The 1949 Western Illinois Leathernecks football team represented

Western Illinois University Western Illinois University (WIU) is a public university in Macomb, Illinois. It was founded in 1899 as Western Illinois State Normal School. As the normal school grew, it became Western Illinois State Teachers College. History Western Illin ...

as a member of the

Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) was a college athletic conference that existed from 1908 to 1970 in the United States. At one time the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, or IIAC, was a robust league that clai ...

(IIAC) during the

1949 college football season The 1949 college football season finished with four teams that were unbeaten and untied-- Notre Dame, Oklahoma, California, and Army had won all their games at season's end. Notre Dame, however, was the overwhelming choice for national champion ...

. They were led by first-year head coach

Vince DiFrancesca Vincent DiFrancesca (January 1, 1922 – May 21, 2007) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Western Illinois University from 1949 to 1953, at Iowa State University from 1954 to 1956, and at Carroll Col ...

and played their home games at Morgan Field. The Leathernecks finished the season with a 9–1 record overall and a 4–0 record in conference play, winning the IIAC title. They were invited to the postseason

Corn Bowl The Corn Bowl was a college football bowl game played from 1947 until 1955 in central Illinois. The first game was played November 27, 1947 in Normal, Illinois Normal is a town in McLean County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, ...

, where they defeated the , 13–0.

Schedule

References

Western Illinois Forgottonia (), also spelled Forgotonia, is the name given to a 16-County (United States), county region in Western Illinois in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This geographic region forms the distinctive western bulge of Illinois (area west of ...

Western Illinois Leathernecks football seasons Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference football champion seasons

Western Illinois Leathernecks football The Western Illinois Leathernecks football program is the intercollegiate American football team for Western Illinois University located in Macomb, Illinois. The team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and a ...

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