Sweet potato?

Those do indeed look like sweet potato shoots. The fact that it was "found", though, gives me second thoughts. Sweet potatoes are unlikely to survive over winter in Illinois, so if it is a sweet potato, it would have been planted this year, and the vines would have been noticeable. Perhaps it is one of the ornamental varieties.

It didn't have any vines on it, at first I wasn't sure it was a root at all. Maybe it fell out of someone's shopping bag? It was near the sidewalk. The root I found, itself, was an off white color though and the skin didn't seem like a potato or sweet potato. It didn't really seem to have a 'skin' on it that you could potentially peel off like on potatoes.

Although at least knowing it's probably in the same ballpark as potatoes is helpful in knowing where to start care-wise, so thank you all !

Sure looks like a sweet potato. This is the time of year many are starting to dig them. Perhaps someone dropped a root in your yard of a squirrel moved it there. Below is a link to a thread in which there is a picture of a really large ornamental sweet potato's root. Some of the ornamentals produce ugly, misshapen roots, compared to the eating varieties.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Here is a link that might be useful: Slowpoke Gardener's ornamental sweet potato picture