St. Olaf College
| St. Olaf College | |
| Seal of St. Olaf College | |
| Established | 1874 |
| President | David R. Anderson (future president) |
| Motto | Fram! Fram! Kristmenn, Krossmen (Adapted from the Old Norse battle cry for St. Olav: "Forward! Forward! Men of Christ, Men of the Cross") |
| School type | Private |
| Location | Northfield, Minn., USA |
| Enrollment | 2900 (approximation) |
| Campus size | 1.4 km² (345 acres) |
| Homepage | www.stolaf.edu |
St. Olaf College was founded in 1874 by a group of Norwegian-American immigrant pastors and farmers, led by Pastor Bernt Julius Muus, as a coeducational, residential, four-year private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Music at St. Olaf
St. Olaf's music program, founded by F. Melius Christiansen in 1903, is renowned. Its band, choir and orchestra tour the continental U.S annually and have made several critically-acclaimed international tours. The St. Olaf Band was the first American college musical organization to conduct a concert tour abroad when it travelled to Norway in 1906. The band is also credited with introducing the saxophone and the game of baseball to Norway. The orchestra was the first college orchestra ever to be a part of the Community Concert series.
The St. Olaf Choir, currectly directed by Anton Armstrong, was founded by Christiansen in 1907 as the St. John's Lutheran Church Choir, and is regarded as one of the premier a cappella college choirs in the United States. It has toured Europe several times, as well as China, Korea, and Australia, performing before heads of state and producing over a dozen recordings. The choir performs in the nationally-broadcast annual St. Olaf Christmas Festival along with St. Olaf Orchestra and 4 of the college's other choirs.
An important part of St. Olaf's musical tradition is the rivalry of Early Morning Softball. During the spring softball season, members of the various ensembles assemble at 6:15 a.m. to play ball on the practice football fields behind Thorson Hall. While all ensembles are welcome to field a team, only the St. Olaf Band and Orchestra compete in the championship, or "Broken Bat" game. While the Band leads the series overall, the Orchestra has enjoyed a slew of victories over the last decade, beginning with 1999's Broken Bat.
In 1990, graduates of the St. Olaf choral program founded Magnum Chorum, a Twin Cities based a capella choir. Magnum Chorum strives to continue the St. Olaf tradition once members leave "The Hill."
Athletics
St. Olaf College is a member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC). St. Olaf is a traditional athletic and academic rival of its neighbor across town, Carleton College. St. Olaf athletic teams are nicknamed the "Oles". The college song, Um Ya Ya, is in 3/4 time and has the following lyrics:
"We come from St. Olaf, we sure are the real stuff. Our team is the cream of the colleges crop. We fight fast and furious, our team is injurious. Tonight Carleton College will sure meet its fate.
Um! Yah! Yah!, Um! Yah! Yah! Um! Yah! Yah!, Um! Yah! Yah! Um! Yah! Yah!, Um! Yah! Yah! Um! Yah! Yah! Yah!
Um! Yah! Yah!, Um! Yah! Yah! Um! Yah! Yah!, Um! Yah! Yah! Um! Yah! Yah!, Um! Yah! Yah! Um! Yah! Yah! Yah!"
It is one of the few college songs to mention another college in its lyrics (Texas A&M University's "Aggie War Hymn" is another, as well as Georgetown University's fight song), and is also the only college fight song with a waltz beat.
The "Oles" have not lost to Carleton in a football contest since 1995, and hence have retained the "Goat Trophy", which is awarded annually to the winner of the contest. The rivalry is one of the oldest in all of college football, and the only to feature 2 colleges from the same ZIP code. The game between the two colleges has recently been named the "Cereal Bowl" in honor of Northfield's Malt-O-Meal factory.
A lesser known fact is that along the main street (Division Street) in Northfield, there is a veterans' memorial featuring an American Eagle. From this point, St. Olaf is to the west, and Carleton is to the east. Each year, the eagle is turned to face the college that wins the once-a-year football match between the two schools.
Notable alumni
- Ole Rolvaag (1876-1931), Author, Professor
- David R. Anderson, Future President of the College (Effective July, 2006)
- August Andresen (1890-1958), U.S. Congressman
- Andrew Volstead, U.S. Congressman and author of the National Prohibition Act of 1919
- Arlen Erdahl, U.S. Congressman
- Harold Hagen, U.S. Congressman
- Einar Haugen, renowned linguist
- Howard and Edna Hong, authors, translators of complete works of Søren Kierkegaard
- David Minge, U.S. Congressman
- Mark Olson, U.S. Federal Reserve Governor
- Sidney Rand, U.S. Ambassador to Norway
- Joan Ericksen, U.S. District Court Judge
- Al Quie, U.S. Congressman and 35th Governor of Minnesota
- Russell A. Anderson, Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court
- Sam Hanson, Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court
- Andrew Roberg, Newspaper Editor and Genealogist
- Chris "Rock" Torstenson, Presidential Advisor
- Barry Morrow, Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Rain Man
- Ernest Orlando Lawrence (1901–1958), physicist and Nobel laureate
Miscellaneous
St. Olaf is mentioned in the works of Minnesotan F. Scott Fitzgerald (Jay Gatsby of "The Great Gatsby" attended briefly and worked as a janitor), in Garrison Keillor's radio program "A Prairie Home Companion". A fictional Minnesota city was often mentioned by Rose in the TV show "The Golden Girls", word is one of the writers attended cross-town rival Carleton College, and hence made the crazy Rose character from the fictional town "St. Olaf, Minnesota". In the TV show, the fictional city's sister city was St. Gustav, Minnesota... a nod to Gustavus Adolphus College located nearby in St. Peter, Minnesota.