The Panthers are the football team of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois. They compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) of the NCAA and play in the Ohio Valley Conference.
📜 Eastern Illinois Panthers Football History
Eastern Illinois first fielded a football team in 1899. The team competed as an independent until 1912, when the Panthers joined the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. This membership lasted until 1949, before the school moved to the Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
From 1970 to 1977, the Panthers competed independently once more, but in 1978 they began to play in the Association of Mid-Continent Universities. This was followed by a decade in the Gateway Conference. Since 1996, the team has been a member of the Ohio Valley Conference, claiming 7 conference titles in their first 2 decades of membership.
