Congrats Illini!

Congratulations to the Illini on winning the South Padre Island Invitational Tournament and starting the year at 6-0. This team has played with a lot of heart and is beginning to erase some of the pain from last year. They have been in a lot of close games and have found a way to win. I'm not saying that they are a great team, but they are a team you can be proud to support. Go Illini!

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.

Smelling Like a Rose

I watched Saturday night's football games with a lot of interest knowing that Illinois had an outside shot at falling into the Rose Bowl. Thanks Missouri (and West Virginia too)!!!!! I know we will be huge underdogs, but how sweet the smell to make it to the Rose Bowl after several years of difficult seasons. GO ILLINI!!!

Illinois Finishes 9-3!

I would like to point out that before the season I said the Illini would go 9-3 when I went down the schedule. They won a couple games against teams I thought they would get beat and lost a couple I thought they would win, but I still guessed the record correctly. This was a great year to have season tickets! Although sitting in the horseshoe is not the best seats in the stadium, you still had great views of action on the South End. The picture above shows Mendenhall scoring one of his many rushing touchdowns this year! Looking forward to watching the Illini play on New Year's Day!!!!!!

My Birthday Wish

Is it too much to ask for a victory on my birthday tomorrow? I hope not. It will be a huge test for the Illini to see how they measure up and how much more they need to grow to play with the elite teams. Go Illini!!!!

UPDATE:

WOW!!!! If I would have known my birthday wish was going to come true, maybe I should have wished for financial gain! Maybe next year! That game was incredible. They played about as well as they could. That 4th Quarter drive was as good as it gets. It was gutsy to go for it deep in their own territory on 4th and inches, then Juice carrying the ball on 3rd and 7 & 3rd and 10 on that final drive! Let's hope they don't have a letdown next week against Northwestern. Way to go Illini!!

Important Game

This is an important game for Illinois to win. They need to get to win #7 to be a lock for a bowl game and can't slip up against a struggling Minnesota team. They aren't going to win in Columbus next weekend and they don't need the extra pressure against Northwestern in the final home game of the year since the Wildcats will be looking to become bowl eligible too.

Look Who's Going Bowling!!!

It wasn't pretty the whole game but the Illini are now bowl eligible. They are now 6-3 with three more games to go. They should be able to go 2-1 in those last three and finish with a respectable 8-4 record. Definately a far cry from the last two years when they only managed to win two games each season. They have been in every game that they have lost with two of them having a chance to win in the closing minute. Let's hope they stay focused to beat Minnesota next weekend.

Huge Game!

Huge game tonight! Can't wait to get over there to watch it. Hopefully the Illini can pull out another big game at home and become bowl eligible.

Illini Pinkness

No, my camera isn't messed up and Champaign-Urbana hasn't become the San Francisco of the Midwest. This year's Midnight Madness supported Coaches versus Cancer and everyone had to purchase and wear a pink Illini shirt for admission into the festivities. Two dollars of the seven dollar shirt went to fight cancer, so at least it was for a good cause. Angie didn't think I looked "Pretty in Pink", so she now has a new Illini shirt that I doubt will make it out of the closet very often. The festivities included several performers, some AND1 players scrimmaging against an intramural basketball team, player introductions, three point shooting contest, slam dunk contest, and a 15 minute scrimmage (more a continuation of the slam dunk contest). To see some photos from Illini Madness, click here: View Album

As Good As It Gets

How good of a Saturday was this? First I get to watch the Illini defeat the No. 5 Wisconsin Badgers at Memorial Stadium and then I get home to watch the Cubs finish getting swept at home in the NLDS 3-0 to the Arizona Diamondbacks! The Illini game was very exciting as they jumped out 17-0 and were able to beat Wisconsin to go 5-1 on the year, and 3-0 in the Big Ten. It was pretty warm at the game, but it was well worth it to see the biggest win the Illini have had in many years. Hopefully they can keep up their winning ways.

Brandon is happy to see the Diamondbacks win since that is the same as his tee ball team (and I'm happy to see the Cubs lose)! He was invited to a Cubs-themed birthday party on Monday and the invitation said to wear your Cubs gear. We had told him he could wear his Cardinals hat but he said he wanted to wear his Diamondbacks hat. At the time he didn't know that they were playing the Cubs in the NLDS. He watched part of the game tonight and was cheering on "his team". Who am I to deny a 6 year-old wanting to wear his tee ball hat to a birthday party?!?!

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.