A winter storm that blanketed much of Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan in snow on Saturday disturbed more than just holiday travel; it also upended stadium seating at Gies Memorial Stadium.
According to the News Gazette, crews worked for hours before the University of Illinois football game against Northwestern University to remove snow from the field and the stands. Despite their efforts, Illinois’ facility staff made the call to limit seating to the West stands for Saturday’s rivalry game. The Fighting Illini marching band still assembled on the North end of the stadium, but besides those students, both ends of the horseshoe were empty. The entire East side of the stadium was also empty.
Another six inches of snow fell throughout the game, and aerial photos taken of Gies Memorial Stadium and the surrounding tailgate lots showed a dearth of fans.
The snow also disrupted the typical Fighting Illini fanfare, and saw the team skip its pregame walk through Grange Grove, instead retreating straight to the locker room.
“I told our guys [Friday night] that there’s nobody in the country who put more into a gameplan than our coaches,” Illinois head coach Bret Bielema said. “We planned for regular weather, adverse weather with snow, adverse weather with sleet and freezing rain and weather with 35-55 mph wind gusts. I thought we had a plan all day long where we were just a little bit ahead of where we needed to be. I thought that part of managing the game was really, really good.”
