Famous Visitors from 1990's

Minneapolis rockers Semisonic, best know for their song "Closing Time," played Halenbeck Hall on Oct. 10, 1999. Sponsored by the University Program Board (UPB), tickets cost $10 for St. Cloud State students and $15 for the general public.

Country music came to campus when musician John Michael Montgomery played a homecoming concert. 2700 people attended the concert held at Halenbeck Hall. Singer Jack Ingram opened.

Tickets cost $12 and $16 for St. Cloud State students, and $22 and $26 for everyone else.

Led by Jakob Dylan, son of famed Minnesota singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, the Wallflowers performed at Halenbeck Hall before a sold-out crowd on Dec. 18, 1997.

Also on the bill were Twin Cities rockers the Jayhawks. Sponsored by the University Program Board (UPB), tickets cost $10 for St. Cloud State students and $20 for the general public.

On Sept. 22, 1997, Negro League baseball player Buck O'Neil spoke at Ritsche Auditorium in front of an audience of 650 people. O'Neil played for the Kansas City Monarchs.

O'Neil was on tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of African-American baseball player Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball.

Actor Barry Williams, who played Greg Brady on the 1970s television program The Brady Brunch, appeared at Ritsche Auditorium.

Williams discussed growing up while working with a high-profile television family.

Additional Image

• Barry Williams at Ritsche Auditorium

The Rockin’ Round the Clock concert, an annual fundraiser hosted by local musician Bobby Vee for Cathedral High School in St. Cloud, was held at the National Hockey Center.

Besides Bobby Vee, Freddy Cannon and Paul Revere and the Raiders performed.

Sponsored by UPB, pianist George Winston performed for 800 people at Ritsche Auditorium on Dec. 4, 1996.

Tom and Dick Smothers performed at the Founder’s Day concert at Ritsche Auditorium.

Founder’s Day recognized the many benefactors that supported St. Cloud State University.

Country music legend Hank Williams Jr. performed at the National Hockey Center.

Musician Bobby McFerrin and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra performed at the Stewart Hall auditorium. The event was a kickoff to raise funds to renovate the auditorium itself.

His father, baritone Robert McFerrin, performed at the same Stewart Hall auditorium on Jan. 12, 1955.

Spike Lee, who has directed such films as Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, and Malcolm X, spoke to an audience of 4,700 at Halenbeck Hall.

Lee discussed film, film making and the difficulty of Afro-Americans producers in the film industry.

Former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese and lawyer Gatewood Galbraith at a press conference before their Stewart Hall auditorium debate regarding the legalization of marijuana.

Maya Angelou spoke to 500 people at the Atwood Ballroom on Feb. 4, 1991. She read poetry and "emphasized the need for America's citizens to go to the library." Angelou returned to St. Cloud State in April 2003.

In a debate entitled "The State of the Mind vs. the Mind of the State," Watergate figure G. Gordon Liddy and 1960s activist Timothy Leary appeared together at Stewart Hall's auditorium.

They discussed a variety of topics including drug use, politicians, personal rights, the war on drugs, organized religion and the military.

Arranged by English professor Bill Meissner, author W.P. Kinsella visited St. Cloud State as a writer-in-residence.

Kinsella's book, Shoeless Joe, was made into a 1989 Hollywood film starring Kevin Costner, Field of Dreams.

Cesar Chavez, president of the United Farm Workers union, urged a St. Cloud State audience to boycott California grapes due to the use of pesticides.

Willmar, Minnesota native and astronaut George “Pinky” Nelson spoke at the Atwood Memorial Center ballroom during the College of Science and Engineering’s Professional Exchange Day.

Nelson flew on three space shuttle missions.