“One way, or another, I’m gonna find you! I’m gonna git ya git ya one way!” as Blondie told us back in the early 1980s. One Saturday, late in November of 2010, these words applied to a Big Ten college football game. It was more than a Big Ten league game, it was branded the Wrigleyville Classic, and it actually hosted ESPN College Gameday. It was an in-state rivalry game as Northwestern “hosted” their arch-rivals, Illinois, and there was only one end zone in use that day.
Yes, both sides had to drive towards the west end zone.
No one could head towards the east due to safety precautions. How did this happen and why? Well, sometimes it pays to be unorthodox and shake things up. Often in life, it’s the risk-takers who succeed the most, but does that translate to playing the quarterback position. Some research at RG will give you a glimpse into that.
As for why both quarterbacks were leading their teams in the same direction during this game, we covered that for you in this edition of the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast.
You can read the write-up of it all over at Hammer and Rails.com
You can listen to the pod at this link.
Illinois won, in a massive blowout, and Illini RB Mikel LeShoure broke the school record for single game rushing yards with 330.
Here are some links to what we wrote about that Northwestern loss to the Illini that day.
Here are a couple photos, from the exterior, of the venue that day and the week leading in.
Why are we bringing this up now? Well this Saturday, these two teams will face other again at Wrigley Field, playing in this venue against each other for the first time since the infamous one way only “losers walk” game.
We’ll have our preview of that game up shortly.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.