Today Illini football fans will mark the 100th anniversary of the dedication of Memorial Stadium, and again host the Michigan Wolverines.
A century ago, on Oct. 18, 1924, the building was dedicated. That day, “ Red” Grange, the “Galloping Ghost” of Illinois, scored four touchdowns in the first 12 minutes en route to a stunning win over Michigan, which had won 20 straight games.
Vermilion County should take a bow today, too, for two good reasons: Danville bricks and Curtis “Cap” Redden.
In the 1920s, college football was booming, and several universities built huge “memorial” stadiums to honor their World War I dead. In 1921, University of Illinois football coach Robert Zuppke and former athletic director George Huff proposed a memorial stadium to a crowd 7,000 undergraduates. Roughly $700,000 was pledged that day; the final $1 million was pledged later. In all, more than 21,000 students, alumni and various contributors donated.
Costs would have been far higher if the brick hadn’t come from the 70 beehive kilns of the Western Brick Company in nearby Danville. Many landmarks on the Champaign-Urbana campus were built of Western brick. It was the world’s largest brick manufacturer.
The company, founded in 1900, capitalized on Vermilion County’s vast deposits of shale, clay and coal, plus Danville’s status as a railroad hub. The kilns were closed decades ago, but at its peak, Western Brick employed between 400 and 500 men, who processed more than 125 million bricks annually.
Memorial Stadium actually opened on Homecoming Day, Nov. 3, 1923, and the stadium was used throughout the 1923 season. But Zuppke asked that the formal dedication be delayed until a unique phase of the structure was completed. That pushed the dedication to Oct. 18, 1924.
The stadium was designed to honor U of I students who died in World War I. It includes 200 stone columns that grace the east and west facades. By October 1924, 189 columns were lettered with the names of war dead, nearly all of them former U of I students. A $1,000 donation was required for each name.
Column 189 is different. It commemorates Curtis G. Redden, 1881-1919, a Rossville native and Danville attorney. As starting left end for undefeated Michigan teams from 1900 to 1903, he was a unanimous choice for the All-Western Team and a third-team All-American. Redden was captain of Michigan’s football, baseball and track squads. Later, he was a college football coach, a leading Danville attorney and finally, lieutenant colonel and commander of the Danville-area 149th Field Artillery Regiment.
After surviving savage fighting, he contracted pneumonia and died in Coblenz, Germany on Jan. 16, 1919, at age 37. His remains were exhumed 20 months later and shipped home. He was buried on Aug. 6, 1920 following a somber procession that began with a service at the Lincoln Park Pavilion, proceeded east on English Street, and ended at Springhill Cemetery. There was a riderless horse, with Redden’s boots mounted backwards in the stirrups, and an artillery caisson, pulled by six black horses, that carried the flag-covered casket.
“The last rites for the gallant Danville soldier probably were the most impressive ever witnessed in Danville,” The Commercial-News reported.
If you seek his monument, visit Redden Square outside the Vermilion County Courthouse, Danville’s Curtis G. Redden American Legion Post 210, Springhill Cemetery … or Memorial Stadium in Champaign.