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60 free MSU Trivia: Michigan State University trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
MSU here means Michigan State University: the Spartans, Sparty, Beaumont Tower and the sprawling campus next door to the state capital. This quiz covers the whole school, not just game day. You will get football and basketball history (the Game of the Century, the 1979 and 2000 titles, the Paul Bunyan Trophy), but also the science that happened in its labs, the buildings every student walks past, and the alumni who went on to Hollywood, the NBA and the Senate. The questions range from things any Spartan knows (school colours, the campus river, the mascot) to the kind of detail that separates a real fan from a visitor: which name the teams almost got instead of Spartans, why the original Spartan statue was made of terra cotta, and what MSU's longest-serving president chaired in Washington. It suits tailgates, alumni nights, campus tours and anyone settling an argument with a Wolverine. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the university, its teams, buildings and people, and each question links to the source, so you can verify anything that surprises you.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Michigan State was founded as the nation's first agricultural college in which year?
1855
It opened as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, and its name changed five more times before settling on the current one.
Q 02Which Michigan governor signed the bill that founded the college?
Kinsley S. Bingham
Bingham signed it on February 12, and the new college's first president was Joseph R. Williams.
Q 03Michigan State's main campus is in which city?
East Lansing
The state capital, Lansing, sits right next door, which is why the university and state government share so much of the same skyline.
Q 04The MSU campus is built along the banks of which waterway?
Red Cedar River
The river gives its name to the fight song's most famous line about its banks, and 'The Rock', a boulder students repaint constantly, sits just north of it.
Q 05In 1863 the state made the college the nation's first land-grant institution under which 1862 law?
Morrill Act
Abraham Lincoln signed the act in 1862; Michigan moved faster than any other state to name a beneficiary.
Q 06In which year was the name shortened to 'Michigan State University', dropping 'of Agriculture and Applied Science'?
1964
It had been Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science for nine years before the trim.
Q 07MSU's contiguous campus covers roughly how many acres?
5,200
Only about 2,000 of those acres are developed; the rest is farms, woods and research land.
Q 08What are Michigan State's official colours?
Green and white
'Go Green, Go White' is the call-and-response you will hear at every home game.
Q 09In 2004 Sparty became the first Big Ten mascot to win what?
The UCA national championship for mascots
The foam-costume Sparty only dates from 1989; Muscle and Fitness magazine once voted him the buffest mascot in the country.
Q 10Why was the original 1945 'Spartan' campus statue cast in terra cotta instead of metal?
Wartime rationing of bronze
A bronze replica finally replaced it in 2005, and the terra cotta original moved indoors to a Spartan Stadium annex.
Q 11Who sculpted the original 'Spartan' statue in 1945?
Leonard D. Jungwirth
Jungwirth taught art at the college; his statue is one of the most-photographed spots on campus.
Q 12Sportswriter George S. Alderton chose "Spartans" as the team name in the 1920s instead of what alternative?
Michigan Staters
Before that the teams were simply the Aggies, a name that fit an agricultural college but not a school with big ambitions.
Q 13On May 20 of which year did the Big Ten vote to admit Michigan State, over Michigan's objections?
1949
Football did not begin full conference play until 1953, which is why both years get quoted.
Q 21Michigan State's 20–17 win in the 1988 Rose Bowl under George Perles came against which team?
USC
The Spartans' two earlier Rose Bowl wins, in 1954 and 1956, were both against UCLA.
Q 22Which coach holds the Michigan State football record for most wins, with 114?
Mark Dantonio
Dantonio coached from 2007 to 2019 and took the Spartans to the College Football Playoff.
Q 23After the 1999 regular season, Nick Saban abruptly left Michigan State to run which program?
LSU
He went 34–24–1 with the Spartans and never won a bowl game there, which nobody would have predicted from what came next.
Q 14The Paul Bunyan Trophy, contested with Michigan since 1953, was donated by which Michigan governor?
G. Mennen Williams
Michigan State won the very first one, 14–6, in its inaugural year of Big Ten football.
Q 15The Paul Bunyan Trophy is a wooden statue of the lumberjack roughly how tall, not counting its base?
Four feet
It stands on a five-foot base, so the whole thing towers over the players who carry it off the field.
Q 16The Land Grant Trophy, first contested in 1993, goes to the winner of the Spartans' game against which school?
Penn State
Coaches George Perles and Joe Paterno designed it themselves, which may explain why it is routinely called the ugliest trophy in college football.
Q 17Until 2013 Michigan State and Notre Dame played each other for which prize?
Megaphone Trophy
The series ended with the Irish ahead 33–27–1.
Q 18The 1966 'Game of the Century' between Michigan State and Notre Dame ended in what score?
10–10
Notre Dame ran out the clock rather than risk a loss, a decision that is still argued about sixty years later.
Q 19How many football national championships does Michigan State claim in total?
Six
Two of them are from the major wire-service polls; the rest come from other selectors in the 1950s and 1960s.
Q 20Which pair of seasons produced Michigan State's two wire-service football national titles?
1952 and 1965
Biggie Munn coached the first and Duffy Daugherty the second; Daugherty's teams claim four titles across the selectors.
Q 24When Spartan Stadium opened in 1923, what was it called?
College Field
It became Macklin Field in 1935 and Macklin Stadium in 1948 before taking its current name in 1957.
Q 25How big was the record TV audience for the 1979 Michigan State–Indiana State NCAA final?
35.1 million
It remains the most-watched college basketball game ever, and it launched the rivalry that carried the NBA through the 1980s.
Q 26Which Lansing native, the No. 1 pick in the 1979 NBA draft, led Michigan State to that year's NCAA title?
Magic Johnson
He got his nickname at 15 after a triple-double at Everett High School, and was Most Outstanding Player of the 1979 Final Four.
Q 27Who was named Most Outstanding Player when Michigan State beat Florida for the 2000 NCAA title?
Mateen Cleaves
Cleaves and his fellow 'Flintstones' from Flint were the heart of that team; the final score was 89–76.
Q 28Tom Izzo became Michigan State's head basketball coach in 1995, succeeding whom?
Jud Heathcote
His predecessor retired after 19 seasons with nine NCAA appearances and three Big Ten titles, having hired Izzo as an assistant.
Q 29Tom Izzo grew up in Iron Mountain in the Upper Peninsula alongside which future NFL head coach?
Steve Mariucci
The two were high-school teammates and later roommates at Northern Michigan University.
Q 30Tom Izzo was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in which year?
2016
By then he had one national title, from 2000, and a stack of Final Four trips.