Sir Arthur Clarke, science fiction writer, and technical innovator has died at the age of 90. Clarke, whose book 2001: A Space Odyssey was turned into a ground breaking movie by Stanley Kubrick, was also a decent scientific thinker, coming up with the plan for the geo-stationary satellite...which is why you don't have to move your Satellite Dish as the earth revolves.
Clarke is also forever connected with the Univeristy of Illinois by his fiction, which leaned towards factual names and places. Can you attach Sir Arthur to the U of I, and thus (always the Wapella connection) to a place visited by most every Wildcat from 1970-1995 or so?
Clue...it is one step away from basketball, but not connected to the Assembly Hall.
Note: U of I Engineering Graduates are disqualified from this quiz.
Ding!Ding!Ding! RJT a WHS '84 and UI '88 has connected the dots from Wapella to Arthur C. Clarke with a bit of help from the Saluki. The HAL 9000 was created at the Digital Computer Laboratory at the University of Illinois, fictionally in 1992, though the pictured computer looks of earlier vintage. DCL, as those of us priveledged (sentenced?) to coursework there, is
conveniently next door-even connected, if I recall-to Kenny Gym, the home of the Uni High Illinecks, one of Wapella's great rivals in the Kickapoo Conference.Here is a shot of the 1981 Illineck Basketball Squad, which was one outrageous team.
9 comments:
Record Swap?
In the movie HAL was assembled in Urbana.
I always thought that he assumed the future of computing technology would be in Central Ill because the first electronic computer was invented at the U of I. You can always depend on the farm-boy engineers at the U of I to come up with world altering inventions.
Saluki,
Yes, getting close, but there is more to it, and the connection with Wildcat basketball.
JBP
I last watched the movie circa 1982 so that is all I remember on that topic.
I'm not sure about a place, but HAL was -- at least for a time -- chummy with Dr. Dave Bowman. That is until the whole pod-bay-doors incident. Of course, Wapella's Dave Bowman wasn't a doctor, I don't think, but he does have ties to Wildcat basketball.
Something to do with Kenney Gym (Uni High)? RJT
Good picture Clancy. Same Uni coach thru at least spring 84'. Still remember the foul "foreign" language from those guys after being hacked by a Wildcat. RJT
Dallas-based Wildcat sheds some light on the situation. I can only imagine the results of the pod-bay-doors incident. I believe false teeth slipped to cause the folly.
As for the connection, didn't Dr Bardine (sp?) also attend Uni High? Didn't he rollerskate at halftime of a Wapella vs Uni High game?
One other comment, Wapella "PEP bus" attendees originated both "trash talking" and the wearing of ethnic stereotype glasses (courtesy of Spencer's Gifts). I believe a future blog should be dedicated to those dedicated few that rode the "PEP bus" to attend Wildcat games.
Kansas Cat
There are steam tunnels beneath Kenney Gym.
BEP
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