A Tough Decade

A Tough Decade. Politicians and Fires. Although the second decade of the university's existence was marked by solid advances in important areas, the prevailing notes were of tragedy, turmoil and political interference. On the positive side, the institution experience gratifying growth. Nearly 800 students were being instructed by around 90 teachers at the end of the decade. The Norman campus boasted five permanent buildings. By 1912 the preparatory school was gone and the library had 20,000 volumes. , This growth made it necessary, by 1909, to divide the university into colleges and schools and to introduce a system of deans. The two most significant educational innovations in this period were the additions of a School of Law and a School of Medicine. The former was located on the Norman campus and experienced a steady growth in numbers and reputation under the leadership of its first dean, Julien C. Monnet. The latter was established in Oklahoma City as the university absorbed a preexisting medical school operated by Epworth College. , In this period there were many important additions to the faculty, including Fredrik Holmberg (music), Samuel Reaves (mathematics), Jerome Dowd (sociology), Roy Temple House (German), James Felgar (engineering) and John Alley (political science). In 1905 a momentous transformation of the university's athletics program occurred with the arrival of the legendary football coach Benjamin Gilbert Owen. The university's success in and devotion to that sport can be traced to Bennie Owen's illustrious career in Norman. , All of these positive developments, however, were to some observers overshadowed by the difficulties confronting the institution during these years. On the night of January 6, 1903, the university's only building and most of its contents (including the library) were consumed by a terrible fire. The large structure replacing it met a similar fare on December 20, 1907, although this time there were several other buildings on the campus that could house the school's functions. The third attempt at a central administration building, later named Evans Hall, was erected in 1912 on the spot where the second had stood. , As devastating as the fires were a series of political and religious attacks on the university. With the coming of statehood in 1907, newly elected officials saw the institution as a political plum ripe for patronage and nepotism. At the same time, certain religious denominations unfairly portrayed the school as a hotbed of immorality: card playing, dancing, smoking tobacco. As a result of this double-sided assault, President David Ross Boyd and ten members of the faculty were abruptly dismissed (among them Vernon Parrington, who had started the English Department and would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize). Boyd was replaced by A. Grant Evans, a friend of the governor's. Not content with this interference, political forces struck again and fired Evans and several others in April 1911. , As the university entered its third decade, therefore, it was suffering from damaging publicity and was more than ready for new leadership and the resumption of independence, stability and progress.