Illinois–Iowa rivalry
American college basketball rivalry
The Illinois–Iowa rivalry is a college multi-sport rivalry between the University of Illinois Fighting Illini and the University of Iowa Hawkeyes. While the bordering-state schools compete against each other in many different sports, the rivalry is most prominent in men's basketball and football. Both schools have been long-time members of the Big Ten Conference, with Illinois serving as a founding member of the conference in 1896 and Iowa joining in 1900.
Men's basketball
The Illinois–Iowa men's basketball rivalry is an intra-Big Ten Conference, college basketball rivalry between the Illinois Fighting Illini and Iowa Hawkeyes. Multiple factors have played into the creation of the games between the two schools; Illinois and Iowa share a state border and are located about 242 miles (389 km) apart, and they share recruiting ground. The rivalry has been evidenced both on the court and off the court. Among the off the court elements of the rivalry, recruiting of basketball talent has resulted in battles for specific athletes. The most notable battle turned into the Pearl/Thomas Incident which began when both schools sought the services of Deon Thomas and resulted in recruiting restrictions and a one-year post-season ban for Illinois.
History
Illinois and Iowa first met on February 14, 1908, with an Iowa victory, 46–36. The teams would not meet again until 1913 in Urbana, Illinois, however, after 1924 the teams would play every year with the exception of six seasons.
“Illinois–Iowa rivalry” enters the record as american college basketball rivalry. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Illinois, Iowa and rivalry can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Illinois–Iowa rivalry” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.