Out of the past 2/19/12

25 years ago: Feb. 19, 1987

Southeast Missouri State University incidental fees and room and board charges next year will remain at 1986-1987 levels, as the board of regents freezes those fees; in other action, the regents vote to confirm the selection of "Show Me Center" as the name for the new multipurpose building.

Spectators attending the basketball game at Houck Field House last night received a piece of the bleachers as a farewell to Houck; next season, Southeast Missouri State University basketball teams will play home games in the Show Me Center.

50 years ago: Feb. 19, 1962

SIKESTON, Mo. -- A smoldering fire, which suddenly erupts into a series of explosions, sends flames racing through the 37-room Homestead Hotel on east U.S. 60 early in the morning, destroying the building; all eight people in the structure at the time escape in only their nightclothes.

In one of their most unpredictable games yet, the State College Indians belted Warrensburg, Mo., 74-66 Saturday night at Houck Stadium; the win clinched the Indians' second MIAA basketball championship in a row.

75 years ago: Feb. 19, 1937

Foreclosure on the property of two black congregations in Cape Girardeau -- St. James AME and Second Baptist -- is threatened by the county court unless the churches are able to meet defaulted interest payments on loans secured from the county school funds.

The recent death in Stockton, Calif., of Sarah Althea Hill Terry, once the toast of San Francisco society and later dubbed the city's "Rose of Sharon," recalls to Girardeans that she was a native of Cape Girardeau County.

100 years ago: Feb. 19, 1912

No longer will northbound freight trains on the Frisco be bothered by the ugly pull that formerly made it a task to leave Cape Girardeau with a heavy load; the new main track through the city is connected in the morning, and the ugly dips and curves that caused stalled trains, delays, volumes of profanity and many broken draw-bars were taken out.

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- One of the worst fires to ever happen in this part of the state was the burning of three business blocks at Bloomfield last night; 20 business houses were consumed by the conflagration.

-- Sharon K. Sanders