Illinois defends the belt, 7–6, on the road at Michigan.
Where this game sits in the lineage
Illinois came in 336 days into reign #42, which began with a win over Ohio State, with 2 defenses already behind it; this was its third defense. Illinois went on to defend it 2 more times before Wisconsin took it on November 13, 1920, 357 days after the reign began.
For Michigan this was its 6th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.
It was the first of 3 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time Michigan leads 2–1. Every meeting →
About this game
Illinois visited Michigan on October 23, 1920, in a regular season matchup. Illinois won 7-6, defeating the home team and retaining the college football belt.
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 11304) · This game in the downloadable dataset