'30s player helps keep alma mater in the game
Published October 12, 2003
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO --
When Gerald "Red" Ratner was a starting outfielder for the University of Chicago baseball team in the early 1930s, the school's indoor athletic facilities were modest at best.
But in large part because of a $15 million gift from the Loop lawyer, the University of Chicago last week dedicated its first new indoor athletic facility in 60 years. It's a $51 million, 150,000-square-foot facility designed by architect Cesar Pelli and bearing Ratner's name.
At 89, Ratner is at his law office every day from noon until 10 p.m. or so. Sports--and the U. of C.--remain very much a part of his life.
"They needed this facility," said Ratner, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the class of 1935 and later a graduate of the U. of C.'s law school. "Students wanted it; faculty wanted it. So I agreed."
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
