Traditions: Gulf Coast - Southern Miss

History	Updated April 3, 2014

Southern Miss Gulf Coast
Overview

The University's presence on the Mississippi Gulf Coast began in 1947 when then Mississippi Southern College first organized classes at Van Hook Hall, Methodist Camp Grounds, in Biloxi. In 1958, classroom space and facilities moved to Mary L. Michel Junior High School in Biloxi. To meet the educational needs of various occupational fields and interests along the Gulf Coast, the University relocated in 1964 to Keesler Air Force Base. Classroom facilities were obtained for night classes from the Jefferson Davis campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College; the addition was called the USM Harrison County Resident Center.
In September 1966, Southern Miss further extended its offerings by adding the Jackson County Resident Center, located on the Jackson County campus of the MGCCC in Gautier. The Jackson County Center was built for the University by the Jackson County Board of Supervisors, largely through the efforts of Dr. Shelby Thames when he was executive vice president of Southern Miss. The center was constructed with the hope that all four years of a number of degrees would be located in Jackson County through Southern Miss and MGCCC. Today, that wish is a reality.
In March 1972, the USM Harrison County Resident Center program was moved from the Jefferson Davis campus of MGCCC to the campus of the former Gulf Park College for Women, located on Highway 90 in Long Beach. Gulf Park was a two-year private school founded by Col. J.C. Hardy, who also founded the Gulf Coast Military Academy. The school opened for classes September 10, 1921, and held its final commencement May 29, 1971.
The school's closing was attributed to the sagging economy, damage inflicted by Hurricane Camille in 1969, and the increasing ability of community colleges to provide quality education at a low cost. In July 1972, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning established the USM Gulf Park and Keesler Air Force Base Center as an upper-level degree completion regional campus of the University, offering programs leading to degrees at the baccalaureate and graduate levels. In 1998, the University was classified as a dual-campus system, and in 2002, the Mississippi Supreme Court cleared the way for USMGC to offer freshman and sophomore courses.
Today, the Gulf Park campus serves as the central campus for several teaching centers, including the Stennis Space Center teaching and research site at the John C. Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, where the Department of Marine Science and the Center of Higher Learning serve students in that community; the Keesler Center, located on Keesler Air Force Base, which provides courses for military personnel as well as the civilian community; and the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory teaching and research site, which includes the Marine Education Center, Point Cadet, and the Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center at Cedar Point.
A prominent historic landmark at the Gulf Park campus in Long Beach is the Friendship Oak. This huge live oak tree dates from approximately 1487. It is about 59 feet high, and the diameter of its trunk is more than six feet. Its trunk's circumference is more than 19 feet, and the spread of its foliage is 155 feet. The earliest available reference to the moniker Friendship Oak is found in an article written by the late Bob Davis, correspondent for the New York Sun, who described the tree in his book, People, People, Everywhere, published in 1936.

History