University of Kansas rededicates David Booth Memorial Stadium with World War I monument

Chancellor Douglas Girod stands at a podium overlooking a crowd of military service members, the general public and others at the David Booth Memorial Stadium rededication ceremony at the Garlinghouse Plaza outside the stadium on Aug. 29. Sam Farley//KUJH

Sam Farley | @samxfarley

The University of Kansas held a ceremony rededicating David Booth Memorial Stadium as a war memorial on Aug. 29. Aluminum plaques are placed on the northeast side of the stadium. They are engraved with 130 names of University students and alumni that gave their lives to service in World War I.

Chancellor Douglas Girod spoke at the event and placed wreaths on the memorial along with Col. Jabari Miller, deputy commanding officer-maneuver for the U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division.

“I came to appreciate when I started eight years ago in this role that people did not understand that the memorial part of our football stadium was a memorial to world war, any world war actually, let alone World War I,” Girod said. “ When we started to reimagine this site, we knew we needed to do a better job of telling that story and really creating a physical manifestation of a tribute to those fallen Jayhawks in World War I.”

The ceremony included remarks from retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Mike Denning, assistant vice chancellor for national defense initiatives. Denning helped coordinate the event.

“Dr. Christopher Warren is one of the leadership people at the National World War I Memorial and Museum,we brought him on the team because he has so much expertise and what we wanted to do was design our memorial that it compliments both certainly of the other um, memorials that we have on campus, but also, that it’s consistent with what they uh have there as well.” Denning said.

The monument is yet another addition to the many renovations that occurred with phase one of stadium renovations. Other phases of renovations are set to begin after the 2025 football season.