In 1839, the Missouri Legislature passed the Geyer Act to establish funds for a state university.  It would be the first public university west of the Mississippi River. To secure the university, the citizens of Columbia and Boone County pledged $117,921 in cash and land to beat out five other central Missouri counties for the location of the state university. The land on which the university was eventually constructed was just south of Columbia's downtown and owned by James S. Rollins. He was later called the "Father of the University." As the first public university in the Louisiana Purchase, the school was shaped by Thomas Jefferson's ideas about public education. In 1862 the American Civil War forced the university to close for much of the year. Residents of Columbia formed a "home guard" militia that became known as the "Fighting Tigers of Columbia". They were given the name for their readiness to protect the city and university. In 1890, the University's newly formed football team took the name the "Tigers" after the Civil War militia.  Fire at Academic Hall, 1892 In 1870 the institution was granted land-grant college status under the Morrill Act of 1862. The act led to the founding of the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy as an off shoot of the main campus in Columbia. It developed as the present-day Missouri University of Science & Technology. In 1888 the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station opened. This grew to encompass ten centers and research farms around Missouri. By 1890 the university encompassed a normal college (for training of teachers of students through high school), engineering college, arts and science college, school of agriculture and mechanical arts. school of medicine, and school of law. On January 9, 1892, Academic Hall, the institution's main building, burned in a fire that completely gutted the building, leaving little more standing than six stone Ionic columns. Under the administration of Missouri Governor David R. Francis, the university was rebuilt, with additions that shaped the modern institution.   Mostly from Wikipedia (11-11-11)