Great Friends and Beautiful Memories
In 1955, some 60,000 spectators in Memorial Stadium witnessed history in the making as Duck Choo Oh, ’56 LAS, accepted her tiara and title as Illinois’ Homecoming Queen. Oh was the first Korean student...
Memory Lane: An Underground Lair
As the proverb says, all good things must come to an end. And of all the good things at Illinois, few were as beloved as the Undergraduate Library (UGL), the underground icon that was...
My Alma Mater: A Core Curriculum
When I attended the U of I in the mid-to-late 1950s, I was in the right place, at the right time, with the right major: home economics. Most people may not remember it now,...
Great Sports Moments: The Big Upset
They’ve been playing football at the University of Illinois since 1890. That’s 132 years of touchdowns, takeaways and tackles. One iconic photo stands above the rest, and it followed the most significant win in...
We Reach Millions
Editor’s note: The WILL audience stories that appear in this article are composites, based on information from the following sources: interviews with WILL listeners/viewers and staff; the Illinois Public Media archives; The Daily Illini;...
Illini 411: When did intercollegiate sports start on campus?
A: The University established a “base ball” team in 1872, but it didn’t play another school until Oct. 2, 1879, when it defeated Illinois College, 12 to 5. In its coverage of the game,...
Family Matters
Jeff Wiener, ’99 BUS, still recalls catching a glimpse of the grin on his mother’s face when he dressed up as the Wicked Witch of the West. He went all witchy during his freshman...
Illini 411: What is Illini 411?
A: It’s a Q&A column that’s all things Illini. You ask me a question about the U of I, and I’ll answer it with as much vim, vigor and verisimilitude as I can muster....
Hall of Famers
RON GUENTHER Football, 1963-66 Athletics Director, 1992–2011 Ron Guenther was an offensive lineman for the Fighting Illini from 1963 to 1966, earning team MVP, Second-Team All–Big Ten and First-Team Academic All–Big Ten honors...
Memory Lane: Illini Hall—In Memoriam
The corner of Wright and John streets in Champaign will soon be home to a new data sciences center, built as part of the University’s $192 million Altgeld Hall Project. But for 114 years,...
