Galesburg Silver Streaks Football: 2026 Schedule and Results
Latest result — Week 3, Friday September 4: lost 38-28 at United Township. Now 1-2. Next: Normal University at home, Friday September 11.
Full area results are published every Saturday morning — see our weekly results.
2026: 1-2 · Coach: Shawn Hickey, third season · Conference: Western Big 6 · Enrollment: 1,120
The largest school in this coverage area by a factor of four, in a city of 30,052, with five state championships in its trophy case and a football programme that has never won a playoff game worth remembering.
2026 results
- Aug 21 — lost at Dunlap 48-21. Better than it looks: the same fixture finished 44-0 a year earlier. Grady Hickey threw two touchdowns and completed nearly 66 percent; Antwon Walker caught 158 yards; Prosper Aremu scored twice.
- Aug 28 — beat Limestone 47-13. Forty-seven points from a team that scored 166 across nine games last season — 28 percent of a full season’s offence in one night. First win under Hickey in 2026.
Sept 4 — lost at United Township 38-28. Twenty-eight points on the road is not the problem; thirty-eight against is. Galesburg drop to 1-2 in the Western Big 6.
2026 schedule
| Date | Opponent | Site | Time | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 21 | at Dunlap | Away | 7:30 | L 48-21 |
| Aug 28 | Limestone | Home | 7:00 | W 47-13 |
| Sept 4 | at United Township † | Away | 4:30 | — |
| Sept 11 | Normal U-High | Home | 7:00 | — |
| Sept 18 | Sterling † | Home | 7:00 | — |
| Sept 25 | at Geneseo † | Away | 7:00 | — |
| Oct 2 | Quincy † | Home | 7:00 | — |
| Oct 9 | at Rock Island † | Away | 7:00 | — |
| Oct 16 | Moline † | Home | 7:00 | — |
† Western Big 6. Home games at CBI Bank & Trust Stadium at VanDyke Field.
Note the September 4 kickoff: 4:30 in the afternoon, not 7:00. United Township plays four home games at that time.
Where the name came from
Galesburg were the Tigers — and before that the Red Devils — until the mid-1930s.
On January 25, 1935, at a game against Canton, a student named Bob Hatfield shouted “Hi Yo Silver” from the stands. It caught on, and it stuck to two things at once: The Lone Ranger, then at the height of its radio fame, and the Silver Streak Zephyr, the streamlined train that ran through Galesburg.
The school kept gold from the Tiger years and added silver. The William Tell Overture became the spirit song. The lightning bolt has been the centre-court logo at Steele Gym and now Thiel Gym since each was built — and when it was briefly replaced around 2020 with a train-engine “G,” a citizens’ committee lobbied successfully to bring it back.
The trophy case
Five IHSA team state championships, across four sports:
| Year | Sport | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1912-13 | Boys basketball | State champions |
| 1962-63 | Boys golf | State champions |
| 1971-72 | Boys golf | State champions |
| 1980-81 | Girls tennis | State champions |
| 1987-88 | Baseball | State champions (AA) |
Plus six state runner-up finishes in boys basketball (1912, 1931, 1966, 1968, 1998) and girls basketball (1999).
1913
The oldest of them is the best story. Galesburg went 17-1 under E.W. Hayes, who had never played or coached basketball and never coached it again — leaving with a .944 winning percentage that is still the best in school history.
Captain Herbert Pihl averaged 18.3 points in the state tournament and was called the best high school player in Illinois. Eric Erickson and Belford VanPelt made the all-tournament first team. The final against Peoria Manual finished 37-36, won on a basket in the last minute. Galesburg had been runner-up the year before.
Evan Massey
No account of Galesburg sport is complete without him.
Massey coached the girls basketball team for 46 seasons, from 1978 to 2024, and won 1,018 games — third-most of any girls coach in Illinois history, and one of only four to reach four figures.
Eight Elite Eight appearances. State runner-up in 1999, third in 1996, fourth in 2000 and 2001. Thirteen Western Big 6 titles, more than any other school in the league has won. Eighteen consecutive regional championships from 1988 to 2005. Twenty seasons of 25 or more wins, seven of 30 or more. Eighty-six of his players went on to play in college.
He now writes local sports history, which is how a good deal of what you have just read is documented at all.
The other names on the buildings
Thiel Gymnasium honours John Thiel, boys basketball coach for 18 years at .816, whose teams won sixteen straight regional titles between 1955 and 1970. VanDyke Field honours C.C. Van Dyke, 27 years of football at .590. Sundberg Field is named for Jim Sundberg, the 1969 graduate who caught sixteen major league seasons, won six consecutive Gold Gloves from 1976 to 1981 — the first American League catcher to do it — and scored the winning run in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series for Kansas City.
Also here: Mustain Pool and the Art Fish Courts.
A rebuilt school
District 205 spent more than $50 million between 2018 and 2022 consolidating its buildings. Galesburg absorbed grades seven and eight from two closing junior highs, took an 18,400-square-foot addition for grades 10 to 12, and gained new band and choir space and a district production kitchen.
The building is now formally Galesburg Junior Senior High School. Railroad heritage runs through the design, down to the Silver Streak Café.
Beyond football
Galesburg fields the deepest sports programme in the region: baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and wrestling for boys; basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and volleyball for girls, plus cheer and dance. It also hosts the swimming co-op that Monmouth-Roseville joins.
Recent form is strongest in the pool: boys swimming won a sectional title in every season from 2020-21 through 2025-26, and the girls won theirs in 2025-26 at 9-0. Girls basketball has taken a Class 3A regional every year since 2021-22.
Volleyball opened 2026 at 1-1, losing to Morton on August 25.
Football, honestly
Nine playoff qualifications, no trophies, and an all-time record of 507-504-43 — almost exactly .500 across more than a century.
The recent picture is worse than that. Galesburg has had two winning seasons in twenty-five years. Last season it went 2-7, was outscored 381-166 and lost all four home games.
Which is the context for what Shawn Hickey has been doing since 2024. Turnout has gone from 38 players to 80 in three summers →
Send us results
We cannot be at every stadium and every gym. If you have a score, a stat line or a photo from this programme, send it in — we post them as they come and we correct errors the same day.
Records via the IHSA, MaxPreps and Massey Basketball. Facility and district detail via Galesburg CUSD 205. Western Big 6 guide →
