What a shame the days of this GREAT tradition and Illinois icon are over. Thank you for posting this video. I love how into it the crowd is. WE MISS YOU CHIEF! "GO ILLINI!"
How about that .... a FULL Memorial Stadium. Losing the Chief has hex'd Illinois football. They haven't had an 8 win season or better since the Chief left. Time to bring him back!!
Ten years since the heartwrenching and sneaky midnight decision by the Board of Trustees to remove the Chief, a decision made for money pressured by people who didn't understand the tradition and haven't been to even one game. They just preferred to slander the tradition and spew untruths to get their way. It was a sad day to see him go. And we still miss this proud Symbol of the University.
confusedgaijin As I recall they were threatened by the Association to lose games, if they didn't remove the chief. They probably lost more money by removing the chief than the games, because they can't sell any official chief merchandise, and as a result other merchants have made tons of money from those things.
Yeah they were going to be banned from hosting postseason tourneys, which didn't mean much for football at the time, but it would've affected some other sports. Postseason events are good moneymakers for the university. So with money being threatened the Board took the most short-sighted (and again, sneaky, so that there wouldn't be a discussion about it) path. They may not be losing much on merch because hey, everyone wants a generic shirt with an orange I on it
@@BillVol Because the Seminole tribe has a close relationship ship with the school, and helps insure the tribe is portrayed authentically. I imagine they also receive a large portion of revenue from the school. Illinois as I recall was told they would have to pay the Miami Indians extra money to keep the mascot. They didn't, so the tribe threatened the whole collegiate association, who then told Illinois they would have their games cut, if they kept the mascot. The main difference was some Indians, mostly distantly related, white people constantly complained about Chief Illini; whereas, no one from the Seminole tribe is doing that.
This has to be one of the best examples of college pageantry at its finest. Not even an Illinois fan, born in Springfield, but attended Arizona State. It is beautiful! Sad that the PC Police barked.
They cannot fill the stadium anymore. The fans wanted to see the chief. The three in one is pointless these days. I’m glad I got to see Chief Illiniwek before the p.c. bull crap took over.
@@ryanmeyer9863 Look it up. And look at what people are wearing. This was the last Saturday of October. It was a sunny, warm day for the end of October.
It was a great tradition that really brought everyone together at Illinois when I was there in the early 90's. He was a symbol of pride, courage and hope.
Not only did we beat Mo Flemsheckler on this day.This is the season the Illini become the only team to sweep the Big 10. 9-0 Beat every other team. It will never happen again.
I hope one day the state gets a Governor and the University gets a President that will tell the NCAA to take a hike, and they bring back Chief Illiniwek.
I met Scott. He spoke at the father-son banquet at our rural church in Illinois. Just an awesome guy and very reverent of the tradition of Chief Illiniwek.
Scott was a Delta Chi fraternity brother of mine. There isn't a nicer more thoughtful and respectful guy to represent Chief Illiniwek. That said, I believe the Chief should come back but only represented by a Native America student on full scholarship and make Native American studies a mandatory prerequisite class at UoI
@@ItIsJustJudy Actually, it was his senior year. The announcer said he was a junior, but he was wrong. How do I know? I knew Scott. He was one year ahead of me and the fall of 1983, when this game was played, was my junior year.
Matt ! This dress & all associated with it was, given permission in ND by a tribe. The guy "hitched" a ride from CU & spent the Summer there. It meant that much. They hand made the costume for about $400.00 back then. It became a pride of the plaines. You are most ignorant.
