The Illini Union, 809 South Wright Street
Before You Go. Champaign is about as far south as Trenton. Despite being in the Midwest, it is not on a Great Lake, bringing strong winds and "lake effect snow." So the weather won't be substantially different from what we get in the Middle Atlantic States. The website of the local newspaper, The News-Gazette, is predicting low 80s for next Saturday afternoon, and high 60s for the evening.
Illinois is in the Central Time Zone, 1 hour behind New York and New Jersey. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.
Tickets. The Fighting Illini have been averaging only about 43,000 fans per game in a 60,000-seat stadium the last couple of years. Either tickets are going to be easy to come by, or part of the stadium has been closed off, meaning around 43,000 is a sellout at the moment.
Seats in the lower level are $70 in midfield and $50 toward the ends, and $35 in the single-level south end zone. All upper level seats are $50.
Getting There. It's 836 miles from Times Square in Manhattan to the Illinois campus in Champaign, and 825 miles from Rutgers Stadium to Memorial Stadium. Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to fly out there.
Champaign is too small a city to get regular nonstop flights from big cities (except for Chicago). And it's expensive: Newark Liberty to University of Illinois Willard Airport is $1,372 round-trip, even with the changeover in Chicago. You might be better off flying to Chicago, renting a car, and driving the last 153 miles.
If you take Amtrak, it will be simple to go out: You would board the Lake Shore Limited at Penn Station on Thursday at 3:40 PM, arrive at Union Station in Chicago on Friday at 9:45 AM, switch to the City of New Orleans (a nighttime train, unlike the morning train from the Steve Goodman/Arlo Guthrie song) at 8:05 PM, and arrive in Champaign at 10:34. Round-trip fare is $496, which beats the plane.
Greyhound's round-trip fare from Port Authority Bus Terminal to Champaign is $382. Illinois Terminal (named for the old Illinois Central Railroad), used by both Amtrak and Greyhound, is at 45 E. University Avenue, downtown.
If you decide to drive, it's far enough that it will help to get someone to go with you and split the duties, and to trade off driving and sleeping. You’ll need to get on the New Jersey Turnpike, and take Interstate 78 West across New Jersey, and at Harrisburg get on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which at this point will be both I-70 and I-76.
When the two Interstates split outside Pittsburgh, stay on I-70 west. You'll cross the northern tip of West Virginia, and go all the way across Ohio (through Columbus) and halfway across Indiana, to Indianapolis. There, switch to Interstate 74 West. to Exit 185, State Route 130, to U.S. Route 150, left on Vine Street, right on County Road 1500 N.
If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and 15 minutes in New Jersey, 5 hours in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in West Virginia, 3 hours and 45 minutes in Ohio, 2 hours and 45 minutes in Indiana, and 45 minutes in Illinois. That's going to be 13 hours and 45 minutes. Counting rest stops, preferably 7 of them, and accounting for traffic in both New York and Indianapolis, it should be about 19 hours.
Once In the City. Illinois was admitted to the Union as the 21st State on December 3, 1818, so the 200th Anniversary is coming up.
The City and the County of Champaign were both named for Champaign County, Ohio, which was named for the French term for "open level country." That describes much of the Midwest very well. The City of Champaign is home to about 86,000 people, and Champaign County to 231,000 -- in each case, not counting students at the University of Illinois.
The State House in Springfield
University Avenue divides street addresses into north and south, and Neal Street into east and west. Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit runs buses, with a single far of $1.00. The sales tax in the State of Illinois is 6.25 percent. ZIP Codes in the Urbana-Champaign area (or "Chambana") start with the digits 618 and 619, and the Area Code is 217. The region has no "beltway."
Very weird: We're so used to seeing
George Washington on the quarter,
and Abraham Lincoln on the penny.
Founded in 1867, the University of Illinois is a land-grant university. In addition to its main campus at Urbana-Champaign, it maintains campuses in Chicago and in the State capital of Springfield.
