Illinois defends the belt, 41–0, at home over Drake.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Illinois came in 322 days into reign #42, which began with a win over Ohio State, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. Illinois went on to defend it 4 more times before Wisconsin took it on November 13, 1920, 357 days after the reign began.
For Drake this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t: 3 attempts in all, every one of them a loss or a tie.
This is the only time Drake and Illinois have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Illinois defended the belt against Drake on October 9, 1920, winning 41-0 to retain the lineal championship.
Written by Claude, strictly from this site’s own record of the game — the score and what it meant for the belt. CFBD doesn’t have a box score for games this old, so nothing here is invented beyond what’s verifiably on file.
Sources Game record: College Football Data (id 11177) · This game in the downloadable dataset