Redbirds tackle Panthers at 107th Mid-America Classic football game

The Illinois State Redbirds defeated the Eastern Illinois Panthers on September 8, 2018 at the 107th playing of the Mid-America Classic held at Hancock Stadium in Normal Illinois.  The combination of Brady Davis at quarterback coupled with runners and receivers Spencer Schnell, Markel Smith and James Robinson provided many of the highlights.  The Panthers used 3 or more players at the quarterback position and couldn't seem to get started against the Redbird defense.

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Images are available for licensing from the Best Look in Sports Action Photography in Bloomington-Normal, Alan Look Photography.

2 "not supposed to's" win this weekend.

If you look at the pregame stats from the Chilli Bowl and the Mi-America Classic, you would probably draw a conclusion favoring Normal West Wildcats and Eastern Illinois Panthers.  Normal Community and Normal West had met the same two opponent the first two weeks of the season. Normal Community lost to both leaving them at 0-2.  West had beaten both of those teams for a 2-0 record.  Well, all bets are off when any intercity teams are playing each other.  Add in a pinch of weather for good measure and home field advantage and it took on a completely different look and result with the Ironmen topping and even dominating West.

#24 ranked Eastern Illinois came to Hancock Stadium to topple unranked Illinois State.  Home field advantage on this older than old rivalry and Family Day activities and that 15 mph breeze probably didn't hurt or help and it was an upset.  ISU left 2-0 for the season, Eastern went south without the trophy and probably a lower ranking for next week.

Alan Look Photography was there. Galleries are below and there will be more coverage in the Normalite Newspapers and in Best Look Magazine.  Return to Alan Look Photography every week for more of the Best Look in Sports Action Photography in Bloomington Normal and McLean County.



20140912 NCWHS at NCHS - Chili Bowl - Images by Alan Look


20140913 Mid-America Classic, Eastern Illinois at illinois State football photos - Images by Alan Look

Illinois State Redbirds win in double Overtime

The Redbirds of Illinois State University pulled out a double overtime win this afternoon against in state foes, the Panthers of Eastern Illinois University.  Lots of flags, lots of pauses, lots of points.

Take a peek at our image gallery inside of Alan Look Photography

Finding treasures

Once in a while I have a reason to dig through some old images. I always seem to find a couple of treasures.

I shot the Eastern Illinois Homecoming football game in 2002. Tony Romo was still pretty much an unknown. He was in his senior year at Eastern. They were playing the Eastern Kentucky Colonels, a rival from the same Ohio Valley Conference. Not only was it homecoming, but the two teams were tied for 1st place and this game was well into the season being played on October 12.

I was shooting for a small wire out from the east coast. I'm not sure I ever knew and I certainly don't remember if the images were being used by the media or a school, but there I was.

Well, 8 years later, Tony is very well known and in the NFL. One of the images in the gallery below has licensed several times - from books to ESPN, it seems to get some pretty good play. When an image becomes popular, it also starts to get used by people who don't want to pay. So photographers start doing things to find out where all it has surfaced. Yep, I found the image in a cropped state that had been used by a news organization on at least 4 blog sites.

Anyway, that got me looking for the rest of the take from that fun game. The Panthers won by one point at the very end of the game. The best of my takes (was one of the first I shot with a digital camera) are below.

Enjoy.


20021012 Eastern Kentucky v Eastern Illinois - Images by Alan Look