Dodds Park is located in northwestern

Champaign Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metropo ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

near

Parkland College Parkland College is a public community college in Champaign, Illinois. It is part of the Illinois Community College System serving Community College District 505 which includes parts of Coles, Champaign, DeWitt, Douglas, Edgar, Ford, Iroquoi ...

. This park (roughly one fifth of the total Park District holdings) is noted for the "Tribute to Olympic Athletes Monument" on its grounds. The park was purchased in 1969 for the sum of $298,495.

Facilities

The park has 7 lighted baseball fields and 12 soccer fields on its grounds. Additionally, it features a small playground and picnic tables.

Champaign County Workers' Memorial

The memorial was dedicated on

Labor Day Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United St ...

September 2, 2002, and serves as a memorial to those workers who had lost their lives while working on the job. The memorial consists of two tablets which bear the names of those who have died working in Champaign County.

Tribute to Olympic athletes

The "Tribute to Olympic Athletes" was created to honor those residents of Champaign County who have competed in the Olympics. To date 41 athletes are commemorated on the monument since the tribute's dedication on July 4, 1991. The monument consists of several rising plateaus forming a walkway leading to a large granite gateway. Beyond the gateway a pedestal overlooking the playing fields in Dodds Park is inscribed with the names of those who have represented Champaign County in the Olympics.

Notable Olympic athletes

Jean Driscoll Jean Driscoll (born November 18, 1966) is an American wheelchair racer. She won the women's wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon eight times, more than any other female athlete in any division. Her wins in Boston included seven consecutive ...

Wheelchair racing Wheelchair racing is the racing of wheelchairs in track and road races. Wheelchair racing is open to athletes with any qualifying type of disability, amputees, spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy and partially sighted (when combined with another ...

, 5x , 3x , 4x , 2000 Sydney, 1996 Atlanta, 1992 Barcelona, 1988 Seoul *

Bonnie Blair Bonnie Kathleen Blair (born March 18, 1964) is a retired American speed skater. She is one of the top skaters of her era, and one of the most decorated athletes in Olympic history. Blair competed for the United States in four Olympics, winning ...

Speedskating Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. ...

, 5x , , 1984 Sarajevo, 1988 Calgary, 1992 Albertville, 1994 Lillehammer *

Bob Richards Robert Eugene Richards (born February 20, 1926) is an American retired athlete, minister, and politician. He made three U.S. Olympic Teams in two events: the 1948, 1952, and 1956 Summer Olympics as a pole vaulter and as a decathlete in 1956. ...

Pole Vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Myc ...

, 2x , , 1948 London, 1952 Helsinki, 1956 Melbourne *

Nichole Millage Nichole Ann Millage (born March 27, 1977) is a former American Paralympic volleyballist (she retired in 2021 after the Tokyo Paralympics) and an Environmental Sustainability Specialist at the City of Champaign. Early life Millage was born in Cha ...

Paralympic volleyball Sitting volleyball is a form of volleyball for athletes with a disability. As opposed to standing volleyball, sitting volleyball players must have at least one buttock in contact with the floor during the game. History Sitting volleyball was inve ...

, 2x , 2012 London,

2008 Beijing The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

Tyler McGill Tyler Tennant McGill (born August 18, 1987) is an American former competition swimmer who is a butterfly specialist and has been a member of two world champion relay teams from the United States. He was a member of the 2012 United States Olympi ...

, 4 × 100 m medley, , 2012 London * Robert Espeseth,

Rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...

, , 1976 Montreal,

1980 Moscow The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

, 1984 Los Angeles, 1988 Seoul * Gia Lewis-Smallwood, Discus, 2012 London * Karen Brems-Kurreck,

Cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from two ...

, 2000 Sydney * Dwight "Dike" Eddleman,

High Jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

, 1948 London

References

{{Champaign, Illinois Champaign, Illinois Labor monuments and memorials Parks in Illinois Protected areas of Champaign County, Illinois 1969 establishments in Illinois Protected areas established in 1969 Sports in Champaign–Urbana, Illinois