In 1889, University of Illinois student Scott Williams noticed a bulletin board card announcing that anyone interested in playing football should report to campus that afternoon.

That day he arrived to see a group of students chasing and kicking a ball in a manner that barely resembled the game of football that he had played previously at State Normal University, more than 50 miles west of Champaign.

Scott Williams recruited fellow classmates in 1889 to put together Illinois' first football team.

After the boys' workout, Williams assembled the group and gave them instruction on how the ball should be passed and kicked. He also explained the scoring system and other points of strategy. The gang reassembled and played a little while longer with Williams as their leader.

The following year Williams and some teammates approached the heads of the athletic department with the hopes that they could represent the UI in a game of football against Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington. Anticipating little enthusiasm, Williams suggested that the team pay its own expenses, provide uniforms and pay its own train fare. Permission was granted. The first University of Illinois football team boarded a train Thursday, Oct. 2, 1890, to compete in the Illinois Oratorical Association meeting in Bloomington, an athletic competition featuring contests in track, tennis, baseball and football.

With Williams serving as coach, captain and quarterback, Illinois lost to Wesleyan, 16-0. Although Illinois lost its first football game, it did win the championship cup for the weekend's activities.

This ball commemorated Illinois' first-ever victory in football, Nov. 26, 1890. The hosts defeated Illinois Wesleyan, 12-6, to go 1-2 that season.

Illinois' second game of the season was against Purdue, a team which had been under great preparation for the game. The Boilers defeated Illinois, 62-0, but the young UI 11 had learned a few lessons from the advanced Purdue team before entering the last game of its first season, a rematch against Wesleyan.

Illinois hosted its first-ever home game Nov. 26, 1890. The contest was met with great anticipation in the community. Nearly 300 fans arrived at the Champaign fair grounds to see W.F. Slater score two touchdowns in a 12-6 Illinois victory, which Scott Williams stepped down as captain and coach after the 1890 season, but remained on the roster as a player on the 1891 Illinois team, winners of all six games and champions of the Illinois Intercollegiate Football League.

(updated 6/07)