You know what’s not important? Assembly Hall not being Assembly Hall anymore.

I’m sure State Farm is positively giddy with the new publicity they’ll receive from the State Farm Center, and our good friend, athletic director Mike Thomas, is dreaming of green-hued dollar signs from the $60 million check State Farm will be writing to the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics.

But this doesn’t signal a new era. That happened upon Thomas’s arrival to the University and his subsequent house-cleaning at the football and basketball head coaching positions. The new name only serves as a function to dizzy yourself over the age-old query, “What’s in a name?” When it comes to a building name, it’s not much.

You know what else isn’t important? My four years at the University of Illinois.

Certainly, it was a magical four years to my orange and blue soul, full of learning in textbooks and learning even more when those books were shut. I threw myself into writing and Illini sports and friendships. I think I did it the right way.

But when I’m among the sea of graduates at Commencement, my legacy here will sigh its last breaths. The size and tradition of this school will swallow it up as 7,000 students depart and 7,000 more step foot on campus in August. That was always the allure of this place — its vast borders coaxed you into reinventing yourself. Yet, those borders have to quickly forget you to make room for many more, and my footprints here will fade with the tide of Summer 2013.

The last memories of my shimmering career at Illinois will remain with my sister, who is a freshman this year. She also represents some of the last few that came to know Assembly Hall. Once she graduates, the State Farm Center will be the only name undergraduate students ever know. It will always be known as Assembly Hall, but to a select number that will decrease with each year.

Fundamental truths exist about Assembly Hall that a new name will never undo. Assembly Hall housed the 2004-2005 basketball team and nurtured it with win after win after win. Assembly Hall somehow contained the Flyin’ Illini when other gyms saw them leap out of the building. Assembly Hall saw Andy Kaufmann’s miracle shot and Tyler Griffey slay the Hoosiers. These truths will never change.

There were truths about my time in Champaign-Urbana, too. I witnessed the football team start a season 6-0, which no other Illini student can claim since 1951. I witnessed a mammoth clout scandal that nearly imploded the entire administration. I watched a time-stopping layup renew the spirit of Illinois basketball while Griffey was hoisted on orange shoulders. These will go with me to my grave.

But I can’t hang around here much longer. Invariably, Assembly Hall couldn’t either. We’ll both be forgotten eventually. It all seems so tragic now, but those to follow need space for their memories. They’ll relate them to the State Farm Center, and maybe something neither Assembly Hall nor I have: a championship banner. 

Thomas is a senior in Media. He can be reached at bruch2@dailyillini.com and @ThomasBruch.