It's hard to walk this campus and forget Penn's connection to Ben Franklin, but the Red and the Blue is actually steeped in history and tradition that goes beyond Ben.
Did you know?
• Engineering School graduates have contributed to the inventions of the radio, camera, the infrared television remote control, the liquid crystal display in digital watches, automotive cruise control and the lunar land rover.
• College Hall is rumored to have inspired the mansion in The Addams Family, created by cartoonist and Penn alumnus Charles Addams.
• Fifteen Penn scholars have received Nobel Prizes.
• Nine signers of the Declaration of Independence and 11 signers of the Constitution studied or worked at Penn.
Penn's claims to fame in sports: • The Penn Relays is the largest track meet in the world.
• Franklin Field is the oldest two-tiered college stadium in use today and has the nation's first stadium scoreboard.
• Penn played the first commercially-televised football game.
• The first black to win an Olympic gold medal was Penn graduate John Taylor.
• The Palestra has hosted more basketball games, more visiting teams and more NCAA Tournament games than any other athletic facility in the country.
• Penn alumnus Charles Diven, Class of 1936, is credited with inventing the jump shot.
• The two most prestigious collegiate athletic awards -- the Heisman and Outland trophies -- are named for former Penn athletes John Heisman and John Outland.
Penn firsts:
• First university in the country
• First U.S. medical school
• First undergraduate business school in the country
• First computer -- ENIAC
• First student union
• First psychology clinic
• Judith Rodin became the first female president of an Ivy League institution in 1994.
Famous Penn alumni:
• William Henry Harrison, U.S. President, class of 1791
• Ezra Pound, poet, class of 1903
• William Brennan, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, class of 1928
• Walter Annenberg, newspaper magnate and former U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, class of 1931
• Harold Prince, Broadway producer, class of 1948
• Candice Bergen, actress, early 1960s
• Donald Trump, entrepreneur, class of 1968
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