Its graduates include U.S. Senators Alan Dixon and Carol Moseley Bruan of Illinois, Prentiss Brown of Michigan, John East of North Carolina and Jon Corzine of New Jersey; Rev. Jesse Jackson and Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.; Governors Corzine, Samuel Shapiro of Illinois, Ashton Shallenberger of Nebraska and Frank White of North Dakota; George H.W. Bush's Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin and Secretary of Transportation Sam Skinner; former Mayor Dick Murphy of San Diego; White House Press Secretary James Brady; and the current President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa.
Entertainers who graduated include comedian Allan Sherman, film critics Gene Shalit and Roger Ebert, director Ang Lee; actors Arte Johnson, Gene Hackman, Barbara Bain, Jerry Orbach, Donna Mills, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Alan Ruck (Cameron in the Chicago-based film Ferris Bueller's Day Off), Andy Richter and Lynne Thigpen; and singer Dan Fogelberg.
Non-sports, non-entertainment and non-politics graduates include historians Allan Nevins, David Herbert Donald and Dee Brown; journalists James Reston, Robert Novak and Dan Balz; newscasters John Chancellor, Bill Geist; New York's right-wing talk show founding father Bob Grant; 1960s New York disc jockey B. Mitchel Reed; financial adviser Suze Orman; Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner; architects Henry Bacon and Cesar Pelli, BET founder Robert L. Johnson, writer Nelson Algren, and comic book artist Lee Falk (created The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician).
Going In. Zuppke Field at Memorial Stadium is a mile south of downtown Champaign, at 1402 S. 1st Street. Bus 100 will take you from downtown to the corner of 1st Street and St. Mary's Road, a block away, across from the State Farm Arena (formerly Assembly Hall). If you drive in, parking is $20. Directly west is Grange Grove, which they call "a free, high-energy tailgating area." Free, but you have to make a reservation.
It opened in 1923, but its dedication game was on October 18, 1924, when running back Harold "Red" Grange, a.k.a. the Galloping Ghost, put on one of the greatest performances in football history. He returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. He for touchdowns of 67, 56 and 44 yards. He did all that within the 1st 12 minutes of the ballgame. He later passed for another touchdown, and returned a kick for another. He accounted for 6 touchdowns in Illinois' 39-14 victory.
Notre Dame was not yet the icon it would become -- indeed, the game that got their backfield the nickname the Four Horsemen, against Army at the Polo Grounds, was played on the exact same day -- so Michigan was the college football program west of the Ivy League. So this was a big deal.
It hosted the 1st Farm Aid concert on September 22, 1985, and hosts the annual Illini Marching Band Festival. It hosts the State high school finals, the finish line of the Illinois Marathon, and was the home field for the Chicago Bears in 2002, when the original Soldier Field was demolished and the new one was built on the site. Choosing Memorial Stadium was appropriate, as Grange, Bears founder George Halas, and Bears legend Dick Butkus were all Illinois football stars.
Azteca Super Nacho is at 104. Sweet Treats, including "Ice cream, cotton candy, cookie dough treats, lemon shake-ups," is at 104 and 202. Johnsonville Brats are at 106 and 220. T.C.'s Rockin' Pulled Pork BBQ is at 106 and 206. The Popcorn Factory is at 107. TCBY is at 108. Dippin Dots (the Illini seem to like dessert) is at 108, 115 and 124. Eisenberg Grill, including hot dogs and Polish sausages, is at 112, 116, 120 and 208. Wayne's Kettle Corn is at 115. Town & Country, featuring Italian sausages and "rib tips," is at 117. Hickory River, featuring beef brisket, pulled pork, roasted turkey, mac & cheese and cole slaw, is at 119. Joe's Brewery is at 123.
Team History Displays. A statue of Red Grange, the school's signature player, stands outside the West Great Hall. The north end hosts The Grange Rock, pulled in 1994 from the same Indiana limestone quarry that produced the stadium's columns over 70 years earlier. The playing surface, as I said, is named for coach Bob Zuppke.
