My Life in Sports

By Bob Markus

One thing I learned as a columnist for the Chicago Tribune is that you never know where your next column's going to come from (apologies to my English teachers for not writing. . .from where your next column's going to come). This one had its genesis in a Big Ten alumni picnic I attended over the week-end in Hollywood, Fl. South Florida alums from all the Big Ten schools attended and although I'm not one of them (Missouri '55) my wife is a loyal Illinois grad.
As it often does when Illinois grads come together, the conversation eventually turned to the subject of Chief Illiniwek. For those of you who don't know, Chief Illiniwek is, or was, the symbol of Illinois athletic teams. He had appeared at halftime of all Illinois football games since 1926, when he was introduced at a game against Pennsylvania. When the game ended, the chief approached Penn's Quaker mascot at midfield and offered him a peace pipe.
Since then Chief Illiniwek had been a campus icon, his halftime dance often cheered more lustily than the sometimes tepid performances of the football team. I may not have gone to Illinois, but I covered dozens of games there and, no matter how bad the game might be, the Chief's performance never failed to thrill me. Dressed in buckskin regalia with a full-length feathered headgear, the chief performed a stylized, if somewhat frenzied, dance that kept the fans in their seats and probably hurt concessions sales.
But the Chief will dance no more, the victim of political correctness and a massive misunderstanding of his role on the part of anti-Chief activists. Now I'm as politically correct as the next guy and I can understand why the Pekin (Ill.) Chinks had to change their nickname. Of course, should we ever get in a war with China, Chinks will be acceptable and will fit nicely in a headline.
I can even understand why Native Americans would not be happy with the nickname "Redskins" or with the Atlanta Braves' Tomahawk Chop. I must confess the latter irritates me, too. But Chief Illiniwek is meant to represent all that was noble in "the noble redman."
He is not a mascot. Mascots dress in funky costumes and roam the sidelines trying to irritate the other team's mascots. Chief Illiniwek does not do that. He enters the stadium in quiet dignity, does his thing, and exits the same way.
"He was a symbol of our geographic ancestors," says Roger Huddleston, co-chairman of the Honor the Chief Society. "He represents honor, tradition, and integrity. He's not just 4 1/2 minutes at halftime." Huddleston is not himself an alumni. "I went only one semester," he says, "but when I was 10 years old, my dad took me to a game. Illinois played Army on a beautiful autumn day. At halftime something strange happened. Everybody stood up. Nobody left to get a hotdog. The excitment of that moment caught me." As it has thousands of others.
The Chief had been under siege for several years, but alumni sentiment was so high in his favor that attempts to banish him had always been turned aside. "The latest surveys show that 82 per cent favor him and 79 per cent of students on campus want the Chief returned," says Huddleston.
Last year, however, under pressure from the NCAA, the Chief was laid to rest. Now, Huddleston's group is bent on performing the biggest resurrection since you know who's. He says the Honor the Chief Society has 1,000 dues paying members, that the building of a new costume, or regalia, is 70 per cent completed and that there are 14 candidates in tryouts to be the new Chief.
He's reasonably certain that the Chief will appear in this fall's homecoming parade. Like most Illinois fans he's hoping eventually the Chief will return to center stage at football and basketball games. Right now that seems like mission impossible, but I have a modest proposal. Either the University or the Honor the Chief Society should establish an annual scholarship to a deserving Native American and let him or, dare I say it, her portray Chief Illiniwek.
That should please everyone, but you know it won't. There are some people who see bigotry behind every tepee and others so fearful of giving offense they even question if it's proper to use the term "Fighting Illini" in reference to the school's athletic teams. Illini, of course, is an Indian, excuse me, Native American, word and we musn't use those in naming our teams. It isn't dignified.
Following that reasoning to its logical conclusion we'd have to change the names of states like Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and both Dakotas. If it's dignity you want, look no farther than Chief Illiniwek. Honest Injun.