Although the age of the University of Saskatchewan — a hundred-and-some years — might not seem like very long, I decided to brush up on my Huskie history to see what stood out. As the results show, it’s been a fascinating 108 years.

1. Saskatoon had to fight to house the U of S. Even though the first president of the U of S, Walter Murray, lobbied considerably for the university to be built in Regina, the provincial government in 1909 wanted to decentralize Saskatchewan’s commodities away from the capital.

This didn’t mean Saskatoon was the only choice, mind you. Moose Jaw, Battleford and Prince Albert were also considered — if you can imagine that.

2. The U of S is no stranger to dismissal scandals. While the whirlwind firing and rehiring of Robert Buckingham over his criticism of the controversial TransformUS budgetary cuts made national news in May 2014, this wasn’t a unique moment in U of S history.

In 1919, after accusing Walter Murray of falsifying a report about U of S finances, director of extension Samuel Greenway and three supporters at the U of S were stripped of their jobs — causing massive public outcry and even leading Murray to take a leave of absence. So in a way, it’s just tradition.

3. We’ve had more than one Engineering Building. Around 3:30 a.m. on March 13, 1925, the original Engineering Building at the U of S was demolished when a fire raged on campus. The building had been poorly insured and was rebuilt at a considerable cost to the U of S. To this day, it still can’t be proven if agriculture students were responsible.

4. The University of Regina has always been our second banana. While U of S students have been known to poke fun or belittle our colleagues at the U of R, the U of S actually saved the institution — which was called the Regina College at the time — from bankruptcy in 1934.

The facilities then operated as the U of S Regina campus until 1974 when we mercifully granted them their freedom and the U of R became its own independent institution.

5. The U of S had a radio station. The U of S Students’ Union may make good use of CFCR Saskatoon Community Radio nowadays, but that wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for the former U of S radio station CJUS-FM, co-operated by the U of S and the USSU.

The station operated on campus in some form or another in the Memorial Union and Education buildings from 1965-1985. When the station was defunded and went off the air in September 1985, citizens concerned with upholding community radio organized to form what is now CFCR.

6. Diefenbaker’s dead body was on display at the U of S. Six days after the death of former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in late August 1979, his body was shipped from Ottawa for one last — indefinite — visit to the U of S.

After lying in state in Convocation Hall for a number of hours, we hauled him out back and buried him behind what is now the Diefenbaker Canada Centre — where he remains today and where you probably never stop by to visit.

7. It was the 70s — of course students protested. As reported in the March 18, 1971 issue of the Sheaf, when the U of S announced it wouldn’t rehire political studies associate professor John Richards — allegedly on political grounds — the result was a 10 day occupation of the eighth floor of the Arts Building and protests that may have involved as many as 1,500 students at times.

This was the same year that College of Law students boycotted classes for an entire week to protest “massive failure rates” and unfair marking. Nowadays, when we find out we’re massive failures we just tend to deal with it.

While the U of S hasn’t been around forever like the University of New Brunswick, established in 1754, you wouldn’t be able to tell it by looking through our often funny, usually interesting and occasionally controversial past. Here’s to making more Huskie history for future generations.