Raymond Eliot "Butch" Nusspickel was an American football and baseball player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Illinois College from 1934 to 1936 and at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1942 to 1959, compiling a career college football record of 98–80–12. Eliot was also the head baseball coach at Illinois College from 1933 to 1937. His Illinois Fighting Illini football teams won three Big Ten Conference championships and two Rose Bowls. Eliot, who spent almost his entire career at the University of Illinois—he was a student athlete, an assistant football coach, head football coach, associate athletic director, and finally the interim athletic director for the university—was nicknamed "Mr. Illini." He attended the University of Illinois, played as a guard on the football team in 1930 and 1931, and was a member of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. He died of an apparent heart attack on February 24, 1980, in Urbana, Illinois.
Eliot, circa 1942
Illinois Fighting Illini football
The Illinois Fighting Illini football program represents the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. The Fighting Illini are a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and compete in its West Division. Illinois claims five national championships and 15 Big Ten championships.
A Bristow Adams poster of an Illini football player, c. 1902
Coach Robert Zuppke in 1920
HB Red Grange "The Galloping Ghost" in 1923
Illinois students seated in a "Block I" during a 1970 game at Memorial Stadium