Sarah Elizabeth Hergert, left, and daughter Katherine Elizabeth, 8, will be the fifth and sixth generations of the George Huff family to attend a game at Memorial Stadium.
The history of the University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium cannot be told without mentioning the name of George Huff.
Symbolically, Huff's history-changing story began 152 years ago -- June 11, 1872 -- on his parents' cattle farm located mere blocks from the site of the mammoth coliseum he dreamed about building.
Educated at grade schools in Champaign and Englewood High School in Chicago, 15-year-old George entered the UI in the fall of 1887. Baseball was his first and favorite sport, and he was a member of the Illinois teams from 1889 to 1892. He also played on the university's first football team in 1890.
Huff went east to study medicine at Dartmouth College in the fall of 1893, but returned to Champaign in 1895 to coach baseball and football and serve as the assistant director of athletics. Six years later, he added duties as the athletic department's director.
When Huff hired Bob Zuppke as Illinois' head football coach in 1913, the university's hit-and-miss gridiron fortunes swung wildly in a positive direction. In Zuppke's second season, the Fighting Illini compiled a perfect 7-0 record, claiming both Big Ten and national championships. More conference titles followed in 1915, '18 and '19.
As World War I raged in Europe, the UI campus evolved into a training ground for soldiers. The campus Armory became the state's biggest bedroom, serving more than 3,000 men each night. Many of the school's athletes eventually became involved with the military or the war industry. By September 1918, an influenza pandemic involved the campus. That year, the community reported more deaths than births. On Nov. 11, 1918, an armistice ending the war was signed and the patriotism of UI's students and alumni spurred Huff on to his grand project.
After an overflow crowd watched the Illini football game against Ohio State at its ancient Urbana facility in the fall of 1920, Huff shared his dream with a local reporter, lamenting the deficiency of Illinois Field.
"I haven't the slightest doubt that we could have sold more than 40,000 tickets, and possibly 50,000 if we had had the seating," he said. "With the growing interest in our teams, it is no idle guess to prophesy that a larger stadium is a necessity. Our stadium will be many things. It will be a memorial to the Illinois boys who were killed in the war, a recreation field, and an imposing place for our varsity games. It will be an unprecedented expression of Illinois loyalty."
Plans were immediately set in motion and selling the idea of a new stadium began. On Sept. 11, 1922, Huff hosted a groundbreaking ceremony and work began on the $1.7 million structure ($31.3 million in today's dollars). Their ambitious objective was to host a homecoming game in the facility in November 1923.
Incredibly, within a span of just 418 days, the contest against the University of Chicago was successfully hosted at the only partially completed edifice. It took nearly another full year before the stands, towers and memorial colonnade were completed, and on Oct. 18, 1924, Illinois hosted Michigan for the dedication game.
But who was George Huff, the individual?
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At the time of Huff's death in 1936, Harry Hills, a writer for the Chicago American, offered this detailed description of the man typically known as "G."
"He had a massive frame. His hands were quite large and as expressive as those of an actor. But it was his head which attracted and retained one's attention. Large and well-modeled, it was poised neatly upon broad shoulders. A firm chin, a mouth always begging to break into a smile, a pair of deep gray eyes that were at once kindly and penetrating, a high forehead, and a shock of hair combed in pompadour fashion. Added to these feature were a few lines and a rosy color.
"He had a deep voice, capable of many modulations, and a one-syllable laugh. He combined a faculty of expression and a juvenile vitality to convey his message to whomsoever happened to be with him. He had a convincing sincerity, a steadfastness of purpose, and an unflinching courage that enable him to accomplish just about whatever he wished. His sincerity made others anxious to help him in his projects."
Local journalist Eddie Jacquin of The News-Gazette, in his 1936 tribute, described Huff as "just one of the folks."
"He was a plain man of simple habits and honest frankness. He liked the open country, and in late years, his greatest joy was to go with his family for a trip in the car. Persons entering his office never had to worry about their reception. Perhaps he would peer over his glasses at someone waiting outside his office. 'Are you waiting for me?' he would exclaim, raising his voice almost to a shout. 'Well, come in!' he would say, and perhaps he would beckon with his left hand. If the question asked seemed a bit involved, he would suggest the simple story be unfolded. His answer was always short and to the point. It might be an explosive 'No' and then a chuckle that might expand into a full laugh.
"G. Huff never rode the fence. If a decision was to be made, he would make it. He might say 'Now, if I am wrong, I'll take the blame, but that's the way I see it.' He would probably confer with several of his staff before making a decision, but once it was made, there was never any question about how he stood on the matter. He didn't believe in elaborate approaches to a subject, nor was he much for verbal perambulating. Simplicity was just a part of his nature.
