University of Okoboji Iowa
Lake Okoboji is Real, but the Fake University Draws the Crowd
Apr 7, 2009
Okoboji Iowa is a real town of about 16,000 permanent residents. In the summer, those numbers swell to 150,000 as travelers from around the country find pleasure in Iowa’s Lakes region. Spirit Lake, Minnewashta, East and West Lake Okoboji, and Upper and Lower Gar offer a bounty of water sports, golf and summer recreation in a laid-back, rural Iowa kind of way.
For more than 100 years, the shores of Lake Okoboji have been home to Arnold’s Park Amusement Park, a homey place reminiscent of the glory days of Coney Island. The first water slide operated here in 1889. In 1927, the park’s wooden roller coaster began thrilling passengers. It is rated among the top 10 of wooden coasters in the country.
History of the University of Okoboji
The University of Okoboji was founded in the early 1970s by Herman Richter and his brothers. Natives of the area who had just a little too much time on their hands and a little too much stimulation of their brain cells. The only degrees first offered were Roller Coaster Engineering, a natural, and Human Anatomy. The second came from the young Richter brothers’ desire to spend more time on the beach with members of the opposite sex.
University of Okoboji Sports Teams
The University football team, the Fighting Phantoms, remains undefeated. Each Sept. 31 (September has 30 days on most calendars) the Fighting Phantoms play the winner of the University of Iowa/Iowa State game. And on the same day, since the alumni are in town and the team is suited up, the university schedules games with Nebraska and Notre Dame. All tickets are sold on the 50-yard line, of course.
T-shirts, bumper stickers, pennants and stadium blankets emblazoned with the University logo, as well as diplomas from the U of O, are all sold at The Three Sons, Herman Richter’s sporting goods business. Proceeds help support the University of Okoboji Foundation, a real organization that contributes to community betterment projects. Previous recipients have included the fire department, school programs and public health causes.
The concept of the mythical university is so real among those who have visited the area and now call themselves alumni that each spring, as high school seniors and their parents begin researching colleges, at least a dozen or so real phone calls come to the tourism office asking for a real tour of the campus. The University entrance exam is usually the first tip that not everything is as it seems at this institution of higher education.
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