Willis Ward Lounge at the Michigan Union Dedicated

Submitted by BursleyHall82 on

Here's a great story. The Willis Ward Lounge at the Michigan Union was dedicated on Wednesday, with several members of Willis Ward's family in attendance.

http://thelivingstonpost.com/willis-ward-lounge-dedicated-at-michigan-u…

I still get mad at how David Brandon resisted any effort to honor Willis Ward when the "Black and Blue" documentary came out. It took an online petition to get him to agree to let Ward be honored at the Michigan-MSU game.

The two players from the past I wish I could have seen play are Tom Harmon and Willis Ward.

BursleyHall82

May 29th, 2015 at 12:03 PM ^

Back in 2012, the State of Michigan declared Oct. 20 (the anniversary of the Georgia Tech game) as "Willis Ward Day" in the state. The people who pushed this asked Brandon to honor Ward that day at the Michigan-MSU game. He refused. So they started a full-scale online petition drive. He waited until one week before the game before he finally gave in and agreed to honor Ward at the game - something he could have agreed to months earlier.

MVictors was huge in promoting this.

http://mvictors.com/the-willis-ward-petition-78-years-later/

LSAClassOf2000

May 29th, 2015 at 1:43 PM ^

It took three years, but the story then came full circle on May 27, when the Willis Ward Lounge was dedicated. Genna Urbain (who is now an 11-year-old fifth-grader) spoke at the ceremony, and was given the honor of cutting the ribbon to open it.

“I’m glad they finally recognized him,” Genna said.

As are we, Genna.

Thanks for sharing this article, incidentally, OP. I remembered how "Willis Ward Day" began but actually wasn't aware that the culmination would be a room at the Union named in his honor. Awesome indeed.

For those that have not seen "Black And Blue", it is a very good look into that time and into that season and the run-up to the Georgia Tech game in particular.