CHICAGO — While the Chicago Cubs are in Miami this weekend closing in on a playoff berth, their iconic ballpark will add another first to its ever-growing list of events.
Wrigley Field on Sunday will play host to the final two matches of the inaugural Big Ten/SEC Volleyball Challenge Week. It will be the first volleyball matches played at the historic venue.
All 34 teams from the two conferences — 18 from the Big Ten and 16 from the SEC — are competing in the 30-match event. Action began Tuesday at campuses across the Central U.S. and culminates in prime time Sunday at the Friendly Confines, with No. 1 Nebraska vs. Missouri at 6 p.m. and No. 13 Penn State vs. No. 3 Kentucky at 8 p.m. Both matches will be televised on Fox.
The doubleheader will come on the heels of another first: a volleyball match at Wintrust Arena, home of the WNBA’s Chicago Sky and DePaul men’s and women’s basketball teams. Nebraska landed in Chicago early to face the Blue Demons on Friday.
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The Wrigley Field matches are yet another sign of college volleyball’s growth nationally. In August 2023, Nebraska volleyball set a world record for the largest attendance at a women’s sporting event when 92,003 fans packed Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb., for a match against Omaha.
Kentucky (4-1), last year’s national runner-up, stressed the importance of gaining the experience during the long tournament run, which ended with a 3-0 loss to Texas A&M in the final.
“We want to go one day at a time (but) some of those things (that) happened in December (are) truly important,” senior outside hitter Brooklyn Deleye said last month. “But you won’t get there unless you go through the first four months getting to that point.”
Nebraska (3-0) has won three straight Big Ten titles and entered the season as a national championship favorite. Despite their recent dominance, the Cornhuskers lost their last three national championship matches — in 2018, 2021 and 2023 — and are looking for their first title since 2017.
“The pressure is definitely there, but we’ve earned the right to be in that position,” senior middle blocker Andi Jackson said Aug. 6 at Big Ten media day. “We know that we have a target on our back, and a lot of people want to beat Nebraska.”
Added coach Dani Busboom Kelly: “We have to continue to work to combat getting complacent and letting that pressure hurt us. I want players that love the game so that it doesn’t matter if you’re playing in front of zero people or 92,000. I want us to play with the same type of joy and I’m going to come into the gym every day in a consistent manner where they can feel that.”
Penn State (3-0), which won the 2024 national title under coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley — a Chicago native and former Mother McAuley state champion — is equally looking to return to the top of the mountain.
“Every single season is different, (there’s) new pieces, but it’s always the same standard in the gym at Penn State,” redshirt junior Caroline Jurevicius said. “It’s about working hard and working for the girl next to you. That’s one thing we pride ourselves on and that’s the standard the moment you step in.”
Missouri (3-1), which lost its Tuesday match in the Big Ten/SEC tournament, has a new-look roster this season. The newcomers are adapting to leadership roles with the support of coach Dawn Sullivan.
“It makes me proud to know that, because I feel confident going into this next season and knowing that my coaches also have my back,” sophomore outside hitter Paige Felder said. “I work every day to be intentional, so it’s good to know that it’s noticed.”
Sunday won’t be the first time the Friendly Confines caters to non-baseball events. Here are some of the more notable.
NFL
Before the Bears called Soldier Field home, they shared Wrigley Field with the Cubs for 50 seasons from 1921-70. The Bears won five titles at the stadium before the Super Bowl era.
The Bears’ 1963 NFL championship remains the last title won at Wrigley Field — the Cubs clinched the 2016 World Series at Progressive Field in Cleveland. The Cubs won that year’s NL pennant at Wrigley, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.
NHL
The Chicago Blackhawks have played in five Winter Classics, two at The Friendly Confines. The first was on New Year’s Day 2009 against the Detroit Red Wings and the other on New Year’s Eve 2024 against the St. Louis Blues. They Hawks lost both games and are 0-5 in Winter Classics.
A few days after the Hawks-Blues matchup, the first college hockey games took place at Wrigley. Three men’s games and one women’s game comprised “The Frozen Confines: Big Ten Hockey Series,” doubleheaders on consecutive days Jan. 3-4, 2025. The first day featured two men’s games: Notre Dame versus Penn State and Michigan versus Ohio State. The Wisconsin and Ohio State women and the Wisconsin and Michigan State men played Jan. 4.
NWSL
While the North American Soccer League’s Chicago Sting played their home games at Wrigley Field from 1978-84, the NWSL’s Chicago Red Stars — who since dropped the “Red” from their name — faced Bay FC at Wrigley Field in June 2024 in the first professional women’s sporting event at the ballpark in 80 years.
The match, which the Red Stars dropped 2-1, drew a then-league-record 35,038 fans. The Stars lost the attendance record to the expansion Denver Summit, who drew 63,004 fans in their inaugural home match March 28, 2026.
Basketball
The Harlem Globetrotters played a night game at Wrigley Field before the Cubs ever did.
It happened Aug. 21, 1954, when the exhibition basketball team defeated the U.S. Stars — George Mikan, the Hall of Famer who played for both DePaul and the NBL’s Chicago American Gears, played for the Stars — in front of nearly 14,000 fans. The Globetrotters featured Fergie Jenkins, a Baseball Hall of Famer who pitched for the Cubs for 10 of his 19 major league seasons.
The first official Cubs night game happened Aug, 9, 1988. The scheduled game a night earlier was rained out before the fifth inning.
College football
The Northwestern-Illinois game Nov. 20, 2010, was the first football contest at the ballpark since the Bears left in 1970 and the first Wrigley college football game since 1938 (St. Louis vs. DePaul).
Northwestern has played at the park seven times, most recently in consecutive weeks last season while Ryan Field was under construction. The Wildcats beat Minnesota 38-35 on Nov. 22 for its first win at Wrigley.
Banana Ball
OK, this is baseball. Sort of.
If you didn’t hear it from the White Sox, Banana Ball is very different from regular baseball. The Savannah Bananas brought their dancing, music-filled version of the sport to Wrigley on July 24-26.
Former Cubs players such as Kerry Wood, Ben Zobrist and David Ross made appearances. The Bananas sold out both Wrigley and Rate fields, so it’s safe to assume that they’ll be back in Chicago soon.
Concerts
The Friendly Confines added “dream music venue” to its description in 2005, when Jimmy Buffett performed during Labor Day weekend. Twenty-one years later, Wrigley has housed scores of concerts in front of millions of fans.
Among the more memorable were Pearl Jam’s 2013 concert that was delayed 2 1/2 hours because of rain, and Tom Petty’s final Chicago show in June 2017. Recent appearances included Post Malone, Mumford and Sons (also delayed because of rain) and Noah Kahan.
In July, Chicago native John Mulaney became the first comedian to headline a stand-up comedy show at Field during his “Mister Whatever” tour.
