Some college traditions involve football, finals and late-night pizza. Others involve ghost stories that have been passed down for generations.
Across the United States, a number of campuses have become known not just for academics, but for the legends tied to their oldest buildings, grave sites and residence halls. Here are 10 of the best-known examples, based on long-running campus lore, student reporting, alumni accounts and university history.
Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
Ohio University is often mentioned in discussions of haunted campuses because of the concentration of stories tied to Athens, a town long associated with folklore and 19th-century institutions. Much of the attention centers on Wilson Hall, one of the university’s residence halls, where students have for years repeated stories about a former resident said to haunt a room on the building’s fourth floor.
The broader legend is tied to local claims about five cemeteries around Athens said to form a pentagram, with the campus at or near the center of the map. Historians have questioned that narrative, but it remains one of the most repeated urban legends connected to any American university…