The Illinois football team had a bear of a problem.

Its locker room was too small, its weight room was out of date, its film room was little more than an old Beta machine and, by gosh, it didn't have a Jumbotron. Now how's the modern football fan supposed to enjoy a game without a Jumbotron?

All this was supposed to be fixed eventually. However, not having top-of-the-line facilities meant that Fighting Illini coach Ron Turner had to parade recruits through second-rate rooms with nothing more than a promise of improvement in years to come, meant some blue-chipper was all the more likely to get wooed away by another school.

But then the Chicago Bears decided Soldier Field needed renovating, meaning they'd be in need of a temporary home for a year. That's when one of the NFL's most storied franchises placed a call to Champaign and arranged to borrow the Illini's Memorial Stadium for Sundays.

Aside from bringing more traffic, the Bears also needed bigger facilities to accommoda te their personnel, meaning the improvements Illinois had meant to make got jump-started.

"With the Bears coming in, it kind of expediated stuff," Turner said. "We really upgraded our locker room, I'd put it up against anybody's, we have a state-of-the-art training facility, new meeting rooms and state-of-the-art video rooms."

Along with those additions, Illinois also expanded the visitors' locker room, added a Jumbotron and plaques of J.C. Caroline, Dick Butkus, George Halas and the legendary Red Grange, all of whom played at Illinois and later with the Bears. Plus, students were given the chance to purchase season tickets to the games for $200.

Moreover, the improvements have been made without the logistical nightmare one might first imagine. The weekend of Sept. 20 and 21 was the only time when both the Illini and Bears had home games. According to Director of Sports Facilities Lenny Willis, his crews brought in outside help after the end of Illini's game with San Jose State on the 20th to get ready for the Bears' showdown with the Saints the following day.

Also, there were problems getting Bears into the stadium the first couple of games since few season ticket-holders knew which gates to enter.

"It's easy for our games because most of the patrons know the stadium," Willis said. "But since the Bears fans don't know it, people entered the West side that sat on the East side and it was just a mess."

However, things like traffic and crowded hotel rooms haven't been much more of an issue because most Bears fans tend to make the trip from Chicago in one day.

"Bears fans pretty much make the trip on Sunday, do the tailgating thing and take off," said Chris Neubauer, a football writer for Illinois' student newspaper, The Daily Illini.