CHAMPAIGN, Ill.—Josh Whitman sat on a third-row aluminum bleacher in the corner of Illinois’s Memorial Stadium, gazing at the emptiness, pondering time and place. He played here 20 years ago, and today he is the school’s athletic director. Red Grange ran and Dick Butkus tackled in this grand old edifice, which is flanked on the east and west sides by towering columns inscribed with the names of Illinoisans killed in World War I.
Now, for the first autumn in 97 years, no football is expected to be played in this historic stadium. “We would be getting ready to go right now, wouldn’t we?