Test Your Illini IQ

So you think you’re an Illini?  Check out some of these lesser known facts about famous alumni, incredible inventions, and record-breaking moments in history at the University of Illinois.

What alumna originated soap operas?

Erna Phillips, class of 1923. She is also credited with creating Guiding Light, As the World Turns, and others!

Who cut the cake at the dedication of the Illini Union?

Eleanor Roosevelt, on February 8, 1942, one year after it opened.

What was the first University yell, created in 1894, by students who shared a five dollar prize?

Rah! Hoo-rah! Zip, boom, ah! Hip-zoo! Razoo! Jimmy, blow Your bazoo! Ipzidyiki, U of I! Champaign!

There is one grave on the campus proper. Whose is it?

John Milton Gregory, the University of Illinois’s first president, is buried north of Altgeld Hall. A commemorative marker to the south of that building says, “If you seek his monument, look around you.”

Which 1980s rock band began its career here and practiced at the Illinois Street Residence Halls?

REO Speedwagon formed here in 1970.

How many U of I alumni are in the NFL’s football hall of fame?

Six: Dick Butkus, Red Grange, George Halas, Bobby Mitchell, Ray Nitschke, and “Shorty” Ray.

“Playboy” magazine founder Hugh Hefner attended the U of I in the 1940s. Did he graduate?

Yes, he did. He graduated in 1949. He majored in psychology and double-minored in creative writing and art.

Which was the biggest crowd ever to attend an event at the Assembly Hall?

The audience for the October 22, 1976, Elvis Presley concert. (They did not clap quietly.)

A U of I architecture graduate received a failing grade on his big design project because his professor said it wasn’t feasible. What was the project, which eventually was built on the Illinois campus?

The Assembly Hall, which was one of the first - and the largest - domed-roof structures in America designed without supports to hold up its roof.

University of Illinois alumnus, Mookie Lee, appeared on the Spring 2007 season of which popular reality television show?

Survivor

University of Illinois alumnus, Alan Ruck, was 29 years old when he played Matthew Broderick’s best friend, Cameron Frye, in what movie?

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off