The 17th-annual Frieze Lecture Series, a partnership between the Rock Island Public Library and Augustana College, wraps up at 2:00 pm on Tuesday, Nov. 11 with a presentation on "Augustana's Hometown Heroes" by associate athletic director and sports information director Dave Wrath.
Wrath's topic builds on the library's recent Hometown Teams" collaborative exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution and the Illinois Humanities Council.
The college's best known sports legend, Ken Anderson, the NFL's 1982 Most Valuable Player, was featured in a local display at the library in September and October. But there are dozens of other worthy athletes that have catapulted Augustana to the national stage. Wrath, an inductee of the College Sports Information Directors of America's Hall of Fame, will share the stories of those whose exploits landed our community on sports pages around the country.
The lectures are offered annually on four Tuesdays in October and November at the Rock Island Main Library, and take their name from an architectural feature of the historic building. Previous lectures this year considered Augustana's "hometown" connections to and from Sweden, how Conrad Bergendoff changed his thinking on the connections between Sweden and Lutheranism, and the stories of local writers who are part of the area's rich literary heritage.
Presentations are free and open to the public. For more details about events at the Rock Island Library, call (309) 732-READ (7323) or check the online calendar at www.rockislandlibrary.org