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Caption: Dedication - Memorial Stadium
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Yet ours the sacred trust To keep the banner from the dust, To consummate our brothers' fight For freedom and for right, To carry on the light That our prairie fathers bore, Until the hosts of darkness are no more, And the flags of fratricidal war Are dropped at last and furled, And none but peaceful cities rule the world. Here in these college halls make sharp the knife Of intellect that puts an end to strife, That trims the sputtering lamps of all the earth. Here in these stadium walls, quicken the eye, Make strong the sinew, heart, and thigh, That through the bludgeoning of years, The sons of Illinois may have the girth, The mold, the will to win, of prairie pioneers. VII When the heart is low upon this stadium field And the flesh is failing, do not yield, O men of Illinois, nor falter; But place upon the altar Your utmost strength, and answer blow for blow With unconquerable will, As our elder warriors answered long ago In a fiercer, bloodier kill. Nor will you fight alone. Know then that hovering about each stadium stone And every wildwood blade And bough, the heroic shade Of some great prairie sire sustains your arm And holds you safe from harm: Out of the wistful haze Of Indian summer floating above the vales Of the Sangamon, red-skinned warriors gaze, •iiey
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