I agree! I only heard it in recent years which is pretty recent relatively speaking, but it instantly made complete sense.

I think the most recent memory I have of playing it in school (not emulated later or something). I did a search to look for dates, and I found this awesome short article about the creators. The origin story makes the game even better in hindsight.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-you-wound-playing-em-oregon-trailem-computer-class-180959851/