Illinois Flashbacks

G- RUnit

All-American
Sep 13, 2004
14,377
7,977
113
Good a time as any for reminiscing.
Birthplace of the Leonard Leap!
One of several hundred RU fans who saw it live. Besides the stunning amazing play the other thing I vividly remember was the RU fans going absolutely wild and the drop dead silence of the Illinois crowd was absolute dead silence. What did they just see?
Fun RU tailgate pre-game. Was able to meet President McCormick, Rollie Massimino, who could not have been more friendly. Eric Clark was a happy warm host.
We should have won that game. Refs saved the game for Illinois with a controversial pass interference call against RU. Still stings. It was a hot day. Remember going underneath the bowels of that old time stadium for shade.

Next year Illinois came to RU where RU came up with arguably the most dominant Defensive performance in RU history. I don’t believe RU allowed the ball past the 50/45 and we got sweet revenge and blew them out.

Fun times! Hopefully tomorrow we have another Epic win!

Go RU!!!
 

DJ Spanky

Heisman
Jul 25, 2001
49,156
60,342
113
Next year Illinois came to RU where RU came up with arguably the most dominant Defensive performance in RU history. I don’t believe RU allowed the ball past the 50/45 and we got sweet revenge and blew them out.

33-0, I believe it was 30-0 at the half. They never crossed the 50 yard line and they did not convert a single 3rd down.
 

e5fdny

Heisman
Nov 11, 2002
114,698
53,908
102
Good a time as any for reminiscing.
Birthplace of the Leonard Leap!
One of several hundred RU fans who saw it live. Besides the stunning amazing play the other thing I vividly remember was the RU fans going absolutely wild and the drop dead silence of the Illinois crowd was absolute dead silence. What did they just see?
Fun RU tailgate pre-game. Was able to meet President McCormick, Rollie Massimino, who could not have been more friendly. Eric Clark was a happy warm host.
We should have won that game. Refs saved the game for Illinois with a controversial pass interference call against RU. Still stings. It was a hot day. Remember going underneath the bowels of that old time stadium for shade.

Next year Illinois came to RU where RU came up with arguably the most dominant Defensive performance in RU history. I don’t believe RU allowed the ball past the 50/45 and we got sweet revenge and blew them out.

Fun times! Hopefully tomorrow we have another Epic win!

Go RU!!!
I can still see the dent on the bottom filing cabinet drawer in my office.

Kicked because of another Ito miss.
 

29PAS

All-Conference
Sep 21, 2001
3,533
1,419
113
My niece was visiting for the Leonard Leap game. I was watching and she's a big talker and wouldn't shut up! That and the game slipping away irritated the crap out of me. Was in a bad mood the rest of the weekend.

The next year's defensive effort is one of my all time favorite Rutgers games in any sport.
 

ScarletDave

Heisman
Oct 7, 2010
34,604
15,357
85
Probably not many realized or cared, but Illinois was our “crossover rival” for all our years in the Big Ten until last season. They were the “west” team we played every season. The new schedules flipped us that to Iowa, but that only lasted a year or 2 now with the new teams and divisions going away. There doesnt seem to be any set criteria or pattern with the schedules going forward, other than the front office’s protected rivals that you’ll play every year (for us, only Maryland).

Iliinois even though we played them every year, and had that series before the Big Ten, never turned into a rivalry for me. I don’t know many Illinois alums or fans, and most of them that I do know don’t care at all about football.