Northwestern defends the belt, 13–2, on the road at Illinois.
AP poll, week 6: Northwestern No. 7 at Illinois unranked · No. 1 that week: Minnesota. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Northwestern came in 350 days into reign #77, which began with a win over Notre Dame, with 5 defenses already behind it; this was its 6th defense. Northwestern went on to defend it 3 more times before Notre Dame took it on November 21, 1936, 378 days after the reign began.
For Illinois this was its 3rd shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.
This is the only time Illinois and Northwestern have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Northwestern visited Illinois on October 24, 1936, in a regular season matchup. Illinois won 13-2. Northwestern 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 21221) · This game in the downloadable dataset