A familiar buzz has returned to Champaign-Urbana. The student body has arrived en masse. Classes are underway. Illinois football has resumed their winning habit. The townsfolk’s lives trundle onward under the ominous glow of the nation’s largest college football video board.
We are so back.
It has been nearly a decade since I set foot on a university campus in the pursuit of greater knowledge, but I can still recall those first few days of school. At nearly any age, you’ve had some time away from everyone
else, an opportunity to grow and mature on your own. I always possessed an inkling of hope that people would notice how different I had become in a few months apart. This proved a fruitless aspiration due to the fact that besides an inch of vertical growth now and then, there weren’t many transformative summers.
In any event, those first few days of a new year were always a shot at a fresh start and a fresh look. The concept has me thinking about our own Fighting Illini’s refreshed presentation in the Bret Bielema era and our many great looking kits we’ve put on the field since he’s arrived in Champaign. Thus, I invite you to join me if you will, in taking a look at what I believe are the best five uniforms the Illini have donned since the start of 2021.
Starting with the fifth spot, I’d like to present of something of a “deep cut”:
5. The Veteran’s Day Appreciation uniforms from 2022.
I’ll be the first to admit — I thought the standard kits the Illini wore during the 2018-22 run were fairly lackluster. However, the orange/blue combo jerseys were the best of that group, and I believe this American Flag Block I is one of the best helmets we’ve donned. The Illini wore a similarly styled Helmet in 2014 for a Military Appreciation Game, but that helmet had a white base and lacked the pop of the one shown here. In 2015, they tried the Stars and Stripes Block I again, this time with an orange base, but the placement of the “Stars and Stripes” made it look awkward and chunky. When the helmet concept made its triumphant return in 2022, now with the Stars and Stripes in much better proportion in the Block I on the orange helmet (along with the customary reference to the military branches on the backside), it all seemed to come together just right.
It’s extremely difficult to make a good looking patriotic helmet for a team that has bright orange as a core color, and yet I think they nailed it with this one. The Illini did not happen to nail the game they wore it in though. As the 21st ranked team in the country, they lost to Purdue 31-24 at Memorial Stadium.
4. Navy Script
What is a team to do when you travel to the land of an opponent who has the audacity to claim Orange as their color?
Well, you lean into your navy of course.
All-navy uniforms are rarely exciting, but they can be very sharp and that’s what Illinois accomplished with this one. The script “Illinois” on the helmet (which has rapidly become a fan favorite) offered a satisfying touch of flair and a needed dash of orange. For the second year in a row, the Illini debuted a new helmet in advance of their match-up with an SEC foe in a bowl game.
I hope they stick with the trend- They’re 2-0 under such circumstances.
3. The Underlined Illinois Orange-Out
If you were to ask any millennial Illini football fan, they would tell you that this was the helmet they grew up with. This was Juice Williams. Jay Leman. Rashard Mendenhall. Beating No. 1 Ohio State at the ‘Shoe. Going to the Rose Bowl!
For the Illini to roll this out for the first time in years in front of a sold-old-orange-out Memorial Stadium against Kansas in 2024 was nothing short of magical. This uniform is the perfect combination of 2020’s clean lines and the nostalgia of just a couple decades ago. I think it’s probably a bit loud to be a “primary kit”, but don this under the lights for any big game and it’s going to look terrific.
2. Orange and Blue Script
This uniform is Illinois.
Orange and Navy. White accents. A script font. This speaks to fans of any age who bleed the orange and blue.
We had seen the script font making a re-appearance on the basketball uniforms for many years before they made their way onto the gridiron, and with the success of the basketball program, it felt like it was only a matter of time before it snuck into football too.
When you turn on ESPN and see us in these on National Television, you know who it is. It’s clean and it’s classic. So, that’s why I have this number two.
1. The Rededication Game
When a uniform receives national praise, you really have no other choice but to put it at number one.
Inspired by the uniform Red Grange wore 100 years prior on the day he scored six touchdowns against Michigan, the Illini donned near-perfect replicas in their own win over Michigan.
With classically designed uniforms and hand-painted helmets by artist Armando Villarreal to simulate the leather appearance, this was more of time-traveling suit than anything else.
And when you’re going for “old school”, is anything more timeless than a fake punt run by your Tight End on your own side of the field?
For what it’s worth-Every uniform is going to look a little bit better when you win in it. But the nice thing for Illinois during the Bret Bielema era is that more often than not, whatever they’ve worn, that has been the case.
Bring on Duke (and UAB, I guess)!
