power Forward in the 1950s and was known for his tenacious defense. He also finished his career with more than 10,000 points scored and led the NBA in personal fouls three straight seasons, still holding the league's infamous title of all-time leader in career disqualifications with 127.

General Edwin William Rawlings

Edwin W. Rawlings graduated from Hamline University in St. Paul in 1927 with a degree in economics and received a master's degree in industrial management in 1939 from the Harvard Business School. In 1929 while a student at Hamline, Rawlings joined the Army Air Corps and later the Air Force. During his 31 years of service Rawlings rose to the rank of Air Force brigadier general in 1945 and four-star general in 1954. After his military service, Rawlings became an executive at General Mills, where helped to craft it into a massive food company that it is today. Rawlings is noted for bringing the armed services into the computer age at the end of the Second World War. He also helped establish the first computer literacy program at his alma mater Hamline University.

Van Tran

in Saigon, South Vietnam, Van Tran and his family immigrated to the United States after being evacuated by the United States Army one week before the Fall of Saigon, when he was 10 years old. After originally settling in Michigan, they moved to Orange County when Tran was a teenager. Tran graduated from the University of California, Irvine, where he earned a B.A. in Political Science in 1990. Tran later completed a Master of Public Administration from Hamline University and a J.D. from Hamline University School of Law.

In 2000, Tran was elected to the Garden Grove City Council with the highest number of votes in city history and became only the second Vietnamese American man to be elected to office in the United States. After serving one term on the council, Tran was elected to the California State Assembly with 61% of the vote in 2004, representing the 68th District.

Tran and a member of the Texas House of Representatives were the highest ranking Vietnamese-American government officials until December 2008, when Anh Cao was elected to the United States House of Representatives.

Athletics

Men's Basketball

Hamline University calls itself the "birthplace of intercollegiate basketball." In 1893 then-Athletic Director Ray Kaighn, who had played on James Naismith's very first basketball team, brought the sport to the university when it was barely a year old. A women's program was organized two years later. On February 9, 1895 Hamline hosted the first intercollegiate basketball game in history when the Minnesota State School of Agriculture (now the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota) defeated Hamline by a score of 9-3. The game was played in the basement of the university's old science building using Naismith's original "peach basket" rules, and featured nine players to each side.

Hamline was once known for the strength of its basketball program, with the university considered to be a national power in the sport from the 1930s to the 1950s. Hamline produced a number of NBA players during this time, including Hall of Famer Vern Mikkelsen. Then-head coach Joe Hutton, Sr. (1931-65) was once offered and turned down a chance to coach the Minneapolis Lakers.

The men's basketball program has 1,154 total victories ranks as the 23rd winningest team in NCAA Division III history (as of the 2004-05 season).

Hamline appeared in the NAIA National Tournament 12 times from 1940 to 1960

• NAIA National Champions: 1942, 1949 and 1951

• NAIA runner-ups: 1953

• NCAA Division III Semifinalist: 1977 (Finished in fourth place)

• NCAA Division III Quarterfinalist: 1975

• NCAA Division III All-Tournament Selection: Phil Smyczek, 1977

• NCAA Division III Academic All-Americans: Paul Westling, 1986; John Banovetz, 1989

• University is a member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC).

Conference championships

This table displays the number of Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) conference championships that have been won by Hamline sports teams. If a sport is not listed then a championship has not been won in that competition. Hamline fields teams in the following men's sports: Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Football, Hockey, Indoor Track & Field, Soccer, Swimming & Diving, Tennis, and Outdoor Track & Field. Hamline also fields teams in the following women's sports: Basketball, Cross Country, Hockey, Indoor Track & Field, Soccer, Softball, Swimming & Diving, Tennis, Outdoor Track & Field, and Volleyball. All records were compiled from the MIAC website and are up to date as of November 2009.

Men's Sports	Number of Championships	Last Title
Baseball	1	1962
Basketball	19	1959-60
Cross Country	5	2005
Football	5	1988
Golf	2	1947
Hockey	4	2007-2008
Swimming & Diving	7	1978-79
Tennis	5	1964
Outdoor Track & Field	14	1982

Women's Sports	Number of Championships	Last Title
Swimming & Diving	4	1985-86

Notes

References

• Johnson, Chip. Raising School Spirits an Archaeological Dig Uncovers Items for Hamline University's Past Life in Red Wing Pioneer Press, METRO; Pg. 1B. (August 10, 1996 Saturday METRO FINAL EDITION)
• Nord, Mary Ann (2003). The National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota. Minnesota Historical Society. ISBN 0-87351-448-3.

External links

• Official site
• In 2005, artist John C. Ralston painted the 1925 senior class of Hamline University