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1964 Illinois Fighting Illini football team

American college football season

Field	Value
year	1964
team	Illinois Fighting Illini
sport	football
image	1964 Illinois Fighting Illini football team.jpg
image_size	285
conference	Big Ten Conference
short_conf	Big Ten
CoachRank	16
record	6–3
conf_record	4–3
head_coach	Pete Elliott
hc_year	5th
mvp	Dick Butkus
captain	Dick Butkus
captain2	George Donnelly
stadium	Memorial Stadium

The 1964 Illinois Fighting Illini football team was an American football team that represented the University of Illinois as a member of the Big Ten Conference during the 1964 Big Ten season. In their fourth year under head coach Pete Elliott, the Fighting Illini compiled a 6–3 record (4–3 in conference games), tied for fourth place in the Big Ten, and outscored opponents by a total of 142 to 100. They were ranked No. 2 in the AP poll in week 3 but dropped out of the poll after losing to Ohio State.

Center and linebacker Dick Butkus was a unanimous pick for the 1964 All-America team. He was also named the American Football Coaches Association Player of the Year, finished third in Heisman Trophy balloting, and was selected as the team's most valuable player.

Two other Illinois players received first-team All-America honors: guard Archie Sutton and fullback Jim Grabowski. Grabowski led the Big Ten with 186 carries, 1,004 rushing yards, and 10 rushing touchdowns. The team's other statistical leaders included quarterback Fred Custardo (1,012 passing yards, 54.1% completion percentage), and wide receiver Bob Trumpy (28 receptions for 428 yards).

The team played its home games at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois.

Schedule

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Awards and honors

Center/linebacker Dick Butkus won numerous honors in 1964, including:

He was a unanimous pick for the 1964 All-America team with first-team honors from the Associated Press (AP), United Press International (UPI), American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), Central Press (CP), Football News (FN), Time magazine, and The Sporting News (TSN).
He was selected by the AFCA and Sport Magazine as the college football player of the year.
He finished third in Heisman Trophy balloting. Others receiving All-America honors included:
Defensive back George Donnelly won first-team honors from The Sporting News and Time magazine.
Fullback Jim Grabowski won first-team honors from the UPI and Football News. Grabowski was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Guard Archie Sutton won first-team honors from Time magazine.

1965 NFL draft

Dick Butkus was also drafted by the Denver Broncos in the 1965 American Football League draft.

References

"1964 Illinois Fighting Illini Schedule and Results". Sports Reference LLC.
(2014). "2014 NCAA Football Records: Consensus All-America Selections". National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
(2015). "Fighting Illini Football Record Book". University of Illinois.
"1964 Illinois Fighting Illini Stats". Sports Reference LLC.
Dick Forbes. (October 11, 1964). "OSU Pulverizes Illini, 26-0". The Cincinnati Enquirer.
(October 18, 1964). "Bristling Illini Bury Minnesota". Minneapolis Tribune.
(November 1, 1964). "Purdue Upsets Illini, 26-14; Rose Bowl Stock Goes Up". The Indianapolis Star.
Bob Hoerner. (November 22, 1964). "State's 'Champaign Party' Goes Down Drain: Grabowski, Butkus Help Sing Spartans Again, 16 to 0". Lansing State Journal.
(December 4, 1964). "Dick Butkus Leads AP All-America Selections". Streator Times-Press.
(November 28, 1964). "Frederickson Makes 'Time' All-America At Fullback". The Montgomery Advertiser.
(December 25, 1964). "Nation's Coaches Surprise With Selection of Two Quarterbacks For 75th Annual "Diamond Jubilee" All-America Football team". The Mendocino Beacon.
(January 7, 1965). "Sport Magazine Picks Butkus As Top Gridder". The Decatur Daily Review.
(November 25, 1964). "Huarte Wins Heisman Gridiron Trophy". Chicago Tribune.
''NFL 2001 Record and Fact Book'', Workman Publishing Co, New York, NY, {{ISBN. 0-7611-2480-2, p. 394

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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