The Ames Library will be hosting a number of events throughout Homecoming Weekend and we look forward to welcoming alumni, family, and friends to events in Ames, the Memorial Center, and around campus.

On Friday, we will host a reception celebrating the opening of the Kindred Collection, with comments from Dave Kindred (’63). On Saturday, we will host the 9th annual “mini-museum” in Eckley Lounge from 8:00 – 11:30 am, providing a “condensed view” of IWU history, including highlights from the University Archives. Also on Saturday, we will get a first-hand look at IWU history when we open the Evans Observatory Time Capsule on the 50th anniversary of its original placement, also in Eckley Lounge, at 10:45 am. Finally, we will be offering opportunities throughout the weekend for alumni to make contributions to our IWU Oral Histories Collection (reservations required).

We look forward to seeing all our alumni during Homecoming, and are especially interested in re-connecting with “our” alumni, the former student employees of Buck, Sheean, Thorpe, and Ames libraries. If you are a former IWU student library employee, please come to sign our “alumni” book at the Library Services Desk and update your contact information so that we can continue to share updates and information with you about how the library continues to contribute to student success at Illinois Wesleyan.

Dave Kindred (’63) left the Illinois Wesleyan baseball team for one of the most storied careers in sports journalism one could imagine, including stints with the National Sports Daily, Sporting News, and Washington Post. Golf Digest, for which Kindred also wrote, recently concluded that “it is almost impossible to describe just how good Dave Kindred is and has been at what he does,” while listing the many awards he has received for his work, including the Red Smith Award, given by the Associated Press Sports Editors for “major contributions to sports journalism,” and the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sports Writing, given by the Center for Sports Communication and Media at the University of Texas at Austin for lifetime achievement in sportswriting. In 2016, this member of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame donated over 50 years of his personal papers to the Tate Archives and Special Collections.

As part of Homecoming 2019, we will welcome Kindred, along with friends, colleagues, and classmates, to the opening of the Dave Kindred Papers, which include notebooks, scrapbooks, photos, and research materials drawn from his many books, including Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship (2007), his study of the relationship between Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell.

Please join us for this celebration of Kindred’s career on Friday, October 4th. Information on this event, as well as other homecoming activities, is now available through the Alumni Association.

The Dave Kindred Papers were processed by Visiting Project Archivist Sarah Lindesbaum, Meg Miner, University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, and student employees in the Tate Archives and Special Collections. If you have any questions about the Kindred Collection or the opening reception, please contact Meg Miner.