By Kent Brown, Associate Director of Athletics, Media Relations | @KentBrown

Be There To Celebrate 125 Years: Buy Tickets | $10 Student Tickets | Orange Out

• 

  From Agase to Zuppke, the University of Illinois football program has a long and rich tradition of great teams, players, moments and memories. Sixteen former Illini players and coaches have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, and six have earned a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In celebrating the 125th season of football on the UI campus, here's a glimpse of some of the top stories.

• 

  It all started on Oct. 2, 1890, when a loosely organized group led by player/coach/founder Scott Williams traveled to Bloomington and was defeated by Illinois Wesleyan (which already had an organized team). Most of the Illinois players had never played the game, and it showed in the 16-0 loss to the Titans. Later that season on Nov. 27, the Illini picked up their first victory, 12-6, over the same Titans.

  Admission for that first game at the Champaign Fairgrounds (located near what is now Green Street and Prospect Avenue) was 25 cents for gentlemen and free for ladies. George Huff, who would later be known as the "Father of Illinois Athletics" as athletics director from 1901-36, was a member of that first squad.

• 
  Behind Coach Arthur Hall, the 1910 UI squad would become known as the "1,000% Champions" after winning the school's first Western Conference championship with a perfect 7-0 record and out-scoring its opponents 89-0 on the season. Illinois' first Homecoming was celebrated that season with a 3-0 victory over Amos Alonzo Stagg's Chicago squad behind a dropkick by Otto Seiler.

• 
  The man whose name is etched in limestone at the north end of Memorial Stadium came on the scene in 1913. Robert Zuppke is both the longest-tenured and winningest coach in Illinois history, with 131 victories over 29 years at the helm. He was a charter member of the College Football Hall of Fame in the class of 1951 and is credited with many innovations in the game, such as the huddle, spring practices, the screen pass and many different offensive formations.

  His 1914 and 1915 teams swept to conference championships, with the 1914 squad named Illinois' first national championship team behind consensus All-Americans Ralph Chapman and Perry Graves. Zup's teams in 1919, 1923 and 1927 also earned national championships, while he also won seven conference championships.

  The university honored the legacy of the legendary coach in 1964 when the field at Memorial Stadium was named "Zuppke Field."

• 
  Chosen by ESPN as the greatest player in the history of college football, the legendary No. 77 hardly needs an introduction to anyone who follows Fighting Illini football.

  Harold "Red" Grange earned a spot in the charter classes of the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame after an electrifying three-year career at Illinois from 1923-25 and incredible NFL story afterward with the Chicago Bears. In what is still considered quite possibly the greatest performance by an Illini athlete, Grange nearly single-handedly defeated the mighty Michigan Wolverines 90 years ago during the Memorial Stadium Dedication Game on Oct. 18, 1924. Grange scored four touchdowns in the first 12 minutes of that game, later ran for a fifth and threw for a sixth in a 39-14 victory. To put the scoring binge into perspective, Michigan had allowed a total of 32 points in the previous 20 games and would allow only a total of 34 points over the next 19 games.

  The "Galloping Ghost" was a consensus first-team All-American each of his three collegiate seasons and won the initial 1924 Silver Football Award as the Big Ten's MVP. Once asked how he came to wear jersey No. 77, Grange answered, "the fella in front of me was issued 76 and the guy behind was given 78." Space doesn't allow for all the accolades, awards and records given to and set by Grange. Let's just say there's been no equal.

• 
  Illinois football teams have primarily called two locations home since 1891 when home games began being played at old Illinois Field, located now on the engineering part of campus at University Avenue and Wright Street, through the 1923 season. On April 25, 1921, Huff and Grange announced the building of Memorial Stadium, with the buildings name honoring UI casualties from World War I. Thanks to the financial support of students ($700,000), alumni and fans, the iconic $2.2 million stadium took nearly two years to build, starting in January 1923 until it was completed in late 1924. The first game in the stadium was actually on Nov. 3, 1923, when Grange led the Illini to a 7-0 Homecoming victory over Chicago.

  The completion of the premium seating and press box structure on the west side in 2008 is the only major change to the view of the stadium since it was built. The stadium also has been dedicated to the remainder of UI casualties of all wars since the structure was completed.

• 
  The first bowl game in school history also holds significance as the first in the decades-old Rose Bowl partnership between what was then the Big Nine and Pacific Coast Conferences.

  Illinois was the decided underdog against the powerful UCLA Bruins, but head coach Ray Eliot had a tough bunch of war veterans, led by All-American Alex Agase, who had recently returned from action in World War II on his squad, and they weren't afraid of any challenge. It took a three-day train ride to travel to Pasadena, only to find every sportswriter on the West Coast complaining about the "weak" Illinois team not being a true challenge for the Bruins. Conference pride swelled, though, when the Illini hammered UCLA, 45-14.

• 
  Illinois and Ray Eliot returned to Pasadena following the 1951 season and salted away the school's last national championship with a 40-7 rout of Stanford in what was the first nationally televised college football game. A largely unknown member of that Illini squad holds two NCAA records that remain unbroken today, and may stand the test of time. In an era when the annual passing leader averaged around 200 yards per game, Al Brosky had a career-record 30 picks, including a DiMaggio-like record of 16 consecutive games with an interception. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1998.

• 
  J.C. Caroline was another Hall of Famer who set a standard as a running back at Illinois. The South Carolina native is the only Illini to lead the nation in rushing yards when he ran for 1,256 yards in 1953. Caroline combined with Melvin Bates to form a dynamic sophomore backfield that earned great fame in a 41-20 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, when Bates ran for 152 yards and four touchdowns while Caroline had 192 yards and two more scores.

