The day was Sept. 3, 2005. It was a warm, sunny, Saturday morning in Champaign. 50,000 fans filed in to Memorial Stadium to watch the Illinois Fighting Illini open the season against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in Ron Zook’s debut as Illinois’ head coach.
We’ve become accustomed to seeing Illinois and Rutgers squaring off over the past five seasons, but this matchup came waaaaay before the two schools would share conference membership. This day marked the first-ever meeting between the two programs on the gridiron. #Illinutgers was born! Back then, the Scarlet Knights competed in the Big East — yes, kids.