Local Orediggers help Colorado School of Mines celebrate 150th anniversary

All week, Paige Becker had noticed an extra level of excitement and buzz around the Colorado School of Mines campus.

Becker, a Mines alumna and faculty member from the Broomfield/Westminster area, said the students were more energetic than usual. At the same time, employees were busy getting the campus ready for an enormous influx of visitors.

And their energy was rewarded when thousands of Orediggers from near and far returned to their alma mater Sept. 26-28 to celebrate the university’s 150th anniversary for Homecoming Weekend.

“It’s the most exciting Homecoming I’ve ever witnessed,” Becker said.

The university amped up its traditional Homecoming celebrations with expanded or new events, including the Sept. 27 Blaster’s Bash party to commemorate the new Sesquicentennial Bell outside Guggenheim Hall.

About 4,800 Mines students, alumni, faculty, staff and other supporters packed Kafadar Commons that night. But that was just a taste of the crowd that turned out for the football game the following day, when almost 7,000 Orediggers packed the Marv Kay Stadium stands to set a new stadium record.

While Orediggers from across the Denver area said they love visiting the campus regularly for Homecoming and/or other events, they described how the 150th anniversary made this year’s Homecoming unique.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event to celebrate as an alumnus,” said Julian Liu, a Littleton resident and a Class of 2020 graduate.

Lakewood’s Darien O’Brien, valedictorian of the Class of 1983, added how the Homecoming Weekend’s incredible turnout only enhanced that feeling.

“It’s a special weekend,” O’Brien said. “It’s tremendous … seeing all generations of Orediggers interacting together.”

The Golden years

With Mines history now spanning 150 years, the Orediggers at the Sept. 27 Blaster’s Bash enjoyed deciding which academic or calendar year was their favorite.

Some like O’Brien picked the year they graduated.

O’Brien’s two children and their spouses also went to Mines, so he had several years to pick from beyond his own time at the university. But, he said 1983 was a pivotal year for him because he not only finished his degree in petroleum engineering – a difficult field – but he also founded the Mines chapter of Pi Epsilon Tau. The academic fraternity for petroleum engineering students is still active, he said.

Wheat Ridge’s Kendall Armitage and Castle Rock’s Natalie Mudd also picked the year they graduated: 2023.

The two received their undergraduate degrees in quantitative biosciences and engineering. But more than that, 2023 was also the year they saw how much progress had been made on campus, with things reopening after the COVID-19 pandemic and with various construction projects starting or concluding, they described.

Some Orediggers named other years that were important to them.

Liu said 2017-18 was his favorite year because it was when he was most active and involved in student organizations.

Golden’s David Matlock, a professor emeritus of metallurgical and materials engineering, has been teaching at the university since the early ‘70s and had more than 50 years to choose from. He ultimately picked 1999 because it was the year his son graduated from Mines, but he added that he enjoyed seeing so many former students at the sesquicentennial celebration.

Several Orediggers picked this year but for differing reasons.

Freshman Harshith Jayadeva said 2024 was his favorite by default, adding how tight-knit the Mines community is. He appreciated how many clubs and opportunities there are “where you can share your passion for engineering.”

Junior Clara Henckler-Davis, of Littleton, said 2024 was her favorite so far, as she’s found a comfortable balance between academics and extracurriculars. She’s double-majoring in civil engineering and economics.

For Becker, while she graduated from Mines with an undergraduate degree in 2017 and a master’s in 2018, she said 2024 has been her favorite thus far. She’s enjoyed being back on campus as a faculty member, describing how it’s all the nostalgia but “without the pressures of being a student.”

Andrea Passman, a Class of 1998 graduate, picked 2024 for the unique sesquicentennial celebration.

“It’s wonderful seeing so many generations celebrate together,” she said. “I’m proud to be a part of it. … I hope to see the 200th anniversary celebration.”

‘A really special school’

Mines has been observing its 150th anniversary all calendar year with special events and revived traditions like the Engineer’s Hats.

The centennial celebration in 1974 was “very different,” Matlock said.

Students built Mineral City — a fake 1874-style mining town — on the main quad, he recalled. Various fraternities, student groups and other Orediggers combined their efforts to build it, and even the governor stopped by to appreciate the atmosphere, he said.

While the centennial celebration was a “really nice event,” Matlock said Blaster’s Bash for the sesquicentennial drew a much bigger crowd.

The university has grown in recent years — both in terms of facilities and enrollment — so there are more Orediggers to return every time their alma mater invites them.

After all, being an Oredigger means being invested in school spirit and involved in events, Henckler-Davis said.

Armitage and Mudd said they’ve appreciated all the opportunities to meet fellow alumni and hear how much the university has changed in living memory.

They described how Mines’ graduating classes 50 years ago had a much lower ratio of female students, but they’re encouraged that women now make up roughly 30% of Mines’ student body.

Passman, who’s also a University of Denver alumna, commended Mines President Paul C. Johnson and his staff for all their work to expand and improve the university since Johnson became president in 2015. 

“This is the greatest institution Colorado has to offer,” she said.

Becker felt likewise, calling Mines “the MIT of the West, but better.” She described seeing students wearing funny T-shirts where the jokes are math equations.

But more than that, she continued, there’s a special camaraderie among the Orediggers, because of the university’s emphasis on STEM and the challenging curriculum. It’s something students and alumni instantly understand, she said, summarizing it as: “I get it; I went to Mines.”

As the university’s sesquicentennial year draws to a close, the Orediggers hoped to see their “really special school,” as Becker described it, leave its mark around the world until the bicentennial in 2074 and beyond.

Click through additional photos from the Sept. 26-28 Homecoming Weekend: