Football

A sports historian said a Normal native's nomination to the Pro Football Hall of Fame nearly a century after he helped break the NFL's color barrier shows the league hasn't fully reckoned with the racism that's plagued it for generations.

The Flanagan-Cornell-Woodland football team last year didn't score on its opponents until its 6th game, when it tallied 8 against Minonk. It went scoreless the rest of the year after barely having enough students to finish the season due to injuries and players quitting.

Illinois high school football's governing body is overhauling its conferences, in a move that's intended to helps schools play similar-size programs.

As you drive into the small farming community of Lexington you quickly get a sense for the town’s pride in its school and its sports teams. A large sign off the main road trumpets its athletic achievements: 15 state championships in high school and junior high sports.

The new head football coach at Central Catholic High School is grateful he can now be more open about his faith.

Joe Walters coached football for two seasons at Bloomington High School, after coaching previously at Peoria Notre Dame. Walters told GLT's Sound Ideas he realized after the first season at BHS he had to be careful giving any appearance that he was trying to impose his faith on others, particularly his players.
 

When Brock Spack was introduced as head football coach at Illinois State in 2009, only two coaches in the previous 100 years of the program had compiled winning records.

A mountain of research—including a stunning new study on the brains of deceased NFL players—is changing the way that the Illinois State football team is practicing this summer.