Ninety-one years ago Sunday — Nov. 15, 1924 — Red Grange and the Illini football team helped dedicate the University of Minnesota’s new Memorial Stadium.
Coincidentally, just four weeks earlier, Illinois had dedicated its own facility against Michigan, a game in which No. 77 was immortalized as one of football’s all-time greats.
Minnesota’s new “Brick House” was packed with 55,000 screaming fans. Grange opened the game in much the same way he had done a month earlier, running the pigskin into the end zone, then kicking the extra point for a 7-0 lead. After that, however, it was all Minnesota, scoring 20 unanswered points for a 20-7 victory.