Jeff Provine - Campus Ghosts of Norman, Oklahoma

Published by Haunted America

A Division of The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2013 by Jeff Provine

All rights reserved

All photos taken by author unless otherwise noted.

First published 2013

e-book edition 2013

ISBN 978.1.62584.688.4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Provine, Jeff.

Campus ghosts of Norman, Oklahoma / Jeff Provine.

pages cm. -- (Haunted America)

print edition ISBN 978-1-62619-212-6 (pbk.)

1. Haunted universities and colleges--Oklahoma--Norman. 2. Ghosts--Oklahoma--Norman. 3. University of Oklahoma--Miscellanea. I. Title.

BF1478.P76 2013

133.12976637--dc23

2013035832

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

To Tess, for suggesting I hunt ghosts.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

While backpacking in Britain in 2009, I took every ghost tour I could find. There were plenty of them; a country one thousand years old has had a plethora of dead people. Taking into account Jack the Rippers mass murders in London and the vaults of Edinburgh, where hundreds met their doom during the Great Fire of 1824, there seemed to be no end to the ghosts and eerie tales.

I followed my friend Tess on a hometown ghost tour on the Isle of Wight. In this town where she had spent much of her life, there were piles of ghosts. A weeping young mother still walks the stream where her child drowned, a government office is haunted by a worker stressed to suicide and a butcher shop rests at the crossroads corner where hangings took place for centuries. During my time staying on the island, we had driven by that stream and those buildings and that shop a number of times. Ghosts were everywhere!

Feeling a little ghost envy, I told Tess the one ghost story I knew about Norman, Oklahoma, where I had spent the last few years in college. There was the spirit of a little boy roller skating in Ellison Hall, which used to be a hospital.

She replied, Thats great! You should do a Norman ghost tour!

I scoffed. Everything in Oklahoma, other than a few buffalo wallows, is at most 130 years old. There hasnt been much time for people to be here, let alone ghosts.

When I returned to teach classes that fall, Tesss enthusiastic suggestion haunted me. In my free time during office hours, I began researching rumors and asking around campus if anyone had a ghost story. On top of the one I knew, I had more than a dozen within a few weeks. Buildings I had walked past every day of my career in higher education had harrowing tales that I had never even imagined: exorcism, beheading, disembodied whispers, named spirits and roaming ones.

That Halloween, I led a tour for friends and family. The next Halloween, I led tours for friends of friends stretching to dozens. The next Halloween, hundreds showed up to hear ghost stories. The OU Visitor Center asked me to make tours monthly, weather permitting, and it has become a facet of the university, with more than two thousand attendees.

All of it came from simply asking about the hidden stories of our world. Every corner has its shadow, and we never know what we may learn if we peer into them.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Id like to give a special thanks to all those who helped in the research for this book by offering their time for interviews. Paranormal investigation teamsincluding the Contact Research Investigation Specialists, Society of the Haunted and Paranormal Times Research Societywere instrumental in describing elements of parapsychology and giving scientific perspectives to historical anecdotes. Library staff at the Bizzell Memorial Library, Western Histories Collection, and the Norman Historical Society gave excellent instruction on researching newspaper archives and campus materials. Those at Bizzell also provided fascinating information about their own famous ghost. Thanks to the members of Chi Omega, Delta Gamma and Triangle, who were happy to share their experiences and stories of brothers and sisters past. Thanks to all of these facilities management staffs, secretaries, public relations liaisons and employees who took time out of their busy schedules for interviews. In addition to the university, I would like to thank Keith F. Walker Oil & Gas Company, the Boyd Street Marines recruitment office, Caf Plaid and the Norman Police Department for their helpful assistance. And a special thanks goes to all of the students, both present and alumni, who help make Norman the college town it is.

Everyone has a story to tell. Im blessed to have heard so many.

INTRODUCTION

The city of Norman, Oklahoma, was settled in 1889 by land run, a method of colonization rarely seen before or since. Before April 22, the town had been nothing but empty plots and wooden stakes posted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. By the night after, Norman had a population of 150 permanent residents. By April 23, downtown was already being construction, and the population had climbed to thousands. Norman was one of many towns settled throughout the Unassigned Lands that would become part of Oklahoma Territory, but newly local businessmen had a plan to make the town great.

With such spontaneous growth, the territory was packed with contests for the seat of government, which would not only be prosperous as a center of revenue but also hold a great deal of sway over other communities. Norman decided to campaign for the territorial university instead, winning a special niche while other towns, such as Guthrie and Oklahoma City, battled for supremacy. Norman Territorial University eventually changed its official name to the University of Oklahoma (OU), but the campus always remained a part of the community. Even in 1903, when much of the campus burned down and nearly wiped out a decade of work, Norman brushed away bids by other towns to host the university with new facilities. Norman had made the pledge to be a college town, and it aimed to keep it.

Over its century-long history, the collegiate community around Norman has expanded greatly. From a single building on a treeless plain, Norman now has a campus cascading nearly two miles from the original home of OUs first president, David Ross Boyd, to the research campus housing the National Weather Center. Along its west side, rows of Greek fraternities and sororities rest. To the north, several blocks of shops and restaurants known as Campus Corner have served students as long as they have been in Norman.

Amid football games and classes, college life rolls on, often not even letting death stop it. Campus is famous for its library ghost, and many people might even have heard of the roller skating little boy ghost, but there are darker tales, too. A malicious ghost was exorcized in 1973 after attacking a student. In a terrible accident, the angry spirit of a young man haunts a cafeteria basement. A professor of the organ still critiques students. A restaurants bakery has a supernatural presence. And a halfway home for the mentally ill is still believed to have residents despite being closed down after grisly deaths.