| EWU was established in 1882 as the Benjamin P. Cheney Academy. Starting as a school for preparing teachers at one-room schoolhouses, Eastern now has over 10,000 students enrolled annually. |
| Eastern's original six buildings are classified as a National Historic District. |
| A restored, authentic one-room schoolhouse located on campus symbolizes Eastern's tradition of teacher preparation. |
| "Pass Through the Pillars" is a tradition in which new incoming freshman pass through the "Hurculean Pillars" leading up to Showalter Hall, signifying their new journey at Eastern Washington University. Graduates pass through the pillars in the opposite direction, signifying their transition into the "outside" world. |
| Eastern offers over 100 fields of study, 10 master’s degrees, four graduate certificates, 55 graduate programs of study and an applied doctorate program of physical therapy. |
| Ninety-five percent of Eastern’s tenure-track faculty holds terminal or doctorate degrees. |
| More than 20,000 teachers have graduated from Eastern Washington University. |
| Dr. Maria C. Hernandez-Peck, director of the Center for Studies in Aging in the School of Social Work, has been appointed state representative to two White House Conferences on aging by the governor of the state of Washington. |
| Dr. Jeni McNeal, a graduate of Eastern's physical education program, is a member of the Performance Enhancement Team for the U.S. Diving National Training Center. All five of the athletes she worked with at the diving center represented the U.S. diving team at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens. |
| Eastern's radio station, KEWU, was named the 2005 Small Market Jazz Station of the Year by JazzWeek magazine. KEWU programmer Elizabeth Farriss, a graduate of the electronic media and film program, was also named Jazz Programmer of the Year by the publication. |
| A bioterrorism airborne detection product featured at Homeland Security Tech Expo and in Newsweek Magazine was developed by EWU faculty and graduates. |
| Eastern’s School of Social Work is one of the largest in the country, consistently ranking within the top 15 percent of schools nationwide. |
| In 2007, Eastern’s student newspaper, The Easterner, was awarded first place for a four-year weekly broadsheet newspaper at the National College Newspaper Convention, sponsored by the Association of Student Press, beating out submissions by respected universities such as Wake Forest, California State University and Rice. |
| Judd Case, PhD, Eastern’s new dean of the College of Science, Health and Engineering, was part of a team that has made ground-breaking paleontological discoveries in Antarctica, including the discovery of two new dinosaurs and the unearthing of a unique skeleton of a baby plesiosaur, making worldwide news. |
| Eastern participates in NCAA Division 1 athletics within the Big Sky Conference. |
| In 2007, Eastern was one of two universities nationwide with two student-athletes earning Academic All-America honors – men’s basketball sophomore Rodney Stuckey and women’s basketball senior Joanna Chadd. |
| In March 2006, basketball player Rodney Stuckey was named the NCAA Division I Freshman of the Year by Collegeinsider.com. |
| In 2005, Erik Meyer was awarded the Walter Payton Award, the most prestigious in NCAA Division I-AA Football. |
| In 2004, the Eagles men’s basketball team won the Big Sky Championship, earning the team’s first-ever trip to the NCAA Basketball Tournament. The women’s basketball team played in the NCAA tournament in 1987. |
| Eastern’s football program has enjoyed incredible success including five playoff berths (1985, 1992, 1997, 2004, 2005), four Big Sky Championships (1992, 1997, 2004, 2005) and seven straight winning seasons (1999-2006), a feat that hadn’t been accomplished since the Red Reese era when Eastern had a string of 11-straight winning seasons from 1931-1941. |
| Eagle All-America offensive tackle Michael Roos became the highest draft choice in school history when Tennessee selected him in the second round of the 2005 NFL draft. |
| Eastern student-athletes have been honored 41 times since 1989 on the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII football team. |
| Eastern’s women’s volleyball program has enjoyed prolific success since 1989. The team has made four NCAA tournament appearances and enjoyed overall winning percentages of nearly 80 percent from the late 90s to present. |
| Eastern won the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) National Championship in wrestling in 1977. |
| Eastern was the NCAA Division II National Champion in Cross Country in 1982. |
| Hall of fame coach Dave Holmes rebuilt the Eastern football program and took the team to the NAIA National Championship game in 1967. |
| Legendary Eastern coach William “Red” Reese coached in nearly 1,000 Eastern athletic events – both basketball and football – from the 1930's to 1960's, winning more than 70 percent of them. |
