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Chief Illiniwek To Perform For
Last Time Tomorrow |
The Univ. of Illinois announced that tomorrow’s men’s basketball game against Michigan “will be the last performance” for its Chief Illiniwek mascot, according to Jodi Cohen of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. A Champaign County (IL) judge “refused Friday morning to issue a temporary restraining order that would have blocked the move.” The NCAA in ’05 ruled the mascot’s image was “hostile and abusive” to Native Americans and banned the school from hosting postseason competitions, but informed it that the sanctions “will be lifted after Wednesday’s game.” Students “lined up 15 deep” at campus bookstores Friday “snapping up every Chief Illiniwek T-shirt, magnet and fleece blanket they could.” In the first three hours of business, one campus store sold 1,400 “chief-related items” (
CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/17). As the clock counted down at the end of the Northwestern-Illinois men’s basketball game on Sunday, fans chanted, “Save the chief! Save the chief!” Students are also circulating e-mails and messages with “plans for, among other things, a vigil this week outside” the home of President Joseph White (
USA TODAY, 2/19). The nicknames “Fighting Illini” and “Illini” will remain (
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 2/17).
