Alumni Association leaders share their proudest moments
Jim Vermette: Peerless Leader It was the late 1960s and early ’70s, and Jim Vermette, ’60 LAS, recalls the “great change” in America driven by such issues as Vietnam and
My Alma Mater: The Spirit of Activism
It was the mid-1970s and a time of great change in my life. I had just graduated from Penn State—linguistics and French—and was headed across the country to attend library
Great Sports Moments: The Best Battery in Baseball
In the spring of 1902, the Illini baseball team launched the most ambitious road trip in school history—two weeks on the East Coast, visiting the cream of the college crop:
Being Black At Illinois
When the University of Illinois celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1968, only 1 percent of the student body was Black. African Americans had been on campus for nearly all
Illini 411: Why is there a pineapple at the top of Foellinger Auditorium?
A: Don’t reach for your paring knife just yet—Foellinger’s pineapple is 4-1/2 feet tall and made of copper. In the mid-1980s, when Illinois renovated the nearly 80-year-old building, local contractor
Memory Lane: Surfing the Interwebs
It was a beautiful spring day in 1993, finals only weeks away, and as she had many times that semester, Page Wolf, ’93 MEDIA, walked into Gregory Hall, entered the
Sports Legends: “We Want Dike”
As the greatest all-around athlete in U of I history, Thomas Dwight “Dike” Eddleman, ’49 AHS, excelled in three sports during the mid-to-late 1940s. In football, Eddleman set longstanding records
Illini 411: Is it true that lovers who kiss beneath the Eternal Flame on the Quad will be together forever? The hopeless romantic in me hopes so!
A: Of course it’s true (says a fellow hopeless romantic)! Now, if I were a cynical man, I would say that the Eternal Flame is neither eternal nor a flame—that
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
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
