The university, the community and all Colorado State University supporters are invited to join the party next week as Colorado celebrates the 147th birthday of its only land-grant school.
The annual CSU Founders Day celebration highlights the values that have sustained the university, the people who have shaped it and CSU’s enduring mission of service through teaching, research and engagement.
Honoring John Mosley
The celebration begins Monday, Feb. 6 with the presentation of the Founders Day Medal, one of CSU’s most prestigious honors. The Founders Day medal was first awarded in 2010 and has been given to giants of CSU’s history, including the several generations of the Monfort family, Professor Tom and Jean Sutherland, Dr. Stephen Withrow, donor and community leader Pat Stryker, community leaders Bob and Joyce Everitt, Professor Maurice Albertson (posthumously), and the late President Bill and Lilla Morgan.
This year’s winner is the late Air Force Lt. Col. John Mosley, who was the first African American student-athlete to earn a varsity letter at CSU, competing in both football and wrestling from 1939-43. Mosley broke new ground off the field as well, serving as student-body vice-president his junior and senior years. He graduated in 1943 with a degree in physical education.
Mosley went on to serve his country as a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen before embarking on a long and distinguished career of service to his country and his university.
Mosley, who died in 2015 at age 93, will be honored at a 4 p.m. Monday ceremony at the Lory Student Center Theater. The event, which will attended by members of the Mosley family, is open to the public, but attendees are asked to register online.
Let them eat birthday cake
On Thursday, Feb. 9, CSU will host a Founders Day reception for state legislators in Denver.
The main campus celebration will be Friday, Feb. 10. All campus dining halls will be serving CSU birthday cake from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
