It all comes down to this.
Five weeks and four wins after kicking off the FCS playoffs with an unseeded, at-large bid, the Illinois State University football team is ready for its final test. The Redbirds (12-4) face No. 2-seeded Montana State (13-2) in a national championship matchup Monday, January 5, at 6:30 p.m. CST in Nashville, Tennessee’s FirstBank Stadium.
National championship-caliber tailgating
This section was added at 5:30 p.m. Monday
Hundreds of Redbird fans enjoyed grilled food, cold drinks, and sunny, mild weather in the final hours before Monday night’s championship game.
At the Redbird Athletics/Alumni Association Fan Tailgate, President Aondover Tarhule thanked a large group of energetic fans for their support.
“This is a big deal. It doesn’t get any bigger than this,” Dr. Tarhule said.
He said Monday morning he sent a text message to head coach Brock Spack.
“I said, ‘What you and the team have done is already historic. So go down to Nashville and finish what you started.’” Tarhule said. “So, we have to finish what the team has done and has continued to exceed expectations. We fully know they will do so again, and they will do so with your support.”
Bird Walk
This section was added at 5:30 p.m. Monday
Three hours before kickoff, the Big Red Marching Machine (BRMM) performed for a hoard of Redbird fans near the FirstBank Stadium entrance to welcome the Illinois State football team for the “Bird Walk.”
Senior drum major Emma Turner said she can’t believe how much support the Redbirds are receiving in Nashville.
“It’s amazing. I really did not think that this many people would come out for this, but this is a really big deal,” Turner said.
She is also excited to play in 41,000-seat FirstBank Stadium, home of Vanderbilt University, during the FCS national championship game.
“Being in that big of a stadium—I’ve never experienced anything like this before,” Turner said. “I’m so excited to hear us sound so good, because we’re going to be so packed into the stadium. We’re going to sound incredible here. We’re going to look incredible. I’m just so excited.”
After the final note of BRMM’s “Bird Walk” performance, Turner’s mother, Christy Turner, exclaimed, “Wow!”
“We thought we’d already seen her last football game since she’s a senior,” Christy Turner said. “This is pretty exciting to have one last hurrah. And of course, the team playing in the national championship—this is really exciting.”
Touchdown for Teachers
This section was added at 5:30 p.m. Monday
Two Bloomington-Normal teachers, Tracy Niekamp and Aggie Hatch, will be recognized during Monday night’s game as part of the Touchdown for Teachers initiative.
The honorees will also share $1,000 per touchdown scored in Monday’s game, split between the two universities. Niekamp, married to defensive coordinator Travis Niekamp ’98 and the mother of Redbird football players Tye and Dexter Niekamp, is in her 27th year as an educator. For the past seven years, she’s taught Adapted Physical Education at Parkside Junior High School in Normal.
What I tell my students every day is, we just work on moving our body, and we do all the things that everyone else gets to do, we just might do it a little bit differently,” Niekamp said. “So, it’s pretty exciting.”
Niekamp, who will be honored during a timeout, said she doesn’t expect her husbands or sons to shift their attention away from the game while she’s on the field.
“I did tell them if they saw me, not to be alarmed,” Niekamp joked.
She said it’s unbelievable to watch her husband and sons playing for a national title.
“It’s pretty exciting when one person gets to go to a national championship, but when you have three people in the family, it’s over the moon,” Niekamp said. “So, it’s pretty special. It’s been really great to for the boys to be able to play together, and then for them to play for their dad, it’s been really, really special.
Hatch teaches kindergarten at Thomas Metcalf Laboratory School, where she’s been for 23 years. She completed a STEM Certificate at Illinois State in 2024.
“I absolutely love teaching kindergarten,” Hatch said. “The spark when they understand something, their passion—and you help to feed that passion and what they’re interested in. It’s just fantastic to see the joy and excitement that they have.”
Hatch and her husband, Dr. Douglas Hatch, a retired associate professor in Illinois State’s middle level education program, are season ticket holders for Redbird football along with volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball.
They were headed to cheer on the Redbirds in Nashville already, when Director of Athletics Dr. Jerri Beggs informed Hatch that she’d been chosen to represent Illinois State as a Touchdown for Teachers honoree.
“This is a huge honor,” Hatch said. “It’s a huge honor to represent ISU, the lab schools and all the teachers across the country. It’s nothing that I ever could have imagined would happen.”
Birds take to the airwaves
This section was added at 3:30 p.m. Monday
John Fitzgerald, the radio play-by-play voice of the Redbirds, has spent the past two weeks preparing for what he hopes to be a memorable broadcast as Illinois State plays for a national title.
“I’ve watched Montana State on video. I have boards with biographical info about who’s all-conference and what their stats are,” Fitzgerald said. “You end up using about 10% of that. When the game actually kicks off, the game is the only thing that matters.”
