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Illinois Students Vote In Favor Of Belted Kingfisher Mascot


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2 hours ago, DC in Da House w/o a Doubt said:

I guess I’m misremembering but I thought they got rid of the Fighting in Fighting Illini  

 

They got rid of Chief Illiniwek. The team name is still the Fighting Illini, but most people shorten it to "the Illini" as they would any two-word team name.

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This is more of a non-story than anything since this mascot is unlikely to become official. In fact, the university has a panel looking into Native American imagery. 
 

https://www.news-gazette.com/news/after-the-vote-no-plans-to-choose-mascot-now-ui/article_f73b9496-6146-5b5b-8e7f-3e6fb6b1c432.html

 

As someone who lives in Champaign-Urbana, the Chief Illiniwek debate is one that refuses to die. Older fans have yet to and likely will never accept the NCAA ban, and I do not think the university will choose a new mascot because they fear the backlash. Being told how “respectful” a white kid from suburban Chicago dressed up as an inaccurate depiction of a Native American Chief really is gives you a lesson of how clueless a person can really be. Chief Illiniwek has been gone for 15 years, and it’ll probably be 15 more before the university no longer fears the alumni and fan response to a new mascot. 
 

FWIW, I kinda liked the Alma Otter idea from last year. 

 

 

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4 hours ago, BC985 said:

This is more of a non-story than anything since this mascot is unlikely to become official. In fact, the university has a panel looking into Native American imagery. 
 

https://www.news-gazette.com/news/after-the-vote-no-plans-to-choose-mascot-now-ui/article_f73b9496-6146-5b5b-8e7f-3e6fb6b1c432.html

 

As someone who lives in Champaign-Urbana, the Chief Illiniwek debate is one that refuses to die. Older fans have yet to and likely will never accept the NCAA ban, and I do not think the university will choose a new mascot because they fear the backlash. Being told how “respectful” a white kid from suburban Chicago dressed up as an inaccurate depiction of a Native American Chief really is gives you a lesson of how clueless a person can really be. Chief Illiniwek has been gone for 15 years, and it’ll probably be 15 more before the university no longer fears the alumni and fan response to a new mascot. 
 

FWIW, I kinda liked the Alma Otter idea from last year. 

 

Champaign resident for 10-odd years. 

 

I don't follow the diehards, but my feeling is that "belted kingfisher" is too much of a mouthful to sell.  Alma Otter was clever as hell, and probably should've gotten more consideration, but they're still very much in a holding pattern with their branding, emphasizing the orange and big I as their primary identity, which as you can imagine is a bit bland.  They've done a lot with a little, in my opinion, and even with those limitations have done very well with their throwbacks.

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5 hours ago, BC985 said:

This is more of a non-story than anything since this mascot is unlikely to become official. In fact, the university has a panel looking into Native American imagery. 
 

https://www.news-gazette.com/news/after-the-vote-no-plans-to-choose-mascot-now-ui/article_f73b9496-6146-5b5b-8e7f-3e6fb6b1c432.html

 

As someone who lives in Champaign-Urbana, the Chief Illiniwek debate is one that refuses to die. Older fans have yet to and likely will never accept the NCAA ban, and I do not think the university will choose a new mascot because they fear the backlash. Being told how “respectful” a white kid from suburban Chicago dressed up as an inaccurate depiction of a Native American Chief really is gives you a lesson of how clueless a person can really be. Chief Illiniwek has been gone for 15 years, and it’ll probably be 15 more before the university no longer fears the alumni and fan response to a new mascot. 
 

FWIW, I kinda liked the Alma Otter idea from last year. 

 

Does the white kid have high cheekbones? That's the standard, right? 🙃

Smart is believing half of what you hear. Genius is knowing which half.

 

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For those commenting on the logos, the student who proposed the Kingfisher mascot idea said unequivocally that they did not intend for those to be actual logos for the university and that they are not a graphic designer qualified to make logos, and that those were just mockups to give students an idea of what a Kingfisher would look like. 

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  • 6 months later...

(Please remove if too controversial, I've given no opinion just stating what happened)

 

 

The undergraduate student senate at the University of Illinois has voted 105-2 (with 4 abstaining) in favor of replacing the Fighting Illini mascot with the belted kingfisher. Athletic department must make the change though. A previous student referendum had made clear that many are in favor of the move beyond just the senate.

 

https://www.news-gazette.com/news/ui-senate-backs-kingfisher-mascot/article_bfa68b8e-469b-5f1a-8438-5631a2644c94.html

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The resolution called on Chancellor Robert Jones to create a new mascot, to publicly condemn any public display of the former Chief Illiniwek and to consider the blue-and-orange kingfisher as a possible mascot.

They've been publicly condemning Chief Illiniwek for like ten years now, feel like we're running in place here. 

 

The kingfisher logos look neat but I haven't picked up any desire to rename the Fighting Illini. If they want to have someone dressed up as a bird on the sidelines, sounds great, I dig non-literal mascots (the Phanatic, the Pirate Parrot, Youppi!, the Nordiques' river otter Badaboum). 

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29 minutes ago, colinturner95 said:

So are they keeping the "Fighting Illini" nickname and are looking for a new visual mascot? 


Yes. To date, the proposal has called for the school's athletic teams to continue being dubbed the Fighting Illini, with a depiction of a belted kingfisher serving as the accompanying logo and mascot.

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