University of Illinois
The University of Illinois – Champaign-Urbana, IL
By Michael Kleen
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The University of Illinois was established as an industrial university in 1867 and first opened on March 2, 1868. It became the University of Illinois in 1885 and was renamed the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1982. As the oldest public university in the state of Illinois, the campus hosts a number of folktales and oddities. John Milton Gregory, the first president of the university, is buried on campus. His grave rests between Altgeld Hall and the Henry Administration Building, marked by an unsculpted stone and a plaque that reads, “if you seek his monument, look about you.”
The University is home to a number of ghost stories as well. To my knowledge, Troy Taylor is the first person to have written about these ghosts in a monograph. His accounts can be found in several editions of Haunted Illinois (2001, 2004) and were reprinted briefly in Field Guide to Illinois Hauntings (2001) by Jim Graczyk and Donna Boonstra. Cynthia Thuma and Catherine Lower filled in some of the blanks in their book Creepy Colleges and Haunted Universities (2003).
Taylor claims that principal haunted localities on campus include the English Building, the Psychology Building, and the YMCA. If the other, scattered sightings are true, that would make the U of I one of the most haunted universities on the planet.
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Im researching a football player that played with Red Grange.His name was Ray P. Gallivan .Where can i get any info on this player. He is a famous coach at our school and our stadium is names after him . I am writing a article about his football career,any help would be greatly appreciared.
Larry
please contact me at icanshoot1961@att.net
I’ve lived in Champaign-Urbana all of my life. We have a few moderately-enticing local ghost stories (such as the Blue Man legend), but I’ve never heard of any hauntings on campus. As much as I’d love to prove my skepticism wrong and stumble upon a legit haunting, I can say with near certainty that the UofI campus is devoid of any supernatural/paranormal phenomena.