Archive/HIGHLANDER
Archive/HIGHLANDER

1. Did you know that all of the campus housing options are named after regions of Scotland?

Aberdeen, Bannockburn, Oban, Pentland Hills and the rest were all the stomping ground of the original kilt-wearers.

 

2. Did you know that our original mascot was a cute little dog?

Buttons the Scottish Terrier attended almost every sporting event between the years of 1955 and 1959.

 

3. Did you know your R’Card doubles as a free RTA pass?

Don’t have a car and want to go downtown? Don’t walk there. Use your card and hop on the bus.

 

4. Did you know a UCR alumnus went on to win a Nobel Prize?

It’s true. Richard Schrock, who graduated UCR in 1967, went on to win the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

 

5. Did you know our UCR sports programs have won national titles?

Before we made the jump to a Division I program, UCR won two Division II titles in baseball and two in volleyball.

 

6. Did you know we’re the only UC that offers a creative writing major?

And it’s currently the fastest growing major here.

 

7. Did you know UCR has been on TV?

In 2011, former Chancellor Tim White, along with students and staff from UCR, were featured on “Undercover Boss.”

 

8. Did you know that TV personality CEO of West Coast Choppers Jesse James went to UCR?

Who says we don’t have famous graduates?

 

9. Did you know UCR has the world’s largest collection of science fiction?

The Eaton Collection in Rivera Library has over 300,000 items, all publicly accessible.

 

10. Did you know that you can print for free at Watkins?

Exactly 200 pages of freshly printed goodness are at your disposal every quarter.

 

11. Did you know we have one of the 25 largest insect collections in North America?

Roughly 3,000 specimens are housed in the Entomology Research Museum. Now imagine all of them crawling on your skin.

 

12. Did you know that a UCR professor wrote the “Land Before Time?”

Stu Krieger is the head of the theatre department on top of tugging your childhood’s heartstrings.

 

13. Did you know UCR started as a citrus experiment station?

The navel orange wouldn’t be what it is today without us.

 

14. Did you know Highlanders played in the NFL?

Former Green Bay Packer Michael Basinger and two-time Super Bowl champ Butch Johnson played at UCR before the football team was discontinued in 1975.

 

15. Did you know that the Highlander has been around since the school’s creation?

We’ve been cataloguing the events and life of this campus ever since 1954.