Tearing Down the Goalposts
September 19, 2000
Tearing down goal posts is an old tradition in college football. Actually, though, it originally started by accident. Back in 1923, Illinois was playing Wisconsin down in Champaign.
The game was nip and tuck (kinda like my face before the plastic surgeons gave up). Late in the 4th quarter, with Wisconsin leading 20-18, Illinois was driving. They even scored the go-ahead TD on a Harold "Buck" Grange run ("Red" was only his public nickname), but it was called back on a holding penalty.
Legendary Illini coach Bob Zuppke then called for a special trick play. With time running out, the snap went directly to Grange, and he proceeded to drop kick the ball toward the goal post. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very good kick, and it landed square on the crossbar itself.
Thanks to some pigeons that had been perched there earlier, the crossbar was covered with pigeon droppings and the ball actually stuck to the crossbar.
Nobody knew what to do. The ball was halfway through the goal posts, so some thought it was good and others thought it was no good. Some Illinois students jumped out of the stands and grabbed onto the crossbar, trying to shake the ball through.
Finally the ball fell through the uprights and Illinois won the game. Unfortunately, several of the students had gotten their hands stuck in the guano and they continued shaking in the hopes of getting loose.
Pretty soon the goal posts collapsed, and those who had not been crushed began to celebrate the victory by running around with pieces of the goalpost, ramming the posts through 5 Wisconsin fans before they could get away to the trains back to Madison.
The Illinois teams were even known as "The Illinois Impalers" for several years, with Vlad the Impaler as their mascot. This lasted until protests by Romanian-American students led Illinois to choose the much more politically correct nickname "The Illini", with the famous mascot Chief Illiwek.