'Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans...', John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961.
Memorial Coliseum represented an era in the United States that brimmed with optimism and embraced the future and its potential. Innovations in engineering, technology, design, fashion, art and architecture reflected the era. It was an era to push boundaries, and do what had not been done before. Memorial Coliseum's dramatic design and bold engineering symbolized the era.