Illinois high school football title games have new home starting in 2023
The next five IHSA state final football games will be played in Bloomington-Normal at Illinois State University's Hancock Stadium, starting with next year's eight classes of games on Nov. 24-25, 2023.
Those involved with programs like Lena-Winslow, which has won the past three Class 1A state championships, and Byron, which bowed out in the semifinals this year, but was in three straight Class 3A state-title games before that, have been keeping an eye on the discussions.
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"Rumors were flying around about where it could go," Byron head coach Jeff Boyer said, "and I think it's pretty exciting that it's going back to ISU."
Boyer won a state title as the Byron quarterback back in 1999, the first year the tourney moved away from Bloomington-Normal. And he won another as the Byron head coach in 2021.
"Of course we hope we can get back there soon," he added. "And I just like playing in new places, so that would be pretty exciting."
DeKalb's Northern Illinois University and Champaign's University of Illinois, which have rotated the past decade as hosts, were passed over as the championship games will return to ISU for the first time since 1998.
The IHSA Board of Directors approved the contract with ISU and the Bloomington-Normal Area Convention & Visitors Bureau to host the IHSA football state finals at ISU’s Hancock Stadium from 2023 to 2027. This is where the first IHSA football state championships were held in 1974, and then Bloomington-Normal hosted over 100 state-final games from 1974 to 1998.
“We've got a lot of work to do," Boyer said, "but that's where we want to be."
A couple of reasons why it was enticing for the finals to return is that the stadium itself underwent a $23 million renovation in 2013 that included a new press box, upgrades to the east side of the stadium, new seating, suites and more. And ISU broke ground on an indoor football practice facility next to the stadium in April, and that will be completed when the state finals are held there next year.
Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale each submitted bids to host the IHSA State Finals from 2023-2027. The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana also submitted a bid to host in 2024, 2026 and 2028.
Where they all are
The state football finals have only been held at four venues, with Hancock Stadium hosting the first six years of championship games. In 1980, the IHSA expanded from five classes to six classes, and the 1A through 3A games stayed in Bloomington-Normal, while the 5A and 6A games were played on the turf of Dyche Stadium at Northwestern University in Evanston. That setup stuck from 1980-84.
All six classes returned to Hancock Stadium in 1985 and remained there through 1998. The University of Illinois has hosted the finals since 1999, with the exception of odds years from 2013 through 2021, when the games shifted to NIU’s campus in DeKalb.
ISU now hosts the IHSA girls basketball and girls volleyball state finals, while the IHSA boys golf, dance, cheerleading, journalism, scholastic bowl, dual team wrestling, and girls wrestling state finals are all held in Bloomington-Normal.
Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a wide variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears to youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star, and for over 30 years all together.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: IHSA has new home for state football championships at ISU