"In his declining years, G never missed an Illinois baseball practice when the weather was favorable and his health would permit. He occasionally called a youngster aside and told him of some fault in his base running, his hitting or his fielding. He was a great lover of youngsters, and in recent years, he made arrangements that boys of grade-school age be permitted to see the varsity baseball games without charge.
"Mr. Huff could be stern in the matter of bad manners. He would not countenance any disorderly attitude toward the visiting players or officials of the games. When there were signs the fans were becoming a bit obstreperous and were forgetting their good manners, he left his seat in the balcony, stepped down to the main floor, and spoke a few words over the loudspeaker. Order was restored immediately."
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In December 1897, 25-year-old George Huff was married to former UI classmate and Champaign native Katherine Naughton. The first of their three children, Katherine, was born two years later, followed by a second daughter, Elizabeth, in 1901, and a son, George III, in 1905.
Huff family descendants today include Champaign-born great-granddaughters Susan Nolton of Edenton, N.C., and Sarah DeMaris of Valparaiso, Ind., daughters of Matthew and Lois Glenn (Matthew was a longtime director at the Illini Union).
Neither Nolton nor DeMaris were yet of the world when the Illini patriarch passed 88 years ago at the early age of 64, but the offspring of Huff's daughter Elizabeth and granddaughter Lois were able to spend a few years with their great-grandmother, Katherine.
DeMaris, the younger of the two sisters and a 1977 UI graduate, remembers the woman she called Grandmother Huff.
"In her later years, she lived in an apartment on the top floor of a house on (809 West) University Avenue," DeMaris recalled. "We great-grandchildren and grandchildren had plenty to do while our parents and grandparents were chatting with her, because she had wonderful toys to play with. One involved marbles running down wooden ramps and another involved tilting a board to make marbles run into small holes."
DeMaris' sister, Nolton, 6 1/2 years older and a 1969 UI grad, also recalls that their great-grandmother had beautiful furniture, paintings and rugs in her apartment.
"Grandmother Huff was a lovely, lovely lady," Nolton said. "I always thought of her as one of the grand dames of Champaign. She was sweet and lovely. She lived until I was about 12 years old."
One of Nolton's fondest recollections is attending Illini football games with her great-grandmother.
"The University always gave her four box seats until the time she died," Nolton said. "The important people sat at the 50-yard line on the first row, and that's where her seats were, right next to the president of the university. Nobody else really liked those seats because it was right behind the team and every time they stood up, you couldn't see what was going on. Grandmother Huff used to take me to the games with her because none of the other family members wanted to sit there. One of my very fondest memories is going to the football games with her. She never missed a football game and she often listed to Illini games on the radio."
Of course, Katherine Huff was in attendance when Memorial Stadium was dedicated in October 1924, as were her children. Another individual who was "indirectly" seated at the 50-yard line was DeMaris and Nolton's grandmother Elizabeth, born four months later in February 1925.
Nolton recalled her grandmother telling her that friends and family would often come to the Huff home at 304 W. Church St., a house that was eventually torn down to construct the education building for First Presbyterian Church.
"They'd host a buffet every afternoon after the football games," Nolton said. "If a player was injured during the game, I was told that Grandfather Huff always immediately went to the hospital and visited the player.
"My mother and grandfather always told me what a warm, loving person he was. He had a slogan: 'Win without boasting and lose without excuse.' For him, more important than winning was how you played the game. And that philosophy was really drummed into me as I was growing up."
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George Huff was a highly respected and influential member of the Champaign-Urbana community.
"Mother told the story that in 1929, when the Great Depression began, that her grandfather (George) stood out in front of the bank, persuading others not to draw out their money," DeMaris said. "I can tell you that when I was a little girl and went into the First National Bank, the president (of the bank) came out and greeted us. I know that when my great-grandfather died and the family didn't have a plot because he was so young, that people just went out and bought him a plot (at Roselawn Cemetery). That might just be a family story, so I don't know whether it's just a myth or whether there's truth to that. I do know that my great-grandparents, grandparents and parents are all there and that there's a spot for me."
Besides DeMaris and Nolton and second cousin Joe Murphy of Champaign, the tradition of Huff family members attending Illini games at Memorial Stadium will continue Saturday when Nolton will be joined by her daughter, Sarah Elizabeth, and 8-year-old Katherine Elizabeth Hergert, her granddaughter and George Huff's great-great-great-granddaughter.