Marquette University

Marquette University was founded on August 28, 1881, as Marquette College by the Most Rev. John Martin Henni, the first Catholic bishop of Milwaukee . The institution was named after Rev. Jacques Marquette, S.J., a 17th-century French Jesuit missionary and explorer whose pioneering spirit through the Great Lakes region inspired the university's founding . Belgian businessman Guillaume Joseph DeBoey provided $16,000 to support Henni's vision for an "academy of learning," enabling the purchase of land on a hill overlooking downtown Milwaukee . Bishop Henni died just two days after the college opened, satisfied that his life's work was complete .

Initially an all-male institution serving the area's German immigrant population, Marquette College officially became a university in 1907 after affiliating with a local medical school and moving to its present location, with Johnston Hall (now housing the College of Communication) as the first building on the new campus . In 1909, Marquette made history by becoming the first coeducational Catholic university in the world, admitting its first female students . The university expanded rapidly during the 1920s and post-World War II years, adding schools of engineering, law, business, dentistry, and liberal arts .

Marquette is credited with offering the first degree program specializing in hospital administration in the United States, graduating its first students in 1927 . The School of Medicine separated from Marquette in 1967 to become the Medical College of Wisconsin due to financial constraints . The university's Golden Avalanche football team was disbanded in 1960, making basketball the leading spectator sport—a decision validated by the men's basketball team winning the NCAA Championship title in 1977 .

The 1990s brought significant investment through the $50 million Campus Circle Project, revitalizing the surrounding neighborhood, and the establishment of the Les Aspin Center for Government in Washington, D.C. . In 1994, Marquette made the controversial decision to discontinue the "Warriors" nickname due to pressure against Native American mascots, eventually settling on "Golden Eagles" after a brief and unsuccessful 2005 attempt to rebrand as "the Gold" .

The university completed its largest capital campaign, the Magis Campaign, raising over $357 million by 2006 . Record-breaking donations followed, including a $51 million gift from Raymond and Kathryn Eckstein to the School of Law in 2007—the largest gift ever given to a Wisconsin university at the time . In 2014, Michael Lovell became Marquette's first lay president, serving until his death in 2024 . On February 28, 2022, the university adopted an updated seal and changed its motto to the traditional Jesuit phrase "Ad maiorem Dei gloriam" ("For the greater glory of God"), replacing a seal that had depicted Father Marquette with a Native American guide .