Top of the Morning, Jan. 16, 2024
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Danville's Mike Waters is hoping to attend Illini football's Rededication Game against Michigan on Oct. 19 — 100 years and a day after Red Grange ran wild against the Wolverines.
That glorious day's crowd of 67,000 included Mike's grandparents, Harold and Alliece Lincoln, who sat in the west balcony. Harold was a huge sports fans, and the couple were intrigued by the new Memorial Stadium.
"I knew about Red Grange from the time I could walk," said Mike, who has his grandparents' ticket stub. "I was going over some old scrapbooks, and in flipping through the pages, the ticket literally fell out."
Grange scored four touchdowns in the first 12 minutes, later ran for a fifth and threw for a sixth in a 39-14 win. Already famous because of his earlier exploits, the performance cemented Grange as a household name.
Harold and Alliece enjoyed the game, Mike said. They also made it to the messy first game in stadium history, a rain-soaked affair in '23.
"One of my favorite stories," he said, "is how my grandmother lost her shoe in all the mud going into the stadium and never found it."
Have a story to share about Oct. 18, 1924? Email N-G VP/News Jim Rossow at jrossow@news-gazette.
