Keep Memorial Stadium hallowed

In his introduction to University of Illinois President David Kinley at the Oct. 18, 1924, dedication of Memorial Stadium, Robert F. Carr said, “The beautiful colonnades stand at a height overlooking the landscape these boys once loved so well and this is indeed a fitting memorial to the 200 noble men who went from this university and gave their lives for our country and for a better world civilization. How well I remember, as I sat near President James when he addressed the graduating class of 1917 and said, with a tear in his eye and a break in his voice, ‘God bless you, one and all, for some of you I will never see again.’”

How true this proved to be.

President Kinley then said, “This stadium is a memorial to those of the University of Illinois who died in the World War, 183 men and one woman. We are dedicating it to them. Dedication is a consecration. But we cannot hallow this structure by what we do or say. They made it holy by dying for the principles and ideals in which they believed. It is for us to keep it hallowed by living those principles and ideals. The dedication is a pledge to our dead that we consecrate ourselves to perpetuate their principles and ideals, to keep alive the spirit that led them to give up their lives — that immortal spirit of service and self-sacrifice which made these boys and this girl of ours walk up to the face of death.”

We believe that we too must keep President Kinley’s words, that we keep hallowed this structure, our Memorial Stadium.

Jim French, Memorial Stadium Society

Freeport