1918 Big Ten Conference football season

The 1918 season was played during World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic that killed 50 to 100 million persons worldwide.

[2] The 1918 Illinois Fighting Illini football team, under head coach Robert Zuppke, tied for the Big Ten championship but lost two non-conference games.

Players serving in the military included Chic Harley and Gaylord Stinchcomb of Ohio State and Archie Weston of Michigan.

In late September 1918, the Big Ten's faculty committee adopted a resolution that declared freshman eligible to play football, suspended the conference's activities as a controlling body during the period of emergency, and agreed to be governed by any rules of the War Department.

[11] The restrictions were clarified in early October, and included the following provisions: (1) a prohibition on more than one-and-a-half hours per day of football practice; (2) a prohibition on football games during the month of October that required absence from campus "for a longer period than from noon to taps on Saturday" (thus eliminating games that required lengthy travel); and (3) making allowance for only four November games per school, two at home and two on the road, "which shall in no case involve longer absences than from retreat Friday to taps Sunday.

[14] Concerns over spread of the flu pandemic also led to limitations on public gatherings and resulted in some games being played in stadiums with closed gates and with no spectators.

The games resulted in five wins and one loss, giving the Big Ten a 5–2 non-conference record to that point in the season.

[20] On October 12, 1918, four Big Ten teams played non-conference games, resulting in two wins and two losses and giving the conference a 7–4 record to that point in the season.

On October 26, 1918, five of the Big Ten football teams participated in non-conference games, resulting in two wins and three losses.

Five days earlier, the Armistice of 11 November 1918 was signed, marking the end of fighting in World War I.

On Thanksgiving Day, November 28, one Big Ten team played a non-conference game, resulting in a victory.

The following chart lists players who received first-team honors on the 1918 All-Big Ten Conference football team from Walter Eckersall (WE) in the Chicago Tribune.

[96] It also includes players listed as members of the 1918 "All-Conference Team" as published in the "ESPN Big Ten Football Encyclopedia" (BTFE).