These days, the University of Illinois counts among its most acclaimed alums the 55th chief of engineers and commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
That’s quite the about-face from the way Illini fans felt about Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon going on 40 years next December.
We'll let him tell it:
“My ‘favorite’ memory about the University of Illinois actually did not happen in Champaign-Urbana. It happened in Atlanta.
“In 1985, West Point was playing U of I in the Peach Bowl, in the old Fulton County Stadium.
“I was a (senior) receiver on the Army team and this was my final game in college football.
“I caught the go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter and Army won the game, 31-29.
“Eleven years later, I was accepted to U of I for my graduate work in civil engineeting, and I would often get the question ‘Are you the Spellmon who …?’”
Sure is. He’s also the Spellmon who was awarded the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering’s 2023-24 Distinguished Alumni Award “for leadership as Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, providing critical services to the nation such as disaster response, flood control, energy production, and land and water management; for leadership as Chief Engineer on the U.S. Army Staff and Chief of the Engineer branch of the U.S. Army, ensuring state-of-the-art combat support for U.S. soldiers in a changing world; and for service to our country through a lifetime career in the U.S. military and dedication to the civil engineering industry.