The Galloping Ghost
A 2013 renovation put lettering listing the team's titles on the luxury suits and press box. This includes 5 National Championships: 1914, 1919, 1923, 1927 and 1951; and 15 Big Ten titles: 1910, 1914, 1915, 1918, 1919, 1923, 1927, 1928, 1946, 1951, 1953, 1963, 1983, 1990 and 2001. The lettering also includes the team's 2 retired numbers: 77, for Grange, leader of their 1923 National Champions; and 50, for center and linebacker Dick Butkus, a member of the 1963 Big Ten title team.
The best photo I could find of the display.
The retired numbers have since been put at the very top.
Football adopted uniform numbers before any other sports, and Grange's 77, between the Illini and the Bears, became the 1st iconic uniform number. How did he get it? It wasn't a choice: He explained, "The guy in front of me got 76, and the guy behind me got 78."
Not included on the display are notations of Illinois' bowl game wins. The only major bowl they've won, as you might guess, being a Big Ten team, is the Rose Bowl: 1947, 1952, 1964. Their most recent bowl win was he 2011 Fight Hunger Bowl, beating UCLA at the San Francisco Giants' ballpark. Their most recent bowl appearance was the 2014 Heart of Dallas Bowl, losing to Louisiana Tech at the Cotton Bowl stadium (which no longer hosts the Cotton Bowl Classic).
The school's College Football Hall of Fame members are: Coaches Zuppke (1913-41) and Bob Blackman (1971-76), running back Bart Macomber (senior year, 1916), end Chuck Carney (1921), Grange (1925, playing his 1st game for the Bears on Thanksgiving, 5 days after his last Illini game, which was then legal), guard Bernie Shively, guard Alex Agase (1946),running back Claude "Buddy" Young (1946), safety Al Brosky (1952), running back J.C. Caroline (1954, and a member of Halas' 1963 NFL Champion Bears), running back Jim Grabowski (1965, and a member of Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers that won the 1st 2 Super Bowls), and receiver David Williams (1985).
Halas (1916), Grange, linebacker Ray Nitschke (1957), running back Bobby Mitchell (1957), Butkus (1964), and eventual referee and supervisor of NFL officials Hugh "Shorty" Ray (a star in football, baseball and basketball at UI, 1906), are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Running back Johnny Karras was a 1951 All-American, and briefly a Chicago Cardinal. He was the brother of Iowa and Detroit Lions legend Alex Karras, the brother of Purdue and Washington Redskins player Lou Karras, and the brother of Indiana and 1963 Chicago Bear Ted Karras. That's 4 brothers, all football stars, 4 different Big Ten schools. Ted's son, Ted Karras Jr., played at yet another Big Ten school, Northwestern, and for the Redskins, and has gone into coaching. And his son, Ted Karras III, played guard at Illinois, and won a Super Bowl ring with the New England Patriots last season.
Other notable UI football players include defensive end Ed O'Bradovich, yet another 1963 Bear; 1970s and '80s Cleveland Browns offensive tackle Doug Dieken, now a broadcaster for the Browns; 1980s quarterback Jeff George, a Number 1 draft pick who famously flamed out in the NFL; 1990s defensive end Simeon Rice, a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Super Bowl XXXVII winners; and 1990s linebacker Kevin Hardy, a star for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan is a UI graduate. So is Jerry Colangelo, former owner of the Phoenix Suns and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The school's baseball players include Hall of Fame shortstop, manager and broadcast Lou Boudreau; and All-Stars Hoot Evers, Ken Holtzman and Scott Spiezio. Baskeball players include Andy Phillip, Johnny "Red" Kerr, Don Ohl, Derek Harper, Dee Brown (not the historian who also graduate from the school), Kendall Gill, Eddie Johnson and Deron Williams.
