Drake University | Top Private University

Drake University History

For more than 130 years, Drake has been a place for forward-thinking leaders, and it all started with our founders: George T. Carpenter, a teacher and preacher with a fresh educational vision, and Francis Marion Drake, a Union general in the Civil War, a railroad magnate, and a governor of Iowa. Together they founded a university that expanded traditional study in theology and Classics to include science, law, and other fields. Coeducational from the start and welcoming students of all races, we enrolled our first international students within five years of our founding—welcoming arrivals from China, Persia, Armenia, and Japan.

Drake University's Traditions

Traditions deepened and evolved—to encompass an eclectic array of social and athletic events.

1. Street Painting— a colorful way for members of student organizations to decorate areas of Carpenter Avenue (and often each other)
2. Hubbelling— a winter downhill sport named for the trays from Hubbell Dining Hall, which for years took the place of traditional sleds
3. Drake Relays— going strong since 1910, when the first Relays were held in a blizzard; a magnet for the greatest track and field athletes in the world ever since
4. Kissing Rock— once a favorite spot of sweethearts under a historic campus elm tree, and still a popular meeting point—minus the elm, which was lost to disease in 1969
5. Homecoming— a weeklong celebration with a carnival, a picnic, window painting (and a football game)
6. Beautiful Bulldog Contest— a pageant drawing proud pups and owners from across the country, with the winner honored as the official mascot of the Drake Relays