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The 1988 Def Leppard show was a big one—16,606—and lead singer Joe Elliott announced from the stage that it had broken Elvis Presley’s all-time attendance record. Only—dramatic pause!—it hadn’t. Whether Elliott got bad intel or decided to make the bold...

The University’s first art gallery, inside University Hall, ca. 1880 (Image courtesy of UIAA)
From its agricultural and engineering roots, John Milton Gregory had a profound vision for what the U of I should become—a full-fledged university offering courses in every field and grounded in the liberal arts....

A: According to our records, at of March 2024 the oldest alumni are Mabel Craf, ’30 ED (109), of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; followed by Otto Klein, ’37 ACES (108), of Florissant, Mo.; and Vernon Hill, ’38 LAS (107), of Freeport, Ill. Their secret: the orange...

I’d been at my job as a bridge technical manager at the engineering firm Michael Baker International for two months when I got a photo message from my supervisor. It was a picture of a large crack in a tied-arch bridge over the Mississippi River. I said...