Memorial Stadium to be dedicated to WWI Soldiers

Kansas State will remember 48 students who died in World War I later this month during a dedication ceremony at the university’s Memorial Stadium.

The dedication comes following the results of research efforts from Jed Dunham, a writer and researcher for K-State’s Office of Military Affairs, who says his research began after a 2014 visit to Manhattan. Dunham says he came up with the idea after seeing a plaque inside Memorial Stadium with the names of 48 soldiers from K-State who died in World War I.

“I remember saying to myself, ‘I wonder who these guys were,'” Dunham said. “Because I had never connected the dots to what made it Memorial Stadium.”

Shortly after the discovery, Dunham began researching the names on the plaque, only to come up empty handed.

“I couldn’t find anything on them,” Dunham said. “Because there was no info on any of the individuals. Google would come back with someone from the 1980’s or 1950’s.”

However, Dunham says he was able to find what he was looking for by using a research tool that was all too familiar.

“By pure chance, just by playing with the computer, I found an online version of the 1919 Royal Purple through the K-State Library,” he said. “Sure enough, there was a brief little write up of the individuals. So I kept reading, and in 1922 the Royal Purple was dedicated to the 48 who died and thus began the construction of Memorial Stadium. It had home towns, dates of birth, and military units and that unlocked the case. Then I was able to start cracking into it.”

Among the soldiers to be honored is Lt. Eddie Wells, who was killed in 1918. Before leaving for the war, Wells was a varsity basketball and football player at what was then Kansas State Agricultural College.

Although the dedication comes at a unique time, as the United States marks the recent 100-year anniversary of entering World War I, Dunham believes there is more to this story than a simple stroke of luck.

“I don’t believe in coincidence,” he said. “I believe in the spiritual connection that we share as humans. This is like a story from beyond the grave, that they’re reaching out and saying, ‘Now is our time.'”

The soldiers will be formally remembered at 2:30 p.m. on April 21 at Memorial Stadium.

“This was a memorial that was promised to them 100 years ago,” Dunham said. “It’s the story that needed 100 years to tell.”