Category: History

Two years before Brown v. Board of Education mandated desegregation, Del Mar College voluntarily desegregated in 1952.  Del Mar was founded in 1935 and in the late 1940s a separate campus for African American students at Solomon Coles high school was established, called Coles Junior College. The school was in the segregated area of Corpus Christi, which was the Washington-Coles neighborhood on the north side of the city. At that time, the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson stated separate facilities among different races were constitutional if equal. “The idea that these schools or any of those other facilities…

Del Mar College’s West Campus, also known as the Windward Campus, opened in September 1958 to help meet Corpus Christi’s growing need for vocational and technical training. The expansion came as the East Campus became overcrowded and risked losing accreditation due to its large student population. The decision to build a second campus on Old Brownsville Road allowed Del Mar to move programs such as industrial trades, health sciences, and automotive technology into their own space. When it first opened, the new campus had five buildings and was called the Del Mar Technical Vocational Institute. According to the college archives,…

The Texas Jazz Festival, held in Corpus Christi every October, is far more than just a festival. The Texas Jazz Fest has become a staple in our community, and a celebration of culture and music, where everyone is welcome. The Texas Jazz Festival started as a mere concert organized in November 1959 by the Del Mar’s Jazz Club, which was newly formed.  “We were flabbergasted that so many people showed up that night in the Harvin Center,” said Eddie Olivares, Jazz Club member, who spoke to Guadalupe San Miguel Jr., author of “Tejanos and the Making of the Texas Jazz…

Despite not being involved in team competitive play today, Del Mar College has a long and rich history of success from 1939 through the ‘70s when the Vikings conquered the Gulf Coast, South Texas, and Pioneer conferences.  The “Cagers” were the first Del Mar competitive sports team with their inaugural basketball season in 1939 and joined the Gulf Coast Conference in 1941. They changed their name to the “Vikings” in 1945 to match their mascot, who was created the same year the Cagers began playing.  After this name change, the Vikings began to have more winning seasons throughout the ‘50s,…

Del Mar has been through changes over the years, but what has stuck around always is student clubs. Since Del Mar’s opening in 1935, activities and clubs slowly grew from only a few small department groups into the busy student organizations around now. In the earlier years, most clubs were connected through academic programs. These departmental registered student organizations (RSOs) gave students a way to go over real world skills, compete in events and represent their club. As Del Mar expanded, the Student Life office created a formal system for registering and supporting clubs, helping them with events and fundraisers. …

Del Mar’s Valdar the Viking history started even before he had a name, creating the mythos of a Nordic traveler landing in Corpus Christi.  Beginning simply as “The Viking,” he was represented in yearbook art in a hyper-realistic gothic style, and the football team began using the Viking name in 1939. But there was no official mascot to represent the school.  In 2010 Rito Silva, then the Vice President for Student Affairs, with the College Relations Office led the charge of introducing an official DMC mascot to the campus and general community. The process involved focus groups with participants exploring…

Originally published in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times Aug. 15, 2019. Reprinted with permission Some stories just get better the more you dig. This one — the story of literary giant Ernest Hemingway’s visit to Corpus Christi — is a doozy.  In March 1959, the Pulitzer- and Nobel-prize winning author arrived from San Valley, Idaho for a brief overnight before heading to Key West and eventually Cuba. He stayed at the Sand and Sea Hotel on Shoreline Boulevard. Hemingway, shockingly, agreed to be interviewed by a reporter (he hated interviews). The reporter was an 18-year-old Del Mar College student on the…