Pole vaulter the Rev. Bob Richards and Jamaican sprinter Herb McKenley, both Gold Medalists at the 1952 Olympics, were UI graduates. So was 1924 decathlon Gold Medalist Harold Osborn.
As you might guess, Illinois' biggest rivalry is with cross-State Northwestern, located just north of Chicago in Evanston, Illinois. They first met in 1892, and, despite NU's famous football woes, is surprisingly close, with UI leading 55-50-5. Northwestern has won 4 of the last 5, and 10 of the last 14. Starting in 2009, they have played for the Land of Lincoln Trophy, a brass copy of Abraham Lincoln's top hat.
UPDATE; Through the 2019 season, Illinois leads Northwestern 55-53-5, Purdue 45-44-6, and Missouri 17-7; and trail Ohio State 68-30-4.
Stuff. There is not a single big team store, but there are stands inside the Great East Hall, the Great West Hall, outside the south end of the horseshoe, and in the Grange Grove tailgating lot to the west. The Illini Union Bookstore is at 809 S. Wright Street, closer to downtown. There are 2 Gameday Spirit stores, one close to the Stadium at 1602 S. Neil Street, the other downtown at 519 E. Green Street.
Despite the school's massive history, there aren't many books about the team, and no DVDs. The best book I could find on Amazon.com was The Fighting Illini: A Story of Illinois Football, by Lon Eubanks -- and that was published in 1976.
During the Game. This is not a Cubs vs. Cardinals game, or a Bears vs. Packers game, or a Bulls vs. Pistons game, or a Blackhawks vs. Blues or Red Wings game. Your safety will not be an issue, as long as you don't make a nuisance out of yourself.
So, you may ask, what does "Illini" mean? When French explorers reached the region in the early 17th Century (around the time the English established themselves at Jamestown, Virginia and Plymouth, Massachusetts, and the Dutch did so in present-day Manhattan and the Swedish in South Jersey), they found that the native tribes called themselves "Hileni," which means simply "men." The French wrote it down as "Illinois," and the name was applied to a river and, eventually, the Territory that became the State. Eventually, this evolved into the cheer: Call out, "I-L-L!" and a UI student or graduate will answer, "I-N-I!"
The mascot was Chief Illiniwek, whose name means "Chief of Men." (In other words, like "Los Angeles Angels," it's redundant.) Unlike Black Hawk, the real-life chief for whom the hockey team was named, the character was made up.
Ray Dvorak, then assistant director of the band, dressed in Native American garb and danced during the halftime show at the October 30, 1926 game. Since the opponent was the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school, this story went back East, was reported in the Eastern papers, and made the Chief famous. Fans would see the portrayer at games and other events, and chant, "Chief! Chief! Chief!"
Somehow, I don't think this dance move was authentic.
As the years went by, various tribes were split on whether the mascot was appropriate, although the costume was reportedly made by actual Natives. Finally, in 2007, the University decided not to use the Chief anymore. There were 82 separate portrayers. Only 1 was a woman, Idelle Brooks, who served as "Princess Illiniwek" in 1943 due to the World War II manpower shortage.
Songs by the band, the Maching Illini, include the alma mater, "Hail to the Orange"; the school song, "Illinois Loyalty"; and the fight song, an apparent "Indian war chant," "Oskee Wow Wow."
In his book Big Ten Country, recounting his visit to all 10 campuses in the 1988 season, Michigan State graduate Bob Wood reported that the best breakfast near the Illinois campus was at a lace named Aunt Sonya's. That's closed in 2005. He said the best bar was Chin's Wok-n-Roll. That's apparently long-gone, too. He said the best burger was at Murphy's Pub. That's still open, at 604 E. Green Street, downtown.
If your visit to the Illinois campus is during the European soccer season, as we are now in, your best bet to see your club is at Huber's, 1312 W. Church Street.
