It is incongruous to describe the 1940s as an "era of innocence" when that decade was consumed by a savage world war.
But as this nation finds itself immersed in the latest 68-team basketball shootout — and thereby distracted from confusing matters of state — it is striking how the game has copied the complex world that surrounds it. Except for the number of allowable participants and the height of the basket, there are few remaining similarities.
Back in the school year of 1946-47, we scribbled our motives and interests on a different page. As described by Bob Deindorfer's article in Readers Digest, Illinoisans were stirred with anticipation like no other in Illini history.