Illinois defends the belt, 20–3, at home over Iowa.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Illinois came in 329 days into reign #42, which began with a win over Ohio State, with one defense already behind it; this was its second defense. Illinois went on to defend it 3 more times before Wisconsin took it on November 13, 1920, 357 days after the reign began.
For Iowa this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
This is the only time Illinois and Iowa have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
On October 16, 1920, Illinois defeated Iowa 20-3 at home in a regular season matchup. Illinois was the belt holder entering the game and retained the belt with the victory.
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 11245) · This game in the downloadable dataset