West Point of the West
Outfitted in West Point-style dress grays and a blue scoop-shaped cap, Illinois freshman Clarence Shamel stood painfully at attention alongside dozens of other fledgling cadets. It wasn’t easy. “We had our
Cancelled
Under a gray and drizzling October sky in 1918, freshman Fred H. Turner stood at the locked iron gates of Illinois Field, then located north of the Engineering Quad. He
Encore!
A half-century ago, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts opened as a facility of unprecedented scale and design for any educational institution anywhere. In the coming two seasons, the
Ingenious: First in class
When Nathan Ricker graduated from the University of Illinois in 1873, he became the first person in the nation to receive a degree in architecture. He might have achieved that
Small Wonders
The stones vault overhead to form a basalt arch, named for President Theodore Roosevelt, who laid the cornerstone in 1903. Soon the road starts to climb, switchbacking up and up,
Saving Pretzel
On the day we meet Pretzel, the weather is chilly and clear in Hammond, Ind., where she lives with her owners, Donna and Dave Gescheidler. Their living room décor anticipates
Time Traveler
Who says dead men tell no tales? Consider Shuká Káa, a young man who met his demise more than 10,000 years ago while hunting a bear. Thanks to anthropologists and
Big Beats
On Oct. 31, 1925, a cold damp day, an underachieving Fighting Illini football team was in Philadelphia, facing the powerful Quakers of the University of Pennsylvania. Illinois’ record was a
Memory Lane: Dorm life at the University of Illinois
Today known as Clark, Lundgren and Barton Halls, Fourth Street Residence Halls became the first all-male dormitories on the Illinois campus when they opened in 1941. Prior to their construction,
Lady in Waiting
Early on the morning of Aug. 7, 2012, after many long seasons of corrosive Midwestern weather and a short summer of delay, an hour like no other came to the
