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Illinois is going deep into its football past on Saturday afternoon when defending national champion Michigan rolls into Champaign for an old-school Big Ten battle.
It won’t have anything to do with what happens on the field for the No. 22 Fighting Illini, who have been one of the surprises of the first half of the college football season at 5-1. Instead, when the No. 24 Wolverines take the field for the 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff, it will be all about what Illinois is wearing, specifically its helmets.
The Fighting Illini players will be wearing a custom helmet that will go appropriately with throwback uniforms that are tied to a very important date in Illinois football history. You see, Oct. 19 is 100 years and 1 day after Fighting Illini icon Red Grange’s historic 6-touchdown performance against, yep, Michigan during the Memorial Stadium Dedication Game in 1924.
So, to celebrate Grange’s memorable game, Illinois is going back 100 years with the special attire. The special throwback helmets are individually hand-painted. They will be modern helmets with a cool, leather look.
An iconic part of football history.
Individually hand-painted, each player will wear a custom helmet to match our throwback uniforms to the importance Red Grange played in football history. #Illini // #HTTO // #famILLy pic.twitter.com/jUEsMfOyRO
— Illinois Football (@IlliniFootball) October 19, 2024
The throwback jerseys will feature a blue base with tannish-gold stripes that form a pyramid shape and run from the bottom of the shirt to the top of the numbers. And the jersey numbers will be white with outlines. The jersey also features the Memorial Stadium 100th Anniversary patch that is being worn by Illinois throughout the 2024 season.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
