WMU’s victory bell restored

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) - A victory bell that was once a staple at Western Michigan University football games has been found and restored.

It was reintroduced to the campus this past weekend for the annual CommUniverCity celebration.

The bell was stolen many years ago, said David Corstange, WMU's senior associate athletic director, and was seemingly lost to WMU forever. But the person who took the bell contacted WMU a few years ago to say he still had the bell and wanted to return it.

Corstange recovered the bell, and it has been restored by four members of WMU's chapter of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) -- Donald Vanderroest, Kevin Villadsen, Napoleon Hall and Dennis Moore.

The restored bell was unveiled Sept. 7 during the CommUniverCity luncheon at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in downtown Kalamazoo. It was rung under a goal post at Saturday's football game against Eastern Illinois University, in which the Broncos won 52-21.

Corstange says plans are for the bell to be put to use at all home football and volleyball games.
The victory bell tradition at WMU Vandercook Hall whose men donated the bell to a World War II scrap metal drive.
 
Towner Smith, director of Vandercook Hall, was quoted in the Oct. 8, 1942 edition of the Western Herald as saying, "There will be no victory until the war is won. Then, we will buy another Victory Bell."

The bell was reported to weigh 150 pounds.

Victory was secured, and 14 years later, a new bell was found to replace the old one. That is the bell that was stolen.

"It was rusted, and the AFSCME employees restored the bell then and painted it black," Corstange says. "Now they have restored it again and mounted it on the wagon."