Chief Illiniwek performs last dance amid continued controversy
By Craig Chamberlain, News Bureau Staff Writer 217-333-2894; cdchambe@illinois.edu
Eighty years of tradition and 17 years of controversy came to an end, or at least to a major milepost, on Feb. 21, when Chief Illiniwek danced for the final time at a UI sporting event. The scene was halftime at the final men’s home basketball game of the season, attended by a sold-out, largely orange-clad crowd of more than 16,000 in the Assembly Hall. The timing was determined five days before, on Feb. 16, when the university announced it would end the long tradition. The university also will discontinue any use of the Chief Illiniwek name, as well as any related Native American imagery in connection with UI athletics. No final action was announced regarding what the university will do with its trademark rights to the name, logo or portrayal. “This step is in the best interest of the university and is consistent with the board’s previously stated goal of concluding this year its consensus process regarding Chief Illiniwek,” UI Board of Trustees chair Lawrence C. Eppley said in a news release.
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The consensus process to which Eppley referred was started with a resolution at the June 2004 meeting of the UI board. The Feb. 16 announcement, however, suggested that sanctions imposed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association were a key factor in the decision and its timing. Those sanctions, which banned the Urbana-Champaign campus from hosting postseason competitions, resulted from an NCAA policy, announced in August 2005, against the use of Native American imagery the NCAA deemed “hostile or abusive.” Illinois was included on a list of schools affected by the policy, and initially was told it also would need to eliminate the use of “Illini” and “Fighting Illini.” The university appealed the decision and won back the use of “Illini” and “Fighting Illini,” but remained on the sanctions list. A second appeal was filed, but was rejected by the NCAA last April. As part of the Feb. 16 announcement, the university noted that the campus was now off the sanctions list and once again eligible to host postseason NCAA competitions. In a Feb. 15 letter to the university, the NCAA said that once the required actions were taken, “the university will be immediately removed from the list of institutions subject to the NCAA Executive Committee’s policy regarding Native American mascots, nicknames and imagery at NCAA championship events.” The first appearance of Chief Illiniwek was at a football game in the fall of 1926, and the tradition continued for eight decades. The current controversy about the use of the chief and other Native American references by the university began in the fall of 1989 with small protests outside Illinois sporting events.
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