Anti-"Chief" Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, September 8th, 2005

 

U of I Board Responds to NCAA Decision With Stalling Tactic
Anti-“Chief” Supporters Call For Elimination of “Chief Illiniwek”

On Thursday, September 8th, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees (BOT) will be meeting at UIUC. This is the first meeting of the Board on the Urbana-Champaign campus since the announcement on August 4th, 2005 that the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Executive Committee was restricting the use of American Indian mascots at eighteen colleges and universities, including the U of I, deemed to have “hostile and abusive” mascots.

At this week’s meeting, the BOT will be voting on a resolution to add an eighth guideline for the consensus regarding “Chief Illiniwek.” This resolution hopes to appease the NCAA by “prioritizing” the athletic teams. But in reality, it does nothing to address the NCAA’s ruling nor does it move the campus any closer to resolving the controversy. It is, yet again, another stalling tactic.

In the first set of guidelines passed over the summer, the Board voted to “retain ‘Illini’ and ‘Fighting Illini’.” It is ironic that this debate is already over in the mind of Chairman Eppley while he leads the Board on this search for a Consensus Conclusion. Whose consensus was included in this decision? No anti-“Chief” supporters were asked to be involved in the creation of the guidelines or in the debate over retaining the name. Nor do we know of any Native Americans who were involved in this process. So if this is simply a consensus of nine Board members, who are not elected by the citizens of Illinois nor accountable to them, that isn’t a consensus at all.

While there has been much discussion recently over the origins of the term “Fighting Illini,” the Board chose to ignore the strong connection of the term “Illini” to American Indians. Chairman Eppley, in his letter published in USA Today, wrote, “Our focus also has been on the Chief Illiniwek tradition, not on "Illini" or "Fighting Illini." Coined by our student newspaper 52 years before the Chief Illiniwek tradition was established, "Illini" is merely a moniker derived from our state's name. "Fighting Illini" dates to 1921 and the campaign to build Memorial Stadium in honor of students and alumni who fought and died in World War I.”

Eppley’s letter exemplifies the Board’s newest switch in rhetoric. Although the term “Illini” was first used to refer to the university’s newspaper, it was quickly used in context with “Indians,” “Illini tribesmen,” “braves,” “warriors” and other terms that connected U of I’s athletics to a fascination with American Indians. This connection was well established before the campaign to build Memorial Stadium and by the time “Chief Illiniwek” was created in 1926 (source: The Illio). Unfortunately for Chairman Eppley, the issue of the use of the term “Fighting Illini” can’t be separated from the use of the mascot. The only resolution to the “Chief” controversy is to eliminate all references to “Chief Illiniwek,” including the name, dance, and logo.

The PRC calls on the Board to stop stalling with its meaningless resolutions. Take a lead from the North Central Association and the NCAA by taking action and doing what is best for the University. Eliminate the “Chief”—the name, dance, and logo—now. It is long past due.

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