The Chief Returns!!!!!!

For the first time since February 2007, Chief Illiniwek made another appearance in Champaign. He even showed up in the horseshoe during halftime. During the band's traditional 3-in-1 performance, I heard cheering to my right and saw the Chief walking from one side to the other of the horseshoe stands. He stood at the other side with his arms raised until the end of would have been his normal performance and then disappeared back under the stands. After the football game on this very cold and windy Saturday, they had the Chief's "Next Dance" at the Assembly Hall. The student organization, Students for Chief Illiniwek, rented out the Assembly Hall and sold tickets to a tribute to the Chief. They had ten former Chiefs present, a video tribute of the Chief and its honored history, and a few people that spoke. After that, Chief Illiniwek performed his traditional dance while an alumni band played the 3-in-1. It was truly a great event. I videotaped the performance on my camera:

Chief Illiniwek's Next Dance from Brian Turner on Vimeo.

UPDATE: There is also a good version of the dance and video presentation on YouTube here.

Here's a panoramic picture that I took of Assembly Hall with everyone leaving after Chief's performance.

Tribe Visits Chief's Old Stomping Grounds

On September 8th, the Turner Tribe made a pilgrimage to the ancient stomping grounds of their beloved Chief Illiniwek. Although the game outcome was favorable (Illini 21, WIU 0), it was very disappointing not to be able to watch the Chief perform at halftime. Paul and I had went to the Illinois-Missouri football game at the Edward D. Jones Dome in St. Louis the previous weekend and the Illinois band performed its famous 3 in 1 at halftime without the Chief. It was the first major performance without him and it was not the same. Although the Sept. 1st game was missing the Chief, the true emptiness was felt at the first home game. The crowd still roared at the appropriate points of Chief's dance to the point if you closed your eyes, you could still see him perform. However, the shouts of "CHIEF" let you know that he was not to come out of the band. Brittany was among the crowd yelling for Chief. The lady in front of us turned around and patted Brittany on her leg and smiled at her. It is such a shame that an honored symbol had to fall to political correctness.

The new seating in the North endzone looks great. As you can see, there is still a lot of work to be done on the West balcony. The stadium will be great when it's finished. The big drawback with our season tickets is that they are in the horseshoe and that the scoreboard is now on the South end. Hopefully they will add some temporary scoreboards so I don't get a sore neck looking back behind.