[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 50 (Friday, April 22, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E733]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         TRIBUTE TO UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. TIMOTHY V. JOHNSON

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 21, 2005

  Mr. JOHNSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to 
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Many people have 
recently seen and heard a lot of well deserved praise for the 
university's men's basketball team as Coach Bruce Weber guided the team 
to a record tying 37-2 record and place in the National Championship 
game. The season brought a great sense of pride to me, my staff, the 
university, the Urbana-Champaign community, and State as a whole. This 
praise was not only as a result of the great accomplishments of the 
team, but the manner in which the team went about achieving its goals. 
The players played with such heart and determination, all the while 
truly playing unselfishly as one cohesive unit, not as individual 
players. I would ask my colleagues to take this opportunity to 
congratulate and honor Coach Weber, his staff, and the young men who 
put on the uniforms and played the game the way it was meant to be 
played.
  While many Americans may have first been exposed to the university 
during this special basketball season, I have had the distinct 
privilege to represent the university for almost 30 years; first as a 
State Representative and now as a Congressman from the 15th District of 
Illinois. I would therefore like to rise today to also pay tribute and 
bring recognition to the other highly successful athletic programs and 
the highly recognized and honored academics at the university.
  Mr. Speaker, this year alone the university has been honored to be 
represented by the nationally ranked No. 2 men's tennis team, the No. 3 
men's gymnastics team, the No. 6 men's wrestling team, the No. 14 
women's soccer team, and the No. 20 women's cross country team. Let me 
take this time to honor and thank Coach Craig Tiley, Coach Yoshi 
Hayasaki, Coach Mark Johnson, Coach Janet Rayfield, Coach Karen Harvey, 
and all of the young men and women who have strived for greatness and 
brought a great deal of pride to me, my staff, the Urbana-Champaign 
community, and the university.
  While these are all great accomplishments, without the same degree of 
success in the academic realm, these feats would all be for naught. I 
am proud to say that the university, President B. Joseph White, 
Director of Athletics Ron Guenther, the faculty, the coaches, and the 
students at the University of Illinois have all helped make this one of 
the top academic institutions in the world and its graduates some of 
the most successful. In 2004 U.S. News & World Report ranked many 
undergraduate programs at Urbana-Champaign campus in their Top 10 in 
the country, including: accountancy, 1st, materials science, 1st, civil 
engineering, 2nd, computer engineering, 5th, real estate, 7th, and 
marketing, 10th. In 2003, the University of Illinois earned the 
distinction of being the only U.S. public university to have two of its 
faculty members, Anthony J. Leggett, physics, and Paul C. Lauterbur, 
medicine, win Nobel prizes in the same year. The list of distinguished 
alumni is far too long to include here, but it includes: CEO's, 
government officials, world class researchers, astronauts, and Pulitzer 
Prize winners, to name a just a few.

  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to everyone who is involved 
in the University of Illinois and to thank them for their dedication, 
hard work, and vision to make the 15th Congressional District, the 
State of Illinois, the Nation, and the world as a whole a better place 
to live for all of us.

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