CHAMPAIGN — The long-delayed Big Ten football season kicks off tonight in Madison, Wisconsin. The 14th-ranked Badgers take on Lovie Smith’s fifth Illini squad, which enters the contest as a three-touchdown underdog. Brian Moline previews the Illini football opener at Wisconsin with Robert Rosenthal from IlliniBoard.com. Coach Smith said he wasn’t offended by the oddsmakers’…
URBANA – As a freshman member of the University of Illinois’ marching band, Matthew Kostbade was looking forward to performing on the field. “I can see Memorial Stadium from this window right now and it pains me to look at it especially on Saturday’s when I know we could be out there with my drum…
URBANA — The Big Ten Conference announced Wednesday that it will resume its football season with an eight-game conference-only schedule beginning the weekend of October 23-24. The news came just over a month after league officials said the season would be postponed until at least next spring. But University of Illinois chancellor Robert Jones says…
The Big Ten Conference announced last week that all fall sports were being postponed because of the pandemic, with a chance that they’ll compete in the spring. Brian Moline talks with Fighting Illini distance runner Jack LaLonde about the cancellation of cross country season. But that’s not the case for cross country. Because those athletes…
CHAMPAIGN – The Big Ten Conference announced Tuesday afternoon that it’s postponing all fall sports because of uncertainty about the COVID-19 pandemic. The sports affected at the University of Illinois are football, volleyball, women’s soccer, and cross country. Field hockey and men’s soccer, which are not varsity sports at Illinois, are also affected by the…
URBANA – Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert remembers watching a man dressed up in Native American regalia dance across a football field as “surreal” and “in many ways silly.” It was the fall of 2006, and the University of Illinois’ former mascot, Chief Illiniwek, sported a feather headdress and face paint, as he wove in and out…
CHAMPAIGN – Former University of Illinois men’s basketball coach Lou Henson died on Saturday. He was 88 years old. The U of I announced his death on Wednesday, shortly after a private funeral service. Henson coached at Illinois from 1975-1996, amassing a record of 423-224, the most wins in school history. His 1989 team, known…
CHAMPAIGN – On Friday, the Illinois High School Association released guidelines for allowing student athletes to practice and play. It comes as the Illinois Department of Public Health announced the number of confirmed coronavirus cases grew to 145,750 including 7,005 deaths. Here are a few of the Phase 4 Return To Play Guidelines: Schools must…
Urbana’s Stone Creek golf course is now property of the University of Illinois. The course, and surrounding parcels of real estate were donated by The Atkins Group, which developed Stone Creek in the late 1990s. University Chancellor Robert Jones and Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin joined a press conference Tuesday at the Stone Creek clubhouse, where…
CHAMPAIGN – March Madness is returning to Champaign-Urbana. The Illinois High School Association board voted Monday to move its Boys Basketball State Finals tournament from Peoria to the University of Illinois State Farm Center for the next three years. The board voted to keep the girls’ tournament at Illinois State’s Redbird Arena in Normal, rejecting a…
Downstate’s largest running event has been postponed until later this year because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Organizers of the Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon announced Thursday that they’re postponing their events scheduled for April 23-25.
The Illini men’s basketball team beat Iowa 78-76 last night at the State Farm Center, securing a top-four seed and double-bye in this week’s Big Ten Tournament.
COLUMBUS – The Illini men’s basketball team lost 71-63 last night at Ohio State. Big men Kofi Cockburn and Giorgi Bezhanishvili were in foul trouble from the opening tip. Cockburn picked up his first foul 14 seconds into the game.
The Fighting Illini men’s basketball team beat Indiana 67-66 Sunday at State Farm Center in Champaign.
An epic comeback literally slipped away from the Illini men’s basketball team last night, when a driving Ayo Dosunmu lost his footing and crumpled to the floor as time expired in a 70-69 loss to Michigan State.