In his fourth season with Illinois State, Fitzgerald is looking forward to his first-ever national championship broadcast through his more than 20 years as a sportscaster.
“This is what every broadcaster dreams about having the ability to do—call a meaningful game like this,” Fitzgerald said. “And they don’t get much more meaningful than this.”
Longtime Redbird broadcaster Dick Luedke, along with current color analyst Ted Schmitz, were behind the microphone for the Illinois State football team’s only other national championship game appearance in 2015 against North Dakota State. Luedke recalls feeling uniquely focused during the broadcast, considering the magnitude of the game.
“I knew how critical it was for everybody,” Luedke said. “The fact that they lost, it was disappointing, for sure, but the fact that the game was so competitive and so well-played, it wasn’t as tough for me as it would have been had they been beaten badly.”
Still, Luedke is pleased that Redbirds have another shot at a national title.
“The fact that they could be the first team ever to win a championship without ever playing a game at home, it’ll just be really fascinating,” Luedke said. “If they win, I think a lot of people will remember this championship game very well for a long time.”
Fitzgerald expects Montana State’s offense, which features two 1,000-yard rushers, to test Illinois State. But, winning, he said could be a game changer for the Redbird football program.
“I still don’t know if Illinois State is necessarily considered an FCS ‘blue blood’ program,” Fitzgerald said. “So, getting here, I think, helped that. I think winning would kind of blow that door away. And I think that would be great for (head coach) Brock (Spack) and the program in general to kind of get that respect on a national level that they probably vastly deserve, but aren’t necessarily getting on a nationwide basis. I think that would be a big step forward for them.”
Road warrior support
Illinois State fans who made the trip to Nashville awoke Monday ready to cheer on their Redbirds in the national title game.
At Loews Nashville Hotel, Dr. Lynn Gaddis’ Redbird pride was on full display as she wore a shiny red-sequin jacket with red boots. She will don a matching red hat for the game.
“I don’t want to walk down the street and have any Montana State Bobcat think I might be one of them,” joked Gaddis ’71, M.S. ’91, Ed.D. ’02, of Normal.
Her husband, Bill Gaddis ’68, M.S. ’76, said he and his wife have loved watching the Redbirds on TV during their playoff run, which spanned more than 8,000 miles.
“As we went along, we kept thinking, ‘Maybe we can do it. Win one more, win one more,’” Gaddis said. “We’re really happy for coach (Brock) Spack and the kids. It’s so much fun.”
Lynn Gaddis credits the difficult Missouri Valley Football Conference for preparing Illinois State for its playoff success.
“We’re 9-0 (against FCS teams) on the road this season, and I think we’re going to make it 10-0,” Gaddis said. “We know how to win on the road. For the past two weeks, I’ve been saying, ‘Go Road Warrior Birds!’”
Eight-year-old Redbird fan Ezra Whitworth of Bloomington also feels confident entering Monday night’s championship game.
“I think we have a good chance of winning,” Ezra said. “We beat the No. 1 team. Maybe we can beat the No. 2 team.”
Ezra is in Nashville with his father, Alex Whitworth ’09, MBA ’13, and grandfather RJ Whitworth ’77. Ezra said he’s enjoyed getting pizza and ice cream while exploring the area near Vanderbilt University.
“It’s not an everyday thing, making it to the national championship, so you want to take advantage of the opportunity,” Alex Whitworth said. “Let’s have a great game. Let’s enjoy it. Hopefully, it goes down to the wire, and the best team wins.”
An expert on winning, Melinda Fischer ’72, M.S. ’75 (Illinois State’s longtime, now retired, softball coach who is the University’s all-time winningest coach), flew in from Tucson, Arizona, where she spends part of the winter, to cheer on the Redbirds.
“I’m so excited to be here. I was in Frisco in 2015 (for Illinois State’s first FCS championship game appearance), and so I had to come back in 2026 and cheer them on to a victory,” Fischer said. “To get back at a national level with any sport, it’s huge. It’s huge for our university. It’s huge for our fan base. And it’s huge for the community.”
FCS Championship game
Illinois State (12-4) faces No. 2-seeded Montana State (13-2) in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) national championship game Monday, January 5, at 6:30 p.m. CST, at FirstBank Stadium (Vanderbilt University) in Nashville, Tennessee.
Cheer on the Birds
Visit the official Redbird Championship Headquarters at GoRedbirds.com/Nashville for more information about Illinois State’s bid for a national championship.
Follow the action
The national championship game will be televised live on ESPN. Several watch parties are planned in Bloomington-Normal and across the country. The game will also air live on WJBC AM 1230 / 102.1 FM / 98.9 FM WJEZ / The Varsity Network.
Read more about the Redbird football team’s historic 2025-26 playoff run and follow our coverage from Nashville of the national championship game at News.IllinoisState.edu.
