'Big U' Legacy Continues

It has stood the test of time, yet no one seems to know the exact date it all began. One thing is for sure, 2024 most likely was the 74th birthday for the "Big U". And in honor of the landmark celebration, the "U" got a makeover of sorts.

"The U is done," said Linda Leggett, who along with her husband, Tom, own the property upon which the large concrete U sits.

Leggett has been trying to get assistance with the Big U for quite awhile. That assistance came in the form of high school students involved in a new program at Ulysses High School - JAG-K.

Leggett is appreciative of how the project, which officially took life in September, has come together.

"I cannot say enough about those who came forward to help," Leggett said. "The Ulysses News - they have been an amazing instrument for these kids. As Rosalinda (Ochoa) told me, if it hadn't been for the Big U project people wouldn't know what (JAG-K) has been doing."

Ochoa is the teacher for the students involved in the JAG-K program at UHS.

Leggett said Ochoa told her the Big U project has made a difference for the school program.

"(Ochoa) told me this has opened up a wide spectrum for (JAG-K)- that really touched my heart hearing that," Leggett said. "(Ochoa told me they didn't have any projects before they started working on the Big U- they didn't have anything to do."

Leggett said she and her husband, Tom, have enjoyed the project.

"We thoroughly enjoyed the kids, enjoyed meeting people, meeting you (newspaper staff)," she said. "It has taken weeks to get it done."

To celebrate the completion of the project, JAG-K students met at the U October 8, to sign their names to the finished project - now fittingly painted orange with tiger stripes. The signing was followed up with a celebration party October 16.

"I believe the kids had an amazing experience," Leggett said. "As we were welcoming them they were thanking us for having them. A lot of the old timers (former UHS students) did not get to come out for the party, but we had a really good time. I did receive some nice text messages from people who said this project was amazing."

The project wasn't just about painting a Big U.

"It wasn't all about that," Leggett said. "It wasn't just painting. It was about pulling kids together - that's what it was all about."

Others stepped up to make the project complete. Leggett said sponsors for the celebration party were: pizzas, donated by Western Kansas Irrigation; drinks provided by Bank of Ulysses; cookies by The Ulysses News; relish by Dragon Line; and fruit trays by Moore Agency and Border line.

"Sam (Minks) at the county got us two loads of dirt to put around the U in the spring," Leggett added. "James (Biddle) at the Sheriff's Office  was there providing traffic control during the party, Sheila and Ivan Koop - Sheila was instrumental in getting this project off the ground, Susan Britton, and Dennis and Cheryl Deyoe. People have been very kind in sponsoring different things we needed. You (The Ulysses News) jumped at every beck and call - it sparked those kids and that was the main thing - to help those kids. The project has also encouraged Rosalinda for future projects."

Future Plans

Leggett is now thinking to the future and the location of the Big U is foremost on her mind. Her next project is trying to get a flag pole to sit near the U.

"The flag pole - that is in the works," Leggett said. "I am excited about it. I visited with a group of people who are going to let me know about helping with it. They talked very positively about it. I have another lead for someone to decorate the fence around there during Christmas time. I'm excited about what's ahead."

History of the Big U

No one knows the exact date, but some have memories of the Big U in its beginning.

Leggett said one local man, Ron Hauser, told her it was being put in when he was a sophomore in school back in 1954-55. Local resident Daris Wiebe remembers his father, Sam Wiebe,  working on the U.

"My father is the one who built that back in 1954 or 1955," Wiebe said. "I was in the second or third grade at the time. As I recall, it was for an activity club in the school called the U Club."

Wiebe said the group contacted his father, a local general contractor, for the job.

"I remember being out there with my dad during the time he was working on it setting the forms," Wiebe said. "It is amazing that thing has endured all these years and not crumbled, fallen apart or disintegrated. These days you can pour a concrete curb and three years later it can be chipped, cracked and broken. Back then (when the U was made) I guess they had a little higher quality concrete. I don't believe it has ever had to be patched that I know of. It has stood there all these years withstanding temperature, humidity and everything else."

Wiebe said his father built a lot of things.

"He put up basketball goals that have a single pole - it went up and then a 45 degree angle across," Wiebe said. "He built goals all over the exterior outside basketball courts of the school. I think most of them have been torn down although there may still be one or two at the Joyce School."

Other projects for Wiebe's dad included digging holes and setting poles for telephone and electric.

"Before Pioneer Electric and Pioneer Communications got their trucks my dad did that for them," Wiebe said. "He did that all over Grant County and Southwest Kansas."

Wiebe said his father did a lot of things in the way of construction and the Big U was a "specialty project".

"He was sole proprietor of his construction company and he farmed," Wiebe said. "He did construction projects in the early 1900s. When the newspaper was called the Grant County Republican it was located in several different buildings over the course of time. About the time I was in the eighth grade, there was a building on Main Street - it is now a vacant lot across from where the chamber of commerce is at - that location was a building referred to as the old newspaper office. The city came along in the 1960s and decided they wanted the old office taken off Main Street. Somebody bought that and my dad moved it. I was there when my dad was jacking that building up and loading it up on one of his semi trucks."

Watch for photo spread of the changes in the Big U in upcoming edition of the Ulysses News