IL HR0972

Recognizes the February 22, 1876 game between Northwestern University and the Chicago Football Club as the first American football game and the first college American football game played in Illinois.

Documents that the game was played on the Northwestern University campus between what is now Lunt Hall and the Jacobs Building, preceded the standardization convention held in Massachusetts on November 23, 1876.

Notes that the Chicago Football Club defeated Northwestern University 3-0 using rules created by Harvard and Yale in 1875, with the Chicago team using 15 men while Northwestern had up to 30 players by game's end.

Records the names of players on both teams, marking the first known naming of football players in Illinois, the Midwest, or anywhere west of the eastern states, with notable attendees including Northwestern founder Orrington Lunt and Francis Willard, the university's first Dean of Women.

Observes that no sign, marker, plaque, or monument currently exists on the Northwestern campus to indicate or commemorate the location where the historic game was played.