Gray Ghost Uniforms Return for Homecoming
October 27, 2016 | Football
Illini will honor legend Red Grange Saturday vs. Gophers
Gameday Central | Illinois Homecoming | Buy Tickets
For the third straight year, the Fighting Illini football team will honor Harold "Red" Grange, the Galloping Ghost, by wearing special "Gray Ghost" alternate uniforms for Homecoming when the Minnesota Golden Gophers come to Memorial Stadium Saturday for a Big Ten West showdown (11 am CT on BTN).
The uniforms debuted at Homecoming 2014 on the 90th anniversary of Grange's historic Homecoming performance against Michigan in the Memorial Stadium dedication game on Oct. 18, 1924. In that game, Grange scored four touchdowns and racked up 262 total yards in the first 12 minutes, then ran for a fifth touchdown and threw for a sixth to lead the Illini to a 39-14 victory in what many consider the greatest single-game performance in college football history.
Famed sports writer Grantland Rice tabbed Grange as a "gray ghost" following the Michigan Performance:
A streak of fire, a breath of flame
Eluding all who reach and clutch;
A gray ghost thrown into the game
That rival hands may never touch;
A rubber bounding, blasting soul
Whose destination is the goal.
Red Grange of Illinois!
-- Grantland Rice, 1924
The new and improved Grey Ghost Unis pic.twitter.com/MLvMDdjlwX
— Illinois Football EQ (@ILLequipment) October 26, 2016
Saturday will mark the debut of the navy blue Gray Ghost helmet. #Illini @ILLequipment @Uniformswag @BigTenNetwork @PhilHecken pic.twitter.com/zkqhnAlTtu
— Illini Football (@IlliniFootball) October 26, 2016
Gray Ghost unis are for Red.
— Illini Football (@IlliniFootball) October 26, 2016
7??7???#Illini @ILLequipment pic.twitter.com/v8n2GlMNSf
