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A “storyography” is the collection of stories people tell about a place, an experience, or time that has touched their lives. These stories become part of their personal and institutional sagas and, in a very real way, define who they are.
Share your “I’ll never forget” moments from your years at Illinois. Your story may cut across generations and record joys, sorrows, and triumphs—big and small. The topic is up to you. So is the medium—send us audio, video, photos, or something your’ve written. Together, our stories will capture what U of I has meant to our lives.
Love and Commencement in the 1940s
One of the last things Robert Kallal (BS ’43, MS ’46, chemical engineering) passed on to his nephew was a silent movie shot on the University of Illinois campus in the 1940s. It also features a bronze Alma Mater by Foellinger Auditorium.
“On December 7, 1941, I was a member of Triangle Fraternity, a fraternity of engineers. We were all stunned when we heard the radio announcement that Pearl Harbor was bombed. It was a time of disbelief. Someone in our group said, ‘Let’s have a parade.’ It started at Second and Daniel.”
—Ray Ackerman (BS ’43, civil engineering) recalls the peculiarity of his classmates being together at both the announcement of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 and the attacks at the World Trade Center 60 years later on September 11, 2001.
“We could go out for an hour and gather derelicts like old tires, trophies belonging to clubs from the 1970s, theater props or costumes, misshapen hunks of wood, ancient cassette tapes, and any other strange relics of the past we could find in the basement, attic, or wherever else in the building. We’d then wrap the gift, invent a story, and give them to each other in the room as jokes.”
—Jeff Ginger, BA ’06, sociology
“I think we won over half the medals that the U.S. team won in 2008, and we might have won about half the medals that the U.S. team won in the 2012 Paralympics as well.”
Adam Bleakney (BA ’00, English; MA ’02, journalism) and Josh George (BS ’07, journalism) discuss Illinois’ world-renowned tradition of wheelchair racing and innovative coaching.
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Bill Johnson (BS ’89, psychology; MBA ’91) and Michael Roux (BS ’86, finance) remember how their 1980s bands, Bad Flannel and Last Gentlemen, found support in the campus community.
Alanda Wraye (BA candidate in creative writing) recounts why she left the University in the 1970s and returned today, and how history classes have changed in the meantime.
Rashid Robinson (BA ’93, English; PhD candidate, educational policy studies) recalls how a pick-up football game on campus led him to rethink the identity he’d created for himself growing up in Chicago.
Leon Gottfried (AB ’48, general curriculum; MA ’51, PhD ’58, English) describes changes to campus during World War II and how taking a test as a chemical engineering student probably saved his life.