There were a couple of hints Wednesday that this wasn’t your ordinary week of Northwestern football.

For one, Northwestern was holding a closed practice at Ryan Field instead of its usual open session on one of the practice fields nearby. And then there was the gigantic ESPN “College GameDay” bus parked on Ashland Avenue just outside Ryan Field.

The excitement was clear. One person spotted the bus as he walked from one facility to the next.

“Is that the GameDay bus?” he said. “Is that (GameDay commentator Lee) Corso in there right now?”

It’s an atmosphere that extends to NU and Illinois players alike, as each team strives for the Land of Lincoln Trophy at a stadium that hasn’t hosted a football game in four decades.

“That’s very exciting, playing in Wrigley Field,” Illinois defensive back Tavon Wilson said. “It’s different, kind of like a change-up, not playing at the other school. Some other programs probably wish they could play at Wrigley Field.”

The Bears’s Old Den

Although it’s hard for 20-somethings like Wilson to imagine football being played at Wrigley, the Friendly Confines hosted the most professional football games of any stadium in the country as the home of the Chicago Bears for nearly five decades, until Giants Stadium passed it in 2003.

Senior long snapper and Chicago-area native John Henry Pace is well-versed in the history of the stadium, through his own experience and that of his father, Greg Pace.

“I’ve been to a lot of Cubs games there, and my dad went to so many Bears games there,” John Henry Pace said. “It’s got a real special place in my heart — just being able to play on the same field as so many Bears greats and Cubs greats.”

Greg Pace’s memories go beyond simply sitting in the stands at Wrigley. According to his son, he talks about the time he participated in a “Punt, Pass & Kick” competition on the field.

“He’s always told stories about that and everything,” John Henry Pace said. “He’s always been saying that we’re probably the only family to play on this field before, and he said it was really cool being out there.”

Wrigley hosted its share of collegiate games as well, including NU. In 1923, the Wildcats and Illini squared off in front of 32,000 fans. There will be more fans this time around, with Saturday’s game already sold out.

After the Bears left in 1970, Wrigley Field became a baseball-only facility, aside from the occasional concert.

That changed temporarily on New Year’s Day 2009 when the Chicago Blackhawks hosted the Detroit Red Wings at Addison and Clark. NU athletic director Jim Phillips said when he saw the NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley, he knew it was an experience he wanted to recreate with the Cats.

“We were all captivated by the Wrigley Field atmosphere during the NHL’s Winter Classic,” Phillips said. “We want to recreate that fantastic fan experience, this time with college football.”

From Idea to Reality

Of course, placing a hockey rink in the middle of Wrigley Field is a lot easier than fitting a football gridiron in the Friendly Confines.

Indeed, more than a year went by from the time the idea first popped up in January 2009 to the announcement of the game in April 2010. The time in between was stacked with negotiations about “everything” according to Mike Wolf, a spokesman in NU’s athletic department.

Among the primary issues were field layout and the safety of the players involved.

“When (Illinois coach Ron) Zook and I were down there over the summer a couple years ago, we both said we were for it as long as the health, safety and well-being of our players is the number one priority,” coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “It got turned over to the universities, and they were the ones making the decisions.”

The layout that was ultimately decided upon puts the right field wall just behind the north end zone, a potentially dangerous situation, but Fitzgerald insisted both universities were taking safety into account.

“If you think back, it took some time for the T’s to get crossed and the I’s to get dotted so I think both universities felt great about it from a risk management standpoint,” Fitzgerald said. “It will be an element in the game but we’ll plan accordingly.”

The Illini and Cats will also be sharing a sideline, which is highly unusual in college football. And while Bears games were played on a north-to-south field, NU and Illinois will be playing east-to-west, which might cause difficulties as the sun begins to set.

Other issues included ticket distribution and liability, but all of these have been worked out at least for 2010. As for future games, Wolf wrote in an e-mail that Cubs Executive Chairman Tom Ricketts suggested having a game at Wrigley Field every year, but Fitzgerald doesn’t want to jump the gun.

“Why don’t you ask me that on Saturday?” Fitzgerald said. “It’s been a lot of fun to this point. I’m just appreciative of our administration handling all the logistics.”

The Players’ Reaction

One day, according to sophomore defensive end Quentin Williams, Fitzgerald brought the team’s Leadership Council into his office for a little surprise. He had a picture of a football gridiron at Wrigley Field, the field Williams and his teammates will get to grace on Saturday. Williams, now in his second year on the Leadership Council, recalled having a strong reaction.

“I was just blown away,” Williams said. “I was like, ‘What is this? Is this really going to happen?'”

Williams, a Pittsburgh native, said he didn’t know all that much about the history of Wrigley Field at the time — he was simply amazed at the idea of playing football there.

“The fact that they were able to fit a football field into a baseball stadium is beyond me, or at least was beyond me,” Williams said.