Sidelights. The basketball arena is the State Farm Center, known as Assembly Hall from its 1963 opening until 2013. The playing surface is the Lou Henson Court, named for the 1975-96 coach. Illinois was retroactively awarded the 1915 National Championship, reached the NCAA Final in 2005, and also reached the Final Four in 1949, 1951, 1952 and 1989. Elvis Presley sang there on October 22, 1976. 1800 S. 1st Street, across Kirby Avenue from Memorial Stadium.
But State lines tend to mean a lot. An April 23, 2014 New York Times article shows that the Chicago Cubs are the most popular MLB team in the Urbana-Champaign area, with 40 percent of the baseball fans, followed by the Cardinals with 30, and the White Sox with 15. A May 12, 2014 New York Times article shows that the Chicago Bulls are preferred over the Pacers. The September 2014 issue of The Atlantic shows that the Chicago Bears are more popular there than the Pacers (and should be, considering the traditional Illini-Bears connection, plus the Bears' 64-year head start on the Colts). And I don't think anybody doubts that the Hawks and the Fire are the most popular teams in their leagues in that area.
The closest minor-league baseball team is the Peoria Chiefs, now in the Class A Midwest League. They play at 7,500-seat Dozer Park, at 730 SW Jefferson Avenue, 91 miles northwest, which isn't all that close.
Springfield is home not only to the State capital (old State Capitol, 600 E. Adams Street; current one, 301 S. 2nd Street), but also to Abraham Lincoln. His Presidential Library is at 212 N. 6th Street. The Lincoln Home National Historic Site, the only residence the Great Emancipator ever owned, is at 413 S. 8th Street. His tomb is in Oak Ridge Cemetery, at 1500 Monument Avenue.
Other Presidents with Illinois connections are Ulysses S. Grant, who lived in Galena at the time the Civil War started (500 Bouthillier Street, 168 miles west of Chicago and 260 miles northwest of Champaign, near the State Lines of Wisconsin and Iowa); Ronald Reagan, born in Tampico (111 S. Main Street, 127 miles west of Chicago and 172 miles northwest of Champaign), bouncing around the State as his father found it hard to get work, and going to high school in Dixon (Boyhood Home at 816 S. Hennepin Avenue, 102 miles west of Chicago and 169 miles northwest of Champaign); and Barack Obama, who's lived most of his adult life in Chicago, and his Presidential Library will be built on University of Chicago land.
In addition to his 1976 Assembly Hall concert, Elvis sang in Illinois at the Southern Illinois University on October 27, 1976. 1415 Arena Drive, in Carbondale, 197 miles southwest of Champaign, 334 miles southwest of Chicago, even 106 miles southeast of St. Louis. In fact, it's closer to his hometown of Memphis, 212 miles north of it, than it is to Chicago.
He also sang in Chicago, at the International Amphitheater on March 28, 1957; and Chicago Stadium on June 16 and 17, 1972; October 14 and 15, 1976; and May 1 and 2, 1977. The Beatles played the International Amphitheatre on September 5, 1964 and August 12, 1966; and Comiskey Park on August 20, 1965.
Not many TV shows or movies have been set, or filmed, in Champaign. The city's, and the university's, greatest pop culture reference is that the 1st commanding officer on the TV show M*A*S*H, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake, M.D., was a UI graduate, frequently wearing a varsity sweater.
Henry was played by McLean Stevenson, who also wrote the 1973 episode "The Army-Navy Game," in which Henry tells of being the student trainer at an Illinois-Ohio State game, and screwing up. Actually, Stevenson -- a cousin of Illinois Governor and 2-time Democratic Presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson -- was not only a veteran of the U.S. Navy rather than the Army, but graduated from Northwestern!
As far as I can tell, Chicago has never been a setting for a soap opera, but 2 have been set in fictional Illinois locations: As the World Turns in Oakdale, and Another World in Bay City (not to be confused with the city of the same name in Michigan).
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The University of Illinois is one of the most historic schools in college football. Its history isn't quite as long as Rutgers', but it's much better. Maybe Rutgers can get a win, but don't count on it. What you can count on is enjoying your visit otherwise.
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