EDWARDSVILLE, Ill., Oct. 16 -- Southern Illinois University- Edwardsville issued the following news release:
One July afternoon in 1969, tentmaster Skip Manley circled the grassy bowl of a former farm outside Edwardsville, craning his neck toward the monumental canvas above him. The tent's twin pinnacles cast slender pointy shadows across fresh cut meadowgrass. About a month earlier, he drove the tent stakes in the earth himself with an enormous custom wood mallet-a tool with which the larger-than-life former Ringling Brothers hoistman had more than a little in common. Beyond him, waves of people approached the gates of the property, coolers in hand to cut the heat of July.
It wasn't long before a sea of lawn chairs and crocheted afghan b...