Knox and Monmouth Open September 5 — and the Bronze Turkey Is Back in Galesburg This Year
The high school season gets the Friday nights. But two of the more interesting football stories in this area play on Saturdays, about fifteen miles apart, and this fall they finish at Knosher Bowl.
Knox College and Monmouth College both open Saturday, September 5, and they are arriving from opposite ends of the Midwest Conference.
Monmouth is the near-unanimous favorite
The Fighting Scots went 9-0 in the Midwest Conference last season and 9-2 overall, winning the league outright, earning a first-round bye in the NCAA Division III playoffs, and falling 49-15 at Saint John’s in the second round. The league margins were not close: 78-7 over Lawrence, 72-0 at Beloit, 69-0 over Knox.
Coach Chad Braun, who doubles as defensive coordinator, won his sixth Midwest Conference Coach of the Year award for it.
The coaches picked Monmouth to repeat, and it was not close — 99 points and nine of eleven first-place votes, ahead of Lake Forest (90) and Chicago (80). The Scots also received votes in the D3football.com preseason Top 25.
What returns
Thirteen All-Midwest Conference selections are back, including first-teamers Nate Wrublik (RB), Chase Newman and Jeremiah Williams (WR), Aiden Weaver (OL) and Kevin Soivilien (CB).
The hole is at quarterback. Brayden Deem graduated having passed 5,000 career yards in the playoff finale. Senior Silas Braun, a Monmouth native, is the returning quarterback on the roster, though the staff has not named a starter. New offensive coordinator Ryan Kaltenmark was hired in January.
The opener is a real test
Wartburg, ranked No. 9 nationally in the D3football.com preseason poll, visits April Zorn Memorial Stadium on September 5 at 7:00 p.m.
The Knights went 10-1 last season, won their 21st American Rivers Conference title and fourth straight, and pushed their league winning streak to a record 34 games before losing 28-24 to Wheaton in the NCAA second round. They finished No. 12 nationally.
They also beat Monmouth 21-7 in last year’s opener at Waverly. This time the Scots get them at home.
One local note: Wartburg’s Conner McDonald, a preseason first-team D3football.com All-American on the defensive line, is from Congerville and played at Eureka High School — the same Eureka where Knox opens that afternoon.
Knox is rebuilding, and the opener is the measuring stick
The Prairie Fire went 2-7 (2-6 MWC) and the season ended with that 69-0 loss at Monmouth. Aaron Willits stepped down two days later. The coaches poll picked Knox eighth of eleven, with 34 points.
Adam Gonzaga was named the 32nd head coach in program history on January 9. He arrives from Lawrence, where he was head coach, and before that spent time as associate head coach and defensive coordinator at Lake Forest, where his defense earned seven national rankings and helped the Foresters go 10-0 in the 2024 regular season. His background runs across all three NCAA divisions, including defensive roles at Navy, Northwood and Saginaw Valley State.
He built a staff in August: Ty Rogers as offensive coordinator, Knox alum and former Prairie Fire player Jonathan Sarich on the defensive line, James Gunter at receivers, plus a new strength coach in Matt Bowman.
Players have noticed. Junior offensive lineman Kent Putman told The Knox Student that “the culture around the team has been the most dramatic change… There’s a vibe around the team that we haven’t had in my time here.”
Eureka, and a name you know
Knox opens at Eureka, September 5 at 6:00 p.m. — and Eureka has a new head coach worth the trip.
Dion Jordan was named Eureka’s 21st head coach in January. He was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, taken by Miami, and played eight NFL seasons across the Dolphins, Seahawks, Raiders and 49ers. He spent the past two years at Eureka as associate head coach and defensive coordinator, and replaces Randy Starks — himself a two-time NFL Pro Bowler — who left for South Florida.
Eureka went 2-8 last season in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. One of those two wins was 14-13 over Knox, a game the Prairie Fire led 13-0 at halftime before Eureka won it on a late fade and a two-point conversion, with an interception at the Eureka 20 ending Knox’s final drive. It snapped a 16-game Eureka losing streak.
Start 1-0 and the season buys itself some air. Start 0-2, with Lake Forest visiting the following week, and October gets long.
November 14: the Turkey Bowl comes to Galesburg
The two seasons converge on Saturday, November 14 at noon at Knosher Bowl, and if you are new to the area, this is the one to know about.
Knox and Monmouth have been playing since 1888. Talk of the series appears in The Knox Student as early as 1881; the first recorded score is 1891, a 22-4 Knox win. In 1989 the teams passed 100 meetings — only the fourth football rivalry in NCAA Division III to get there.
The trophy is a Bronze Turkey: a one-foot-high replica of a Thanksgiving bird, a holdover from the era before the Midwest Conference when the game was played on Thanksgiving Day. It was introduced in 1928 by Bill Collins, a Knox player who also worked as a reporter and decided the game “needed some spice.” He talked newspaper publishers into contributing $40 apiece to buy it.
The trophy has had an eventful life. It went missing in the early 1940s and was eventually found buried under a dirt track in a gym basement. It was stolen again in the mid-1980s, prompting a replacement in 1986; the original resurfaced in 1993. The winner now takes home both.
Lately it has only gone one direction. Monmouth has won 26 straight in the series. Knox’s last win was 1998. Monmouth leads all-time 75-52-10.
That is the number Gonzaga inherited, and the one this season is ultimately measured against.
The Midwest Conference is now ten
Luther College officially joined as the tenth core member on July 1, alongside Beloit, Cornell, Grinnell, Illinois College, Knox, Lake Forest, Lawrence, Monmouth and Ripon. The University of Chicago remains a football affiliate; St. Norbert and Milwaukee School of Engineering are affiliates in swimming and diving.
Both local schools play Luther this season — Monmouth hosts on October 10 for Homecoming, Knox travels to Decorah on October 31.
Muddy River Sport covers Knox College and Monmouth College athletics alongside area high schools. Schedules and records from the schools’ official athletics sites and the Midwest Conference.
Reported and edited by C. Jackson Cowart, whose work has appeared in ESPN, Forbes and Front Office Sports.
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Spotted an error? We correct mistakes the same day. See our editorial standards and corrections policy. Schedules and records via IHSA and MaxPreps; quotes attributed to the outlets that reported them.
