Baptism by fire
The train from Champaign lumbered through the black Illinois night, just past the witching hour, en route to a city on fire. Nineteen-year-old Dillon Brown, Class of 1875, sat in
Memory Lane: Field Day
It’s a Saturday in October, about 100 years ago. The trees are starting to change, there’s a chill in the air, and the stands at Illinois Field (1891–1986)—all wooden bleachers—are
Memory Lane: It’s Showtime!
At Illinois, going to a movie theater in town was once nearly as common as going to class. Chris Alix, ’88 RNG, fondly remembers the high spirits at a midnight
Co-Education
In her later years, Frances Potter Reynolds, Class of 1874, recalled the day in 1870 when the Illinois Industrial University’s Board of Trustees voted to admit women as students. Unlike
Ingenious: The magician of BCL
When Heinz von Foerster was a child in Vienna, his grandmother hosted artists, philosophers and politicians, and von Foerster soaked it all in. He brought that same multidisciplinary spirit to
Memory Lane: Mother and Child Reunion
Jeff Wiener, ’99 BUS, made sure that Moms Weekends were memorable for his own mom. Like the year she saw him cackle and wear a pointy black hat onstage as
Memory Lane: The Stunt Show
On a Homecoming weekend in the mid-1960s, Bill Lewke, ’66 BUS, gamely played an elephant before thousands of amused parents, students and alumni in Assembly Hall. His fraternity and a
Winning Ways
On a clear day you can see forever. And where better than from the sidelines of Memorial Stadium on a crisp autumn afternoon, as Orange and Blue players swarm the field
Ingenious: The nation’s oldest
In October 1969, students protesting the Vietnam War charged toward the Morrow Plots located in the heart of the UI campus. In a bit of guerilla theater, they planned to
Memory Lane: The Rinky Dink
Joe Rank, ’69 MEDIA, MS ’73 MEDIA, happily spent many days during spring semester of his sophomore year playing golf. A rank beginner (pun intended), the advertising major from Urbana
