![]() I copied this from a real estate site in Iowa.
Thousands of students and alumni return to the University of Okoboji campus every year, but the school's name isn't listed in any college guidebook. One of the school's founders, Herman Richter, describes his alma mater as "the best known non-existent university in the country. It's an attitude. Believing in the University of Okoboji has become a bit like believing in Santa Claus." It may not have grueling exams, but the school does offer students a wide variety of bumper stickers, pennants, sweatshirts and T-shirts with the U of O crest. Students don't have to stand in long lines to register for classes but they do have to follow the instructions on hundreds of trash barrels: "Help Keep Your Campus Clean." The idea for the U of O began about 25 years ago when Richter, who owns The Three Sons, a clothing store in Milford with his brother Emil, used to play sports with a group of friends in the lakes area. They often joked about the current activities in "Camp Okoboji" and the camp eventually evolved into a mythical, accredited university. The date of the U of O's founding was changed to 1878 in 1977 because the founders didn't want to wait longer than a year to celebrate the school's centennial. The school's football team, the Fighting Phantoms, has never faced defeat and the school's only required class is a history lesson taught by Captain Steve Kennedy on the Queen II excursion boat. The U of O campus calendar fills annually with extracurricular events. The 18th annual Winter Games, a three-on-three basketball tournament, a junior tennis classic, tournaments for soccer, rugby and softball, the World Tennis Classic and two campus bike rides. Of course, the most popular U of O event is the annual homecoming weekend in July, which features a marathon, half marathon, triathlon, 10K race and environmental clean-up dive. The U of O has allocated its activity receipts to numerous local projects and it has purchased $250,000 worth of equipment for the Lakes Area Extrication Unit. Community leaders established the U of O foundation (a completely separate entity) in 1988 to encourage dreams of a better place to live and to support projects that improve the quality of life in the Iowa Great Lakes Region. Major projects supported by the U of O Foundation have included a $300,000 challenge match from the Bud Pearson Foundation for the construction of the Lakes Art Center and developmental support for the Dickinson County Trails Association, the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory and the Humane Society Animal Shelter and Education Center. With an endowment of over $2 million, contributed by nearly 100 members
and many friends, the foundation has been able to make a tremendous impact
on the lakes area and the U of O campus.
Here's what one of the two who guessed correctly had to say about
this store.
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