9 years after Chief's end, Illinois looks for mascot
URBANA, Ill. (AP) Nine years after it retired Chief Illiniwek under pressure from the NCAA, the University of Illinois will begin the search for a new mascot, interim Chancellor Barbara Wilson said Monday.
Wilson announced the first tentative steps in a campus-wide email, saying she will soon appoint a committee of 10-12 people to figure out how to decide on a mascot and how long that process will take.
The plan is not to replace the Fighting Illini nickname that the school's teams now use, campus spokeswoman Robin Kaler said. But the school wants to select a mascot to be on the sidelines and at events.
Wilson acknowledged the process could include ''challenges.'' Many students and university graduates would like to see Chief Illiniwek return, wearing Chief-themed shirts to sports events and chanting ''Chief!''
''I am optimistic that this initiative will help build school spirit and loyalty beyond athletics,'' Wilson said in her email.
The reaction on social media was swift and, for the most part, opposed to the idea.
Joshua Evans is a 2000 graduate of the university and expressed his disapproval on Twitter.
In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, the Shawnee, Kansas, resident said he doesn't oppose the idea of a new mascot. His wife is a Kansas graduate, and having a mascot like the Jayhawk can be appealing, he said.
But given the history at Illinois, ''I just don't know if there's going to be a real logical, widely accepted mascot that people are going to be excited about. It just seems kind of forced to me and unnatural,'' he said. Potentially worse, ''I can see it's going to be mocked and ridiculed as a joke.''
At an Academic Senate meeting Monday, Wilson also said the mascot would not be something that would lead to ridicule, Kaler said.
In its report, the student committee acknowledged that most alumni it interviewed and many current students oppose the idea of a new mascot but concluded benefits such as the potential to create campus unity outweighed those concerns.
American Indians and the NCAA pushed the university for years to do away with Chief Illiniwek, which had been portrayed since 1926 by a student in a buckskin costume who danced at football and basketball games and other events. Many American Indians found those dances and the portrayal offensive.
The tradition's defenders still maintain the Chief was meant to show respect to American Indians.
NCAA sanctions imposed in 2005 barred Illinois from hosting postseason events. Two years later, the university retired the chief.
