With their lone setback having been a scoreless tie with Ohio State, the Fighting Illini football team finished the 1951 regular season with a 9-0-1 record and a berth in the Rose Bowl. Behind All-Americans Chuck Boerio, Al Brosky, and Johnny Karras, Illinois routed Stanford 40-7 in Pasadena on New Year’s Day 1952 on their way to their fifth national title in the first nationally televised college football game in history. Brought to you in partnership with College Vault.