Processional Arch, 1938

In an unprecedented effort, University of Minnesota faculty, students, staff, and alumni banded together to raise almost $2 million in the 1920s to build “greatly needed structures” taking the form of “two inspiring memorials” – Northrop Auditorium honoring President Cyrus Northrop and Memorial Stadium paying tribute to the men and women of Minnesota “who fearlessly sacrificed themselves in the great war.” A brochure rallying the University community to the cause praised the virtues of a new stadium with these words, “Minnesota’s program of comprehensive physical education…is set towards supervised play, and exercise in rugged types of games. Upon the foundation thus built will scholastic training securely rest and normally function."

This exhibit presented by the University Archives.