Redbirds

Fred Young had a practical problem in 1923: headline writers kept mixing up his team with the St. Louis Cardinals, so the sports editor renamed the Illinois State side Red Birds, later shortened to one word. The football program itself long predates that fix, tracing its first season to 1887.

Illinois State plays in the Missouri Valley Football Conference at the FCS level. The Redbirds have taken the conference title three times, in 1999, 2014 and 2015, and the 1999 season also brought the Pecan Bowl, a 37–20 win over Hofstra.

What sets the programme apart is what came after 2014. That MVFC championship carried Illinois State into the FCS National Championship Game, where North Dakota State beat them 29–27. Eleven years later the Redbirds got back there and lost again, 35–34 in overtime to Montana State. Two title-game appearances, a decade apart, both settled by a single score.

Nine FCS playoff appearances span from 1998 to 2024, home games played at Hancock Stadium in Normal, Illinois, in front of a capacity of 13,391.