By Mike Pearson
FightingIllini.com
It was 16 years into the 20th century and life in America had a wide variety of challenges and opportunities.
In March of 1916, Mexican revolutionist Pancho Villa shocked Southwesterners by leading 500 raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, and slaughtering a dozen U.S. soldiers.
A month later, Manager Joe Tinker's Chicago Cubs played their first game at what would come to be known as Wrigley Field. And President Woodrow Wilson was re-elected for a second term.
At the University of Illinois, Coach Bob Zuppke's 1916 Fighting Illini headed into a November 4 battle at Minnesota. The football campaign had been largely undistinguished thus far, particularly when compared to its co-championship campaign of the year before. Zup's troops hadn't come close to reaching their pre-season expectations.
The season had begun on a positive note, dispatching a weak Kansas squad in the opener, 30-0, but Illinois performed poorly in games two and three, losing to Colgate and Ohio State. A 14-7 victory on October 28 at Purdue evened UI's record at 2-2, but now came the Illini's biggest test: the mighty Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Just how dominant were Coach Henry Williams' Gophers at that time? Well, in the 13 games that led up to the match, Minnesota had compiled an impressive 12-0-1 record. The only blemish had been a 6-6 tie at Illinois the previous season, resulting in a conference co-championship for the two rivals in 1915.
In their first four games of '16, the Gophers had steam-rolled their foes, mauling South Dakota State, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa in succession.
Such a mismatch would the Illinois-Minnesota game be Chicago Tribune columnist Ring Lardner suggested tongue-in-cheek that Zup "would be wise to stay over in Chicago and go to the theater instead of continuing his trip to Minneapolis."
Even Walter Camp, the American football coaching legend turned sportswriter, made the 1,000-mile trip to Minneapolis from his home on the East Coast to see this Gopher juggernaut. University officials constructed a special vantage point for "Mr. Football" so that he could properly observe this "Marvel of all Gridiron Marvels."
Author Lon Eubanks, in his 1976 book entitled "The Fighting Illini", described Illinois's week of preparation for its trip to Minnesota.
"Throughout the week of pregame practice," Eubanks wrote, "Zuppke built up the Gophers to his own players as if they were a team of super-humans, a team that no foe could expect to beat—least of all this less-than-mighty group of Illini.
"'If they laugh at us,' Zuppke supposedly told his squad, 'we'll just laugh, too.'"
Early Friday morning, Zuppke, his three-person staff, and 30 players boarded the train bound for the Twin Cities. Upon arrival, Zup surprisingly suspended team training rules, allowing players to return to their rooms at the Rogers Hotel after midnight.
"If you guys are going to the slaughter and get murdered tomorrow," Zuppke said, "we might as well break training and have a good time tonight."
Illinois arrived early at Northrop Field on Saturday, taking the field well before their hosts. When the purportedly invincible Gophers came out, Eubanks wrote that "every Illini eye swiveled in its socket."
"Hey, Lindy," sophomore Dutch Sternaman yelled at line coach Justa Lindgren, "they don't look so big."
"Yea," said another. "They don't look like anything that couldn't be handled."
Penned Eubanks, "The remarks touched off Zuppke's psychological time bomb that he had been wiring all week."
Upon arrival back in the locker room just before kickoff, Zup's optimism began to perk. He felt his players were physically ready and that they'd been well drilled.
Borrowing a line that the King of France had uttered more than a century before during the French Revolution, Zup's first words to his team broke the ice.
"I am Louis and Fifteenth, and, after us, the deluge!"
Zuppke assured his boys that the Gophers could be had. Based on scouting reports that had been meticulously outlined by his assistants, the little Dutchman predicted that Minnesota's first three plays would be successive running attempts. Zup implored his defenders to forget everyone else and key on these men during that first series of plays. He alone would bear the responsibility if any Gopher carried out of turn and ran for a touchdown. As for Illinois's first offensive position, Zup continued, quarterback Bart Macomber was to pass on first down to Sternaman—a ploy virtually unheard of at the time.
Minnesota won the coin toss and got the ball first. As Zuppke had predicted, UM's first three offensive attempts were stopped in their tracks, forcing the Maroon and Gold to punt.
Then, right on cue, Macomber completed a long pass to Sternaman, triggering a methodical 45-yard Illini touchdown drive down the field.
Illinois's defense stood tall again on UM's second possession, highlighted by Reynold Kraft's 55-yard return of an interception for a touchdown. Now, the Illini led Minnesota's "perfect team" by a count of 14-0.
It wasn't until the second half that the Gophers finally got on the scoreboard, tallying a five-yard touchdown run by Joe Sprafka, then adding a late safety. However, time literally ran out on Minnesota, shockingly losing to Illinois by a score of 14-9.
The evening edition of the Chicago Tribune relayed the astonishing results to Illini fans who hadn't made the journey northward.
Screamed the over-sized headline, "WAIT TILL YOU READ THIS!"
The Minneapolis Evening Tribune was equally praiseworthy of the Illini effort.
"Illinois walked all over the much-touted Minnesota team, bewildering the Gophers by her open play."
Despite its ignominious defeat at the hands of Illinois, the Gophers rebounded with a vengeance in their final two games, annihilating Wisconsin (54-0) and Chicago (49-0) to finish the season 6-1. Other than its lone defeat to the Illini, the final season tally showed Minnesota outscoring their opponents by a whopping 339 to 14.
