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Illinois–Northwestern football rivalry

American college football rivalry

Field	Value
wide	yes
name	Illinois–Northwestern football rivalry
image_size	200
team1	Illinois Fighting Illini
team1logo	Illinois Fighting Illini logo.svg
team2	Northwestern Wildcats
team2logo	Northwestern Wildcats logo.svg
firstmeeting	October 12, 1892
Tie, 16–16
mostrecent	November 29, 2025
Illinois, 20–13
nextmeeting	November 28, 2026
total	119
series	Illinois leads, 59–55–5
largestvictory	Illinois, 66–0 (1894)
longeststreak	Illinois, 7 (1913–1928, 1979–1985)
currentstreak	Illinois, 2 (2024–present)
trophy	Land of Lincoln Trophy
Sweet Sioux Tomahawk (former)

The Illinois–Northwestern football rivalry is a college football rivalry between the Illinois Fighting Illini and Northwestern Wildcats. The Land of Lincoln Trophy is presented to the winner of the game. The teams began competing for the new prize in 2009, replacing the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk, which was used from 1945 to 2008.

Traveling trophies

Sweet Sioux Tomahawk

The Sweet Sioux Tomahawk was presented to the winner of the annual football game between the two schools. The original trophy was a carved wooden "cigar store" Indian, but was stolen and replaced by a replica of a tomahawk.

Northwestern won the Tomahawk first in 1945, beating Illinois 13–7 in Evanston. At the end of the 2008 football season, when the teams last played for the trophy, Illinois led the series 52–45–5, and 33–29–2 during the era of the Tomahawk. Northwestern narrowed the series record in the trophy's final years, winning five of the last six meetings.

The 2008 game in Evanston was the final time the two teams played for the Tomahawk, which Northwestern won 27–10. The NCAA mandated that all Native American imagery deemed hostile and abusive must be removed from college athletics, including the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk. Before the game, the schools agreed that Northwestern would be the trophy's permanent resting place. If Illinois had won the game, it would have surrendered the trophy to Northwestern after the on-field celebration.

Land of Lincoln Trophy

Beginning in 2009, the two schools played for the Land of Lincoln Trophy, known by fans of both schools as "The Hat". The trophy's name derives from the official state nickname of Illinois and depicts a bronze replica of a stovepipe hat famously worn by Abraham Lincoln. It was designed by Dick Tracy cartoonist Dick Locher and cast by sculptor Don Reed of River's Edge Foundry, Beloit Wisconsin.

Northwestern won the trophy in its inaugural game in 2009. The 2010 contest was played at Wrigley Field, home of Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs. It was the first football game at Wrigley Field since 1970 and the first collegiate football game at Wrigley Field since 1938. The field used an east-west field configuration (home plate to right field). In order to keep the playing field at regulation size, the safety clearances for each end zone to the walls in the field were considerably less than normal. In particular, the east (right field) end zone came under scrutiny as its end zone was wedged extremely close to the right field wall (as close as one foot in some areas), forcing the goal posts to be hung from the right field wall in order to fit. Despite extra padding provided in these locations, it was decided that all offensive plays for both teams play to the west end zone, where there was more safety clearance. The east end zone could still be used on defensive touchdowns and punt returns, as well as defensive safeties; in fact, there was one interception run back for an eastbound touchdown. Illinois won 48–27.

Between 2014 and 2023, the game became a division contest as Illinois and Northwestern were aligned into the Big Ten's Western division to accommodate the arrival of Maryland and Rutgers. The Big Ten announced its plans to realign its schools geographically in April 2013 in time for the 2014 football season. After the conference's expansion in 2024, divisions were disbanded. However, Illinois and Northwestern were given a protected rivalry to ensure they still meet every season.

Game results

References

(April 25, 2009). "Illinois and Northwestern Announce Football Series Trophy". NUsports.com.
(November 22, 2008). "Sweet Sioux Tomahawk goes the way of Chief Illiniwek". Chicago Tribune.
(November 14, 2009). "Trophy to hang their hat on". [[Chicago Tribune]].
Muskat, Carrie. (April 22, 2010). "Football returning to Wrigley Field".
Rittenberg, Adam. (November 19, 2010). "Wildcats, Illini to use one end zone at Wrigley".
"Winsipedia – Illinois Fighting Illini vs. Northwestern Wildcats football series history".

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.

college-football-rivalries-in-the-united-states illinois-fighting-illini-football northwestern-wildcats-football big-ten-conference-rivalries 1892-establishments-in-illinois

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