URBANA – Until he was 60, Nick Holonyak, the inventor of the LED, could walk on his hands in Kenney Gymnasium.

Now 81, he can't do anything at the University of Illinois gym, which he's been told doesn't have the resources for safely maintaining space for 75 to 100 mostly older exercisers.

University Laboratory High School and the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics still use the 1890 gym.

The facility, at 1402 to 1406 W. Springfield Ave., is directly across the street from clay tennis courts recently closed and turned into a gravel parking lot.

Holonyak, who has been using the facility since the Korean War era, when it served as temporary housing, notes the irony.

The UI is still in the process of making a decision about what to do for Holonyak and other staff and students. Robin Kaler, the chief spokeswoman for the Urbana campus, couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday, and a Uni official declined to comment.

But another exerciser, William Dick, the executive director of

Computational Science & Engineering, said his friends aren't about to give up.

"We were told about two months ago that it would close this day. We have worked pretty diligently since then to keep it open, even on a very limited basis," he said.

He said his group is only asking the university to keep Kenney open from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Dick noted there's no other UI exercise facilities north of Armory Avenue. And traffic and parking problems make it difficult for north-campus people to make the trip to Activities and Recreation Center or Campus Recreation Center East in a reasonable amount of time.

"I've been there almost 25 years. It is also ironic that the university is pushing wellness across the board on the very same day it closes our facility," he said.

Holonyak, the electrical engineering professor, said he's not clear on what has happened to the facility.

"The rumor is we're done," he said. "This is bizarre. It's strange. It doesn't make sense."

Holonyak has been the John Bardeen Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics and Professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UI since 1963.

He has 41 patents, and is credited inventing the red-light semiconductor laser or laser diode switch, still used today, and helping create the first dimmer switch.

Holoynak, who briefly left the UI for General Electric and military service, has been at Kenney regularly since 1963. He recalls working with Olympic legend Don Laz on gymnastics equipment. Or he might spot the late weatherman Mr. Roberts working out.

"No one has been in that gym longer and more consistently than I have," Holonyak said. "It's unbelievable that 75 to 100 of us on the north campus could be second class citizens and be orphaned like this."

He said the gym is part of his scientific process.

"In gym, you don't stop thinking," he said.