Prince Rogers Nelson – musical genius and one of the greatest multi-instrumentalists to ever walk the face of the Earth – was born OTD in 1958.

In the fall of 1971, Prince was an 8th grader at Bryant Junior High in Minneapolis.

Across town, student teacher Don Rawitsch was developing a card and dice game called "Oregon Trail" in his 8th grade history classes at Jordan Junior High.

Rawitsch showed the game to Bill Heinemann and Paul Dillenberger, who were student teachers at Bryant. They coded it up and play tested it with their school’s 8th graders.

It is very likely that Prince was an early playtester of Oregon Trail!

@mcnees ... and maybe Prince wasn't a tester. He hated school and was only interested in hoops and music. Watch the YouTube interview with Morris Hayes from a few days ago at the 8 minute mark https://youtu.be/P4szpb6Ua3g
Prince was great at EVERYTHING! How? Morris Hayes explains!

YouTube
@PaulPukite Maybe! From what I've read, all the kids were crazy for it. I'll check out the video.
@mcnees a few years younger than Prince but at the time mid 70s it was TIES in the Twin Cities schools. One time my dad bought home a DEC terminal and we dialed in to TIES to check it out. In a few days the math teacher announced to the class that someone had logged on w/o permission. Never heard of Oregon Trail until recently.