Fifteen years ago, Mike McElroy created the Salukis Blackout Cancer game, leaving a legacy at SIU
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Mike McElroy remembers lying on the turf at Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois early in the 2010 season and thinking, “man, if this is it, then I don’t have much of a legacy to leave behind at SIU.”
In that moment, the team’s star safety knew he had broken his ankle and would miss the rest of his senior season.
“I thought, ‘what's the legacy going to be here?’” McElroy continued. “Is it just going to be football or is it going to be something bigger?”
After the NCAA granted McElroy an extra year to play football due to the injury, he decided to create a charitable community event that became known as Salukis Blackout Cancer. The concept was simple. Establish a fan auction in which winning bidders place the name of a loved-one affected by cancer on player-worn jerseys. Fans could keep the jerseys, and all the proceeds would go to the American Cancer Society.
There was one problem — the named-jersey concept was an obvious violation of NCAA rules.
“When I explained my idea, I remember the reaction from some people in the administration who thought I was crazy,” he laughed. “I was a naive little college kid who was probably dumb enough at 21 years old to think I could do anything.”
McElroy parted the red tape and submitted a proposal to the NCAA, not knowing what would come of it. He remembers walking home from class one day when the approval email from the NCAA came through.
“I was like, holy cats, here we go!” McElroy said.
McElroy then worked closely with director of athletics Mario Moccia and a pair of long-time SIU supporters, Greg Cook and Woody Thorne, to get the first Salukis Blackout Cancer game off the ground in 2011. The auction went viral and raised $100,000.
“It didn't surprise me one bit that Mike came up with this idea,” said SIU head coach and former teammate Nick Hill. “He played as a true freshman on our 2007 semifinal team and was mature beyond his years. He's always been a man of faith and has a heart of service.”
McElroy went on to become a college football coach, beginning his career as a grad assistant at Minnesota in 2014 on the staff of Jerry Kill, himself a cancer survivor. McElroy is now in his third season as head coach at Division III Bethel University, where he has a 27-6 record and was the conference coach-of-the-year in 2025.
“He’s a man rooted in his faith and wanted to coach at a Christian college that allows him to speak and teach these things,” Hill explained. “He's a phenomenal coach, but he's just a phenomenal man. He is constantly encouraging and thinking about people. His legacy lives on and it's impacted so many people.”
Southern Illinois Healthcare (SIH) took over as the game’s sponsor in 2002 and has used the money raised each year since then to support the Coach Kill Cancer Fund.
“It’s been fun to watch from afar how the community and SIH has taken hold of it,” McElroy said. “The people down there had an impact on me, and I hope this Blackout game has had an impact on some of those supporters of Saluki Football.”
Saturday’s game versus Northern Iowa is designated as this year’s Blackout Cancer game. In a time-honored tradition, players will present winning bidders with their jerseys after the game.
“In our program at Bethel, we talk about the idea of cultivating the stuff you put in the ground,” he said. “Your job is to water it, nourish it well, and then to wait. You might not even get to reap the benefits. It might bear fruit for somebody else.”
McElroy had no idea how successful the Blackout game would become, saying he “hoped it might make a few thousand bucks.”
“I still remember lying on that field at Illinois and feeling a kind of nudge,” he marveled. “It was the Lord going, ‘hey, let's do something a little different here and maybe have a little different legacy than what you thought it was going to be.’”
Game Facts
Date: Saturday, October 24, 2026
Kickoff: 1 PM CT
Location: Carbondale, IL
Facility: Saluki Stadium (15,000)
Radio: WCIL (101.5 FM), Varsity Network App
TV: ESPNU
Series: UNI leads, 22-18
Spread: SIU -3.5
Weather at kickoff: Partly sunny, 73 degrees, 4 mph SE
First and Ten
Saturday will be the 41st meeting between the schools in a series that began in 1965.
From 1986 to 2017, the teams met every season. Since then, they’ve met only four times (2020-22 and 2025) with the teams splitting those four meetings.
The Salukis won last year’s game, which was also played in Carbondale, 31-17. SIU led the Homecoming matchup at one point, 31-3, before UNI scored two touchdowns in the final 2:27 of the contest. The game marked the first extended action for UNI quarterback Jaxon Dailey, who came off the bench in the second half to throw two TD passes. He has remained the team’s starter.
Northern Iowa has a 15-game road losing streak. They are 0-3 this season away from the UNI Dome with losses at Eastern Washington, Iowa and Youngstown State. The Panthers were 0-6 on the road last season. Their last road win was on Sept. 7, 2024 at St. Thomas.
In a 35-22 loss at Youngstown State last week, UNI fell behind, 28-0, and then outscored YSU, 22-7, the rest of the way. Dailey had his first 300+-yard passing game of the season.
UNI beat two top-five teams in back-to-back home games earlier this season, taking down No. 4 North Dakota and No. 3 Illinois State. The Panthers are the only team in the FCS that has two victories over opponents ranked in the Stats Perform top five this season.
The Salukis have lost three-straight games, all to Top 15 teams: Youngstown State, South Dakota and Illinois State.
No. 21 Northern Iowa Notebook (3-3, 2-1)
UNI is ranked No. 21 in this week’s Stats Perform poll.
The Panthers are the only team in the conference who will play just 11 games in 2026, instead of 12.
