Orion's Photos: places - Illinois - uiuc - 1999 - football
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UIUC's own Fighting Illini vs. Northwestern U. Wildcats
November 20, 1999; 1-5 pm.
Memorial Stadium, Champaign, Illinois.
Since I'd never been to a "real" football game, the Illini
had a chance at a bowl game, and tickets were cheap ($11!)
I decided to attend this football game. I was most impressed
by the marching band (first few shots)-- UIUC's marching band
(the "Marching Illini") sounds and looks excellent.
It being father's day, at halftime they lined up the dads of
the Marching Illini to dance to a marching-band adaptation
of the soundtrack to Austin Powers-- quite amusing.
The Fighting Illini took an early lead, and lead Northwestern
throughout the game. The final score was 29 to 7.
As soon as the final seconds on the clock expired, an
incredible crowd rushed the Illini uprights. Much to the
consternation of the crowd, the uprights were substantial
steel pipe, and despite having a dozen people jumping up and
down on them, they would not break (in fact, they didn't
even bend much). Although the marching bands were scheduled
to take the field and perform, the crowd stuck around for at
least half an hour (despite dry, emotionless PA requests to
"please leave the field"), so I decided to leave.
The 1924 Memorial Stadium is very impressive-- it holds 68,000
people (about the entire population of Urbana and Champaign!).
It was almost totally full, which is pretty amazing.
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All images taken by Orion Lawlor
and placed completely in the public domain.
Converted to HTML on Thu Jul 29 13:24:59 CDT 2004.
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