UNMC History 101 – The 1967 student fitness sit-in

(Editor’s note: On the first Tuesday of each month, UNMC Today will feature an item on the medical center’s history.)

Today, we look back to May 1967 when College of Medicine students staged a good-spirited protest to plead for a place to play sports and exercise.

College of Medicine students conduct a sit-in the office of assistant dean for student affairs Dr. Mary Jo Henn in 1967 to plead for a place to exercise on campus.

Armed with signs that read, “We’re getting soft in the wrong places,” and “We want a place to romp,” the students conducted a sit-in in the office of Dr. Mary Jo Henn, then the College of Medicine’s assistant dean for student affairs.

At the time, there weren’t many places for students to exercise on campus. A half a basketball court in the old Conkling Hall — now the site of The Lied Transplant Center — was about it, said Robert Wigton, M.D., associate dean of the College of Medicine, who was among the “protesters.” He can be seen in the photo above on the left holding a sign that read, “Students for Recreation.”

For her part, Dr. Henn seemed to get a kick out of the students invading her office, Dr. Wigton said.

Years later, the University of Nebraska at Omaha agreed to allow medical center students and employees to use the fitness facilities on the UNO campus and in 1996, UNMC would get its own campus workout spot with the construction of the Center for Healthy Living.

Photos and story provided by Dr. Wigton and John Schleicher of the McGoogan Library of Medicine.