Todd Stepsis is in his second season as head coach, after a six-year stint as the head coach at Drake. The Shelby, Ohio native guided the Bulldogs to consecutive FCS Playoffs appearances by winning back-to-back Pioneer Football League championships in 2023 and 2024.
QB Jaxon Dailey is 4-6 in his career as a starter at UNI. He’s completing 61.2 percent of his passes this season with nine touchdowns and three interceptions. He’s averaging 206.0 passing yards per game.
Seven of UNI’s nine touchdowns have been caught by tight ends. TE Brady McCullough has caught 13 passes this season, but five of them have been touchdowns. TE Kai Black also has two TD catches.
LB John Powers leads the league with 8.5 tackles per game.
CB Josiah Young is fourth in the FCS with 1.60 passes defended per game.
UNI ranks among the nation’s leaders in fewest turnovers committed (5) with two fumbles lost and three interceptions.
UNI has four alumni on active NFL rosters: DE Khristian Boyd (New Orleans Saints), OL Spencer Brown (Buffalo Bills), S Elijah Campbell (New York Giants) and OL Trevor Penning (LA Chargers)
In memory of tight end Parker Sutherland, who passed away on February 14, 2026, the Panthers wear a special decal on the back of their helmets for the 2026 season.
Southern Illinois Notebook (3-5, 1-3)
In the last three games, the Saluki offense has scored four touchdowns.
In his third season at SIU, DJ Williams has an 11-11 career record as a starter for the Salukis. He has 60 career touchdowns — 32 passing and 28 rushing. Last season, he set the school record with 40 touchdowns.
Williams ranks eighth in passing at SIU with 4,754 yards and needs 430 yards to pass Nick Hill into 7th place.
RB Chandler Chapman needs five yards to reach 1,000 career rushing yards.
WR Kyle Thomas ranks second in the Valley in receiving yards (552) this season. The senior entered the season with four career catches (one at SIU in 2025, three at Northern Illinois in 2023).
DE Ibrahim Sanogo ranks second in the league in sacks (6.5). The school record for a season is 12.0 by James Phillips, set in 1978. The last player to reach double-digit sacks at SIU was Andre Bailey with 10.0 in 1998.
The Salukis have three of the league’s top dozen tacklers in LB Andrew Behm (7.3/game, 7th), LB Ben Fiegel (7.1/game, 10th), and S Vinny Pierre Jr. (6.9/game, 12th)
RG Derek Harden Jr. leads the team 36 career starts, while Pierre Jr. has the longest active starting streak (120). He also leads the team with 44 career games played
SIU ranks 6th in the nation in interceptions with 10, including three by CB Sebastian Vargas Escobar. The Salukis had 12 interceptions in 2025.
SIU is second in the Valley with 16.0 sacks on the season. Southern had 18.0 in 2025.
WR Tae Marrero returned a punt for a touchdown last week and is the schools career leader in punt return average (16.0).
SIU is 5th in the nation in Net Punting (41.90) and P Elijah Gorman is 15th in the nation in punting average (43.9).
Quoting Northern Iowa head coach Todd Stepsis
On the loss at Youngstown State
“I don't know if the game could have started any worse, thinking about the opening kickoff return for a touchdown and then being down 28-0 with about 7 1/2 minutes to go in the second quarter. From that 7 1/2 minute mark in the second quarter to the end of the game, we outscored them, 22-7. That shows me that we've got guys that enjoy football regardless of what the score says. They keep swinging regardless of how it's going.”
On the program’s 15-game road losing streak
“We've proven that we can (win) at home. Let's do it on the road. Let's get this monkey off their back. I would probably be more concerned if we were home this week. I want to go back on the road. We played a quarter and a half of really bad ball, but we put two-and-a-half together pretty well. Let's not wait till the middle of the second quarter to get going again.”
On Southern Illinois:
“Their record is not an indicator of who they are from a talent perspective. They got great players in all three phases. They got a great quarterback. If we had him, I'd make sure that he'd be the first off the bus. He looks the part and then plays the part, too, but he's got weapons to distribute it to. They're good up front. They're solid defensively. They're stout. They stop the run. They tackle well.
You play ranked teams every single week, and sometimes those games go well, sometimes they don't. Unfortunately for them, they've struggled the last few weeks, but turn the tape on, and it’s a team that's going to come and play hard and be well-coached and challenge you for 60 minutes.
Quoting Southern Illinois Coach Nick Hill
On Northern Iowa:
“Todd Stepsis does a great job. He did a great job at Drake, and he’s put together a solid football team at Northern Iowa. Every kid in the state of Iowa dreams of going to play in the UNI Dome for the state championship, so they usually have 60-80 kids from the state of Iowa. Talent-wise they're a really good football team, and then schematically they do a great job. They're so well-coached. Defensively, they base out of a four-down but you're going to see a few wrinkles.”
On losing the turnover battle last week:
“We have to take care of the football, number one. We've turned the ball over 14 times this year. Nine of them have led to touchdowns for the other team and one field goal. So 10 times we've given the other team an extra possession that led to points. That's not going to be a winning formula.”
On the three-game losing streak:
“You got to get out of the pity pool. You maybe dabble your toe in there for a second, but you can't can't sit in there too long. When you cross the white line, you're competing and being tough, and it’s not dictated by what the score is or how you're feeling. I'm not worried about this group stepping on the field between the white lines and giving it every ounce of what they got.”
Comments