• 
  A Big Ten school out East likes to call itself Linebacker U, but Illini fans know there isn't a school anywhere that can match the top linebackers who wore Orange and Blue.

  One would have to start with Dick Butkus, whose name appears on the award given to the nation's outstanding linebacker each year. But the list continues with the likes of Ray Nitschke, Dana Howard, Kevin Hardy, Simeon Rice, Darrick Brownlow, Chuck Boerio, J Leman, Scott Studwell and more. Howard and Hardy earned the Butkus Award in 1994 and 1995. There is no position at the University of Illinois that has produced more star players than linebacker. Enough said.

• 
  Speaking of Dick Butkus, there may not have been a more fierce competitor in the history of college and pro football than that man. Just hearing his name still makes running backs and quarterbacks from the 1960s and `70s tremble.

  A two-time consensus All-American, Butkus set the standard for all linebackers, regardless of level. He took a chance on the Fighting Illini when he decided to attend during a difficult period in program history. While sitting out as a true freshman in 1961, the Illini were winless with an 0-8 mark. His sophomore year was only slightly better with a 2-7 record, but a key 14-10 win at Purdue and 7-6 victory over Michigan State in the season finale gave the young squad some confidence heading into 1963.

  The Illini won the Big Ten title in 1963 behind Butkus and sophomore running back Jim Grabowski, with the Rose Bowl-clinching victory coming at fourth-ranked Michigan State, 13-0, on Thanksgiving Day after the game was postponed following the assassination of President John Kennedy the previous Friday. A convincing 17-7 victory over Washington in the 1964 Rose Bowl ended the outstanding season.

• 
  When Mike White was named head coach in 1980, he promised a wide-open passing attack that no one in these parts had ever seen. He delivered. Californian Dave Wilson shattered Illinois and Big Ten passing records during his only season on campus in 1980, including a monumental 621-yard passing performance in a 49-42 loss at No. 7 Ohio State. Scribes were sent scrambling during that game when Wilson completed 43-of-69 passes for an NCAA-record 621 yards and six touchdowns. As Wilson left the field for the final time, the announced crowd of 87,952 gave him a standing ovation.

  "Champaign" Tony Eason was the next California QB in line under Wilson. He never hit Wilson's magic number of 621 yards, but Eason had 17 games of at least 250 yards and 10 games of at least 300 yards passing. In 1982, he led the Illini to their first bowl game since 1963 when Illinois took on Alabama at the Liberty Bowl in what would be Bear Bryant's final game as head coach of the Crimson Tide. In an odd twist of fate, the Illini also faced the legendary Joe Paterno in what would be his final career game at Penn State in 2011.

  The third California QB under White took the helm in 1983 when Jack Trudeau helped lead the Illini to a perfect 9-0 Big Ten record, the only time in Big Ten history when one school defeated every other conference opponent in the same season. After recent conference expansion, it probably won't ever happen again. The Illini went to the fourth Rose Bowl in school history that season. White led Illinois to three bowls during his eight seasons at Illinois.

• 
  When John Mackovic took over as head coach in 1988, he found a pretty good quarterback on campus when Jeff George earned his eligibility after transferring from Purdue. The strong-armed Indianapolis native took Illinois to the 1988 All American Bowl and to a Top-10 finish and 10-2 record in 1989, finishing with a 31-21 victory over Virginia in the Citrus Bowl. George declared for the NFL Draft after his junior season and was the overall No. 1 pick by the Indianapolis Colts. Jason Verduzco took the reigns in 1990 and led the Illini to a share of the Big Ten title with an 8-4 mark and a trip to the Hall of Fame Bowl. The Illini earned a spot in the John Hancock Bowl in 1991 and in Lou Tepper's first season as head coach, Illinois played Hawaii in the Holiday Bowl for their fifth-straight bowl appearance.

• 
  What most Illinois fans thought would be an easy conquest of the smaller Southern Illinois Salukis in 1990, turned into a record-breaking game for the ages. After an early TD by Howard Griffith, the Salukis scored 21 straight points against the 15th-ranked Illini, including one touchdown when an SIU defender took the ball from Griffith's arms and ran for a TD. Apparently, that didn't go over well with Griffith. He scored three touchdowns in the final 10 minutes of the second quarter. The third quarter may have been even more spectacular as he scored four more touchdowns for a total of eight touchdowns! An NCAA record that still stands.

• 
  In a twist caused by the Bowl Championship Series and national championship game played at the 2002 Rose Bowl, the Fighting Illini earned an invite to the Sugar Bowl following an outright Big Ten title in 2001. Quarterback Kurt Kittner and a bevy of talented receivers led one of the most prolific offenses in school history.

• 
  Victories over ranked Penn State and Wisconsin teams had the 2007 Fighting Illini in the national conversation when they traveled to Columbus to take on top-ranked Ohio State. In what will go down as one of the top victories in school history, QB Juice Williams and running back Rashard Mendenhall had a fourth quarter for the ages. Leading the top-ranked Buckeyes 28-21, Williams and the Illini retained possession of the ball for the final 8:09 of the game, including a key fourth-and-one play in which he convinced head coach Ron Zook to go for the first down. Undoubtedly, one of the great plays in Illini lore. An unlikely set of outcomes in the final week allowed the Illini to end up with an invitation to the Rose Bowl to play USC.

• 
  So happy 125 years Fighting Illini football! The stories and legends written so far are long and rich. In fact, there are several books available on the subject, which go into much more detail. Chapters yet to be written should excite Illini fans who will continue to visit Memorial Stadium.