It's got to be custard: Larry and Kay's Dairy Bar brings back memories and traditions
Friday, December 13, 2024
Media Contact: Sophia Fahleson | Digital Communications Specialist | 405-744-7063 | sophia.fahleson@okstate.edu
For Ferguson College of Agriculture alumni who were on campus prior to 2005, some of their fondest memories are from sitting around reading The O’Colly, eating a cinnamon roll and drinking a glass of milk, or playing card games between classes at the original Dairy Bar.
“At the beginning of the planning process for the new Agricultural Hall, one of our building consultants asked if anyone would be upset leaving the old building or if there were any sentimental feelings about it,” said Thomas Coon, former vice president and dean of Oklahoma State University Agriculture. “I was the first to answer and said, ‘What they are sentimental about and what I have heard a lot about is the old Dairy Bar.’”
Bringing back the original Dairy Bar would mean a lot to alumni and make a new tradition for current students that will be remembered when they are alumni, too, Coon said.
Larry Ferguson, 1975 animal science alumnus and New Frontiers cornerstone donor, worked in the OSU Dairy Building in the 1970s when the original Dairy Bar was open. He felt the Dairy Bar would be a great addition to the new building because of the feelings and memories behind it, he said.
“When I was in school, the Dairy Bar was an attraction on campus,” Ferguson said. “People from all parts of campus would come to it. So, when we started talking about this project, I said, ‘Wouldn’t that be a nice attraction for Ag Hall, so everyone comes to a place, a central meeting place, to have ice cream?’”
Studio Architecture, which has designed multiple OSU buildings, proposed a building design with a two-story atrium and space for students and faculty to gather.
“Following the architects’ presentation of the design concept, I pointed to a location on the ground floor of the atrium and said, ‘I really want you to figure out how to put a Dairy Bar here,’” Coon said. “To have a Dairy Bar in the center of the building of a college that Larry’s family made a significant gift to would just make it that much better.”
When the request was made, Jim Hasenbeck, 1982 OSU architecture alumnus and founding principal of Studio Architecture, wanted to ensure Coon’s request was included in the floor plans, he said.
“When Dr. Coon and the Fergusons wanted to reintroduce the Dairy Bar concept to the university, I knew exactly what they meant because I knew what that feeling was and what the original Dairy Bar was used for,” Hasenbeck said.
Hasenbeck and his team knew the large atrium space at the end of the entry was the ideal place to locate the Dairy Bar, he said.
“The atrium space was designed for gatherings, studying, visiting, and, overall, to be a hangout space,” Hasenbeck said. “To have the Dairy Bar in the atrium was like peanut butter and jelly — it was just meant to be right there.
“When they wanted to reintroduce the Dairy Bar, it clicked perfectly with us and fell almost effortlessly as far as where it would be located and how it would function and work,” he added.
Vedda Hsu, University Dining Services director, and her team were asked in 2020 to help rebuild the Dairy Bar, Hsu said. Dining Services was honored to assist in bringing back memories to the college, she added.
“My team and I worked hard and put lots of thought into reimagining the Dairy Bar,” Hsu said, “from the design concept to the menu to the new, modern twist put into the operation.”
Hsu wanted the new Dairy Bar to be unique to itself and the new building, she said. As a result, the Dairy Bar is the only location on campus to serve custard and cinnamon rolls, which are made using the original Dairy Bar recipe, Hsu said. These signature items were designed based on space limitations and the uniqueness they wanted to bring to the college, she added.
Early on, when University Dining Services proposed the preliminary menu, Coon and Ferguson had some thoughts about the items, Coon said.
“Dining Services gave us a menu that had doughnuts on it,” Coon said. “That was great, but the new Dairy Bar had to have cinnamon rolls. One of the things I heard so much about from alumni was how good those cinnamon rolls were.
“They also had frozen yogurt on the menu, and Larry said, ‘You can’t use frozen yogurt — that’s not dairy enough. It’s got to be custard,’” Coon added. “And that’s what it is now.”
Ferguson was not interested in most of the items, except for the ice cream, he said. It had to be good ice cream that would draw people to the Dairy Bar, he added.
“I just wanted it to be a form of ice cream,” Ferguson said. “Soft serve is ice milk, so it’s not truly ice cream. Custard is ice cream mixed with eggs.
“Eggs are a stabilizer and emulsifier to hold the fat in,” he added. “They give it a little more flavor — so I was fine with custard.”
Ferguson’s fondest memory from the original Dairy Bar was the traditional strawberry ice cream, as he ate it and made it every day in the processing room, he said. He and his wife, Kayleen Ferguson, chuckled and agreed Larry Ferguson probably taste-tested the ice cream while he was making it, as well.
“One of my jobs was making the ice cream for the Dairy Bar,” Larry Ferguson said. “If you think about the Dairy Building, you walked in the front door, the Dairy Bar was on the right and down the hall was the processing plant where we made the ice cream.
“Other than eating the ice cream, making it was my favorite part because I ate it and I didn’t have to pay for it,” he added.
Larry Ferguson was not the only student to have memories of the original Dairy Bar. Hasenbeck remembers the camaraderie with friends and classmates and chowing down on a cinnamon roll, he said, but he also remembers the number of students who came from other colleges.
“What was neat about the original Dairy Bar when I was in school was it wasn’t just kids from the college of agriculture,” Hasenbeck said. “All of these different colleges and students — engineering, business, home economics — were in there intermingling, like a mini Student Union in a way, which was fun.”
The main goal of adding the new Dairy Bar was to attract students from other colleges just as the original did before, Larry Ferguson said. With it being a new generation and thinking from that standpoint, he thinks it’s doing a wonderful job, he added.
“It’s attracting people from all over campus,” Larry Ferguson said. “They serve a product that everyone enjoys, and I enjoy it. It’s a very good product, and unfortunately, I could eat it all day. So, yeah, I think it’s accomplishing just that — the goal of attracting people to come be involved in agriculture.”
Kayleen Ferguson agreed with her husband, as she has heard many stories from alumni outside the college of agriculture, she said.
“There is a donor who has mentioned his memories of being across campus and stopping at the Dairy Bar,” Kayleen Ferguson said, “which made him, in turn, make a donation for this new building.
“So, even though his major wasn’t in agriculture, the Dairy Bar connected him to agriculture, and he was willing to join us in this campaign to make this possible,” she added.
The new Dairy Bar — now called, Larry and Kay’s Dairy Bar — has a great space to the east of the bar where students and professors from every college come to sit, Hasenbeck said. The area has that same feeling as the original Dairy Bar, where it’s not only for agriculture but also for the university, he added.
“The sitting area has old pictures of one of the original barns that was on campus,” Hasenbeck said. “To have that there — with the Dairy Bar — and some of the nostalgia and history is kind of fun to see. It seems to tie the new Dairy Bar and the people back to its history.”
The university is also sharing history by displaying the original Dairy Building signs on the east side of the new building, Larry Ferguson said.
“The signs bring back some of the heritage of the Dairy Building,” he said. “It’s a shame the building wasn’t saved, but the signs bring back some of the history. Oklahoma State is a land-grant university, and that history of our development of programs that supported land-grant activities is important.”
Although some alumni may not remember the original Dairy Bar, Hasenbeck said, the popularity and long lines with the new Dairy Bar are reminiscent of the old days.
The famous cinnamon rolls, the ice cream and the memories struck a chord with alumni, but now the new generation of OSU students can enjoy the same items, while making new memories and new traditions at Larry and Kay’s Dairy Bar.
Story by Leah Kelly | Cowboy Journal