Illinois vs. Notre Dame
Illinois and Notre Dame have 12 meetings on file, the first in 1898; Notre Dame leads the series 11–0–1 in the games on file. Over the last 10 meetings it’s Notre Dame 10–0, and Notre Dame has won the last 10. Share
- Illinois wins
- 0
- Notre Dame wins
- 11
- Ties
- 1
- Earliest on file
- 1898
- Longest streak
- 10 Notre Dame
- Current streak
- 10 Notre Dame
- Last 10 meetings
- Notre Dame 10–0
- Most recent
- 1968
The series at a glance
| ’0 | ’1 | ’2 | ’3 | ’4 | ’5 | ’6 | ’7 | ’8 | ’9 | W–L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1890s | 0–1 | ||||||||||
| 1930s | 0–1–1 | ||||||||||
| 1940s | 0–7 | ||||||||||
| 1960s | 0–2 |
- Both ranked
- 2 meetings: Illinois 0, Notre Dame 2; 1 both in the top 10
- Average margin
- 20.9 points; 5 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
- At Illinois
- 0–6–1 Illinois’s record at home
- At Notre Dame
- 5–0 Notre Dame’s record at home
- Shutouts
- 4
Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.
Games that tell the story
- Notre Dame’s biggest win1968: Notre Dame 58, Illinois 8by 50 points
- Ranked showdown1942: Notre Dame 21, Illinois 14No. 8 Notre Dame at No. 5 Illinois
- Ranked showdown1944: Notre Dame 13, Illinois 7No. 1 Notre Dame at No. 14 Illinois
Coach against coach
| Years | Illinois | Series | Notre Dame |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1937–1940 | Robert Zuppke | 0–2–1 | Elmer Layden |
| 1942–1946 | Ray Eliot | 0–3 | Frank Leahy |
Head-coach pairings with three or more meetings on file, the series read from Illinois’s side (Zuppke 0–2–1 against Layden). A season split between coaches goes to the one credited with the game.
Both programs through the years
Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.
From the newspapers
1937 · Evening star, Oct 10, 1937
1938 · The Daily Alaska empire, Oct 17, 1938
1940 · Evening star, Oct 31, 1940
1942 · Evening star, District of Columbia, Oct 26, 1942
1944 · The Nome nugget, Oct 30, 1944
Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.
Every game
| Oct 19, 1968 | 6Notre Dame 58, Illinois 8 | at Notre Dame | ||
| Oct 21, 1967 | Notre Dame 47, Illinois 7 | at Illinois | ||
| Sep 28, 1946 | Notre Dame 26, Illinois 6 | at Illinois | ||
| Sep 29, 1945 | Notre Dame 7, Illinois 0 | at Notre Dame | ||
| Oct 28, 1944 | 1Notre Dame 13, 14Illinois 7 | at Illinois | ||
| Oct 23, 1943 | 1Notre Dame 47, Illinois 0 | at Notre Dame | ||
| Oct 24, 1942 | 8Notre Dame 21, 5Illinois 14 | at Illinois | ||
| Oct 25, 1941 | 7Notre Dame 49, Illinois 14 | at Notre Dame | ||
| Oct 26, 1940 | 2Notre Dame 26, Illinois 0 | at Illinois | ||
| Oct 15, 1938 | Notre Dame 14, Illinois 6 | at Notre Dame | ||
| Oct 9, 1937 | Illinois 0, Notre Dame 0 | at Illinois | ||
| Oct 8, 1898 | Notre Dame 5, Illinois 0 | at Illinois |
Every game is listed as played on the field.