Illinois Salukis.
== History ==
Southern Illinois Normal College was chartered by an act of the Twenty-Sixth Illinois General Assembly on March 9, 1869, the second state-supported normal school to be created in Illinois. Carbondale was selected to host the university and a cornerstone-laying ceremony was held on May 17, 1870. Alternate sites considered for the university included Centralia and DuQuoin, among others. The accidental death of a site contractor and other delays prevented the university's opening until 1874. The first session of the university was a summer institute with eight faculty members and an enrollment of 53 students.
In 1876 SIU admitted its first African-American student, Alexander Lane. In 1878 SIU established a program for the Douglas Corps Cadets, beginning a relationship with ROTC programs which lasts into the present day. The original "Old Main" building was destroyed by fire in 1883, and a new one was built in the same spot. The university's first student newspaper, The Normal Gazette, …
