Twenty years ago, Atlanta hosted the Centennial Olympic games. Here’s a look back at the five Oglethorpe connections to the 1996 summer games:

1. Oglethorpe University was selected as the turnaround point for the Olympic marathon. In an effort to beat the Georgia summer heat, the marathon began at 7 a.m. Just outside the campus gates on Peachtree Road, the runners turned and began their trek back to downtown. Oglethorpe hosted an early morning gathering to watch the banner event of the Olympics. “The broadcast trucks were all over,” remembers Barbara Henry ’85. “In fact, for several years the red line followed by the participating athletes was still visible on the road. For the viewing party, we invited all the neighbors, alumni, etc., to watch the marathon. Lots of fun. I would guess we had 250 or more people here early in the morning to watch.”

2. Oglethorpe’s campus was home base for 800 German athletes and visitors, who rented rooms in the residence halls in July and August.

3. The Oglethorpe University Museum of Art hosted the exhibition The Mystical Arts of Tibet Featuring Personal Sacred Objects of the Dalai Lama, created for the 1996 Summer Olympics as a joint project with The Drepung Loseling institute (DLI) and OUMA.

4. Oglethorpe alumna Judy Wood Talley ’80 served on the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, which helped to plan Atlanta’s role in hosting the summer games.

5. Former board member and alumnus G. Douglass Alexander ’68 is founding partner of the fundraising consulting firm Alexander, Haas, Martin & Partners, which led the fundraising efforts that brought the 1996 Olympics to Atlanta.

The Dalai Lama visits the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art.