We received the following letter from Juli Stephens ’80 expressing her feelings about the placement of memorial bricks at the new stadium.
I was thrilled to finally visit Waco and see the new stadium this past weekend. It is a wonderful facility and something of which to be proud. I also took the opportunity to find the memorial brick we purchased. This was the real downside to my visit. Even though I knew that some of the bricks would be located in the tailgating area, I was not aware of the “big picture” and was very disappointed to see our brick located in this area.
Even though the idea of a Bear Walk is good aesthetically, I believe it was a bad idea to put anyone’s memorial away from the stadium side, especially when there was more than enough room on the stadium side for everyone’s memorial. If there did have to be a “walk,” it would have been more appropriate on the main bridge. Or barring that, no “walk” at all.
However, the main cause of my disappointment is the fact that many of the people who paid less for their memorials (smaller bricks) had their bricks placed (for lack of a better word) in a “classier” location. Again, this was for purely aesthetic reasons and not justifiable given the financial commitment involved. Very disappointed.
Juli Stephens, Class of 1980
What do you think? Did the university do the best it could to optimize the placement of the memorial bricks?
2 thoughts on “Reader Letter: Placement of “Baylor Bricks””
I agree with Juli. I was very disappointed to have made what for me was a costly donation, and then to find our brick as far from the stadium as it could have been placed. We can only share it with friends who visit if we’re willing to fight our way across the narrow bridge into the tailgating area. There’s more than enough room for all the bricks that were purchased to have been placed in the main plaza. I expected our donation to be a part of the new stadium tradition, not part of a “red carpet” for the Bear Walk, or whatever we’re calling that event now. Our contribution will go largely unnoticed.
Well, at least you found your brick. I never found the location that told people where the bricks were located, much less, my brick that I paid a large amount of money for. I personally have to agree that the entire pavillion had enough space to have several more bricks placed in a better location than out in the parking lot. The older I get the more meaningful my degrees from Baylor mean to me and I am very proud to be a bear. That is why I wanted a brick to honor my parents as well as my time at Baylor. The Kansas State was the first time I had been on the Baylor campus since I graduated in 1979. I was proud then to show my parents and I was just as proud to show my wife the highlights of the campus. We particularly liked touring the Hall of Fame and the BBQ dinner before the game.
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