University of Illinois athletics is a tide of momentum, with its football program rising to No. 9 in the latest US LBM Coaches Poll ahead of Week 3.

The positives continued on Tuesday, Sept. 9 with the school announcing a $100 million donation from Larry Gies, an Illinois alum. The school will rename the Fighting Illini's football stadium to "Gies Memorial Stadium" after the gift.

Gies is a longtime Illinois donor, as the university's business school is also named after him following a $150 million donation in 2017. It's the largest athletics gift ever to the school and one of the biggest in college athletics history, according to the announcement.

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Gies said the donation is in honor of his father, Larry Gies Sr., a

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