Illinois wearing Gray Ghost uniforms. against Gophers

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Sparlimb said:
Wonder if they'll have a gray out. Would look awful.
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Attendance is so poor at Illini games these days, relatively speaking, that they get lots of near gray outs due to all the vacant aluminum benches.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
doh!

My internet searches say game one was vs North Dakota on October 4th.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_football_under_William_H._Spaulding

Michigan was the 1st Big 10 game.

Illinois was the highest attended.
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The 1924 Illinois game was the "stadium dedication game" during Memorial Stadium's inaugural season - dedicating the stadium to the men and women who had served our country in WWI. (Thus serving as the "Memorial" in Memorial Stadium.) Red Grange was in his heyday, but in what was then a big upset, the Gophers handled them pretty well, winning 20-7. Grange had to be carted off the field due to injury - he did not return and also missed their final game against OSU. Supposedly their long-time legendary coach Bob Zuppke was so upset about everything that went on in this game that he refused to play Minnesota for 17 years (home or away). They did not play again until Zuppke's final season in 1941 (whereupon we handily beat them again at Memorial Stadium winning 34-6).
 

cemba99 said:
Bob Zuppke was so upset about everything that went on in this game that he refused to play Minnesota for 17 years (home or away). They did not play again until Zuppke's final season in 1941 (whereupon we handily beat them again at Memorial Stadium winning 34-6).
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Interesting. How does one get away with not playing a conference opponent for 17 years? I assume that scheduling was a lot more autonomous than it is now, but still...
 

dpodoll68 said:
Interesting. How does one get away with not playing a conference opponent for 17 years? I assume that scheduling was a lot more autonomous than it is now, but still...
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Not unheard of "back then" to an extent. For example, we did not play Ohio State from 1951 (Woody Hayes's first year) until 1965, other teams had non-trivial gaps as well. (But that being said, 17 years is still quite a stretch - maybe Zuppke was avoiding the Gophers in the "Bierman Glory Days.") Also, for many years there were only around 6 conference games annually and the Gophers would play the same 5 teams every season - Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Purdue and Northwestern. This left one other conference game which was more or less rotated every two years (on a "home and home" basis) among the other conference teams - Illinois, Indiana, OSU and U of Chicago (whose football team withdrew from the Big Ten after the 1939 season).
 

The drab gray perfectly captures the state of the Illini football program under Beckman.
 




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Couldn't find a Gophers uniform thread to post this in, so here goes:

With all respect to breast cancer victims, survivors and family members (of which I am one), does anyone know if we will be wearing any more annoying pink accessories again this year?

Just my opinion. Getting sick of pink football accessories.
 

BarnBoy said:
Couldn't find a Gophers uniform thread to post this in, so here goes:

With all respect to breast cancer victims, survivors and family members (of which I am one), does anyone know if we will be wearing any more annoying pink accessories again this year?

Just my opinion. Getting sick of pink football accessories.
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Pink makes ya think. Sorry, new experience for you. :cool:

You obviously are too young to remember the pink and black 1957 Mercury Turnpike.
 

Are these considered light or dark? I'm guessing we'll get to where our home maroons because white is too light?
 



Breakin' The Plane said:
Illinois game scares me. Their homecoming, and off they are off the week before. Might be their last stand before the coach gets his walking papers. Beat Purdon't first I suppose.
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I expected both the Purdue and Illinois games to be challenges - Illinois for the reasons you cite. They will be sky high in the first quarter.
 

Nate said:


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That is easily the most lukewarm reaction I've ever seen a team give to one of these uniform unveilings. Usually they go all crazy and dance after they see it and generally make fools of themselves. If you look at some of those guys sitting there, it looked like they weren't even sure it was for real at first. Then, they appeared that they couldn't be less enthused. That looks like a team that has shut it down and/or has tuned out its coach. No way would I have released that video if I were Illinois marketing folks.
 


ESPN chimes in:

3. Illinois’ “Gray Ghost” uniforms deserve a thumbs-up. Maybe it’s just because I’m a sucker for history, but I really dig the uniforms the Fighting Illini plan to wear this weekend for Homecoming. It’s not necessarily how they look -- and they look fine -- but it’s the story behind them that really gets me. Ninety years ago, during Illinois’ Homecoming against Michigan, Red Grange scored four touchdowns in the first 12 minutes of the game. He ended up with six TDs as the Illini became the first team to beat Michigan in two years. After that game, famous sportswriter Grantland Rice referred to Grange as a “gray ghost.” So, that’s the idea behind Illinois’ uniforms. Wish more teams would honor history like that. Seems like fans are embracing the new design, too. The jerseys have already sold out online.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/109500/big-ten-morning-links-53

Go Gophers!!
 



Apologies if this has been mentioned, but the Gopher Equipment Twitter account said that the Gophers will wear maroon/white/maroon on Saturday.
 

What a sad video...compare with Ohio's from a couple of years ago.

 

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