Sapora Symposium to Celebrate Football History and More

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the first college football game in the United States, played In 1869 between Rutgers College and the College of New Jersey, now known as Princeton. Also being celebrated in 2019 is the 100th season of NFL football. Among those who not only successfully bridged the gap between college and professional football but also revolutionized the game is Harold Edward “Red” Grange, who played for both the University of Illinois and the Chicago Bears when the NFL was founded as the American Professional Football Association.

Named by ESPN in 2008 as the best college football player of all time, Red Grange will be the focus of the kick-off panel of the 2019 Allen V. Sapora Symposium. The annual event, sponsored by the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism in partnership this year with the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics, provides students with the opportunity to learn from and connect with leaders in the recreation, sport, and tourism industries. This year’s event takes place in the Colonnades Club at Memorial Stadium on November 14 and 15.

The event gets underway at 2:00 p.m. on the 14th with a star-studded panel titled “Red Grange and His Impact on Sport and Culture in the United States 1924-1989.” Panelists include:
    Chris Willis, head of the Research Library at NFL Films and author of several books on early professional football, including The Man Who Built the National Football League: Joe F. Carr, released in 2010, and the recently released Red Grange: The Life and Legacy of the NFL’s First Superstar. The Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and author was awarded the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Ralph Hay Award for lifetime achievement in pro football research and historiography in 2012.

    Lars Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including The First Star: Red Grange and the Barnstorming Tour that Launched the NFL. He is a 20-year veteran of Sports Illustrated, a senior writer at Bleacher Report, and an instructor in the Department of Journalism at the University of Alabama.

    University of Illinois graduate Ed Sherman worked for the Chicago Tribune for 27 years, serving as the national college sports and Big Ten reporter and associate sports editor. He is past president of the College Football Writers Association. He recently released his fourth book, This is BIG: How the Big Ten Set the Standard in College Sports.

    Mike Pearson, freelance writer and video producer, was the sports information director at the University of Illinois from 1989 to 1996. His book, Illini Legends, Lists, and Lore, was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2017 and is in its third edition.

The Sapora Symposium resumes at 9:00 a.m. on Friday. Featured presenters include:
       Dr. Alan Nathan, professor emeritus of physics at Illinois whose recent research has focused on the physics of baseball. He serves on the editorial board of Sports Engineering and has served on panels advising Major League Baseball, the Amateur Softball Association, the NCAA, and USA Baseball.
       
       University of Illinois graduate Melissa Luebbe, publisher of Midwest Living Magazine. In addition to Midwest Living, her business division includes multiple state tourism official visitors’ guides and the annual bookazine of record for Midwest Living called Best of Midwest TRAVEL. She oversees all corporate and business unit strategies, discovers and evaluates new strategic opportunities, and drives new revenue streams. She also leads key strategic initiatives to elevate the overall brand utilizing multi-platform media strategies. She was a 2018 FOLIO Class of Top Women in Media honoree.
       
       University of Illinois graduate Carmen Rossi, founder of “8,” a hospitality management company that employs more than 700 people in the Chicago metropolitan area, and “Chicago Knight Life,” a company he built to involve his hospitality portfolio with Chicago-based charities. The holder of a Juris Doctorate degree from Northern Illinois University, Mr. Rossi practices with his own firm, City Lake Law, specializing in corporate strategy with clients from the entertainment, real estate, and hospitality industries. He serves on the City of Chicago Landmark Commission, the board of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce PAC, and the board of the Illinois Restaurant Association.

The Symposium is open to all students (register for RST 199, CRN 70874). The public also is invited to attend the panel on Red Grange on Thursday afternoon.

Click here to download a copy of the program for the Sapora Symposium.