University of Illinois - Illio Yearbook (Urbana Champaign, IL)

Page 20 text:

This is University Hal!, Illinois' first building. When it opened in 1885, it stood unfinished in the middle of a field so muddy that for years faculty and students wore rubber boots when crossing it. A collapsed ceiling in 1938 led to its being torn down. Homecoming Displays Depict Land-Grant Centennial Homecoming decorations at Armory House's Hall of Fame'' pursue the weekend's theme, the Land Grant act. This year the University of Illinois is joining with sixty-seven other colleges and universities across the country in celebrating the centennial of the Land-Grant Act. It was an Illinois reformer, Jonathan Baldwin Turner, who proposed a system of education adapted to the needs of the common man, and Justin Morrill whose driving force eventually pushed the bill through Con- gress. The results gave states federal land on which to establish and endow colleges within reach of all Americans. In 1863 the Illinois Legislature unanimous- ly accepted the Morrill Act, under which the state re- ceived 480,000 acres of land to found a university. Five years later it opened, under the name of Illinois Industrial University, with an enrollment of fifty and a staff of three teachers and a head farmer. From its modest beginning, when a single building was its home and when students sometimes came downstairs from their rooms to recite in bathrope and slippers, the Uni- versity has grown tremendously, and continues to ex- pand in response to the problems of our day. 16

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Homecoming badge sales are a common sight. We might even buy one from this girl if we were sure she was selling and not out trick or treating. Stunt Show is a traditional part of Homecoming. The Alpha Gams and SAEs won second place. Football Game, Stunt Show Highlight the Weekend Another Homecoming, another beautiful queen. Here we see Miss Betty Birch, Chi O, as she was notified of her winning Excited about her winning, the girls of the queen's sorority got together to surprise her and wish her their best during her reign. 15

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Always Find Fun for All on a Football Weekend Each year throngs of spectators avidly witness perennial football games in Memo- rial Stadium. Glancing at the stands, one per- haps is bewildered by the many spectators wearing orange capes. These spectators are members of Block I, the largest card sec- tion of its kind in the university world. Through much intricate and tedious planning, patterns are developed by the members of the Block I committee. Chief Illini and the American Flag are just two of the many pat- terns that decorate the stadium on those fall football weekends. The bright array of dif- ferent colored cards, contrasted against a multitude of people is so characteristic at the games. The shining cards scintillating in the Saturday afternoon sunlight is truly a stun- ning spectacle in itself. The usual half-time festivities are an attraction that make going to a football game more than just watching the fighting Illini pugnaciously penetrate the opponent's line. Be that as it may, through a medium of colored cards, a message is con- veyed. This colorful message, sometimes pa- triotic— other times comical, is really only appreciated after one has seen it in operation. An annual event of the Illinois-Purdue game is the firing of a small can- non. The winning team keeps the Civil War replica as a traveling trophy. Rosemarie Reasor and Shirley Ross, Block- 1 co-ordinators, keep close contact with the West Block by telephone. The famous Block I card section i s pictured in operation. Looking at the East Block, the West Block realizes that it's an Indian they're forming.