The End of an Era...
The Chief has been a controversy for years, but there's one thing nobody can deny. For eight decades, he has stood as a proud symbol of the University of Illinois. No matter what stance people have taken, whether for, against, or neutral, he represented us all.
Above all, the Chief has stood for unity. When looking around Memorial Stadium and seeing everyone stand for the Chief... When looking around Assembly Hall and seeing everyone wrap their arms around the shoulders of the people around them to sing Alma Mater... When seeing some of the oldest alumni rise when Chief runs onto Zuppke Field... When everyone joins in the familiar clapping pattern at a volleyball game in Huff Hall... When you look around campus today and see thousands of people with his likeness on their shirts... When somebody on my floor spends over 6 hours drawing the Chief on his dry erase board in permanent marker... we know we lost something incredibly important today.
And the thing that's amazing is... it spreads beyond Champaign-Urbana... Hundreds from other schools, even rivals like Ohio State, have been joining the "Remember the Chief" groups on Facebook. The story of the Chief is making the news in Chicago, where it is seen by millions of people that never attended here. People have seen that he is a symbol that stands for so much.
I knew the performance tonight was going to be hard, but it was so much harder than I expected. The introduction video they played was an amazing tribute. To see the names listed of all of the Chiefs... Starting with the first and ending with the thirty-sixth...
The dance was received with as much enthusiasm as ever. I've never heard a crowd yell so loud. Yelling "Chief!" when he took the floor, yelling when he went into the fast kicks that we've all become so familiar with. The applause at the end was so powerful... and then he turned around and walked back to center court to salute only 16,618 of many millions of Chief loyalists. Then to see him walk off the court, into the tunnel... knowing that the Chief won't walk again in Memorial Stadium, Assembly Hall, or Huff Hall... A part of us just melted away. There were more than a few people in the hall with tears in their eyes, myself included.
Chief has been a connection to the past, and it is sad to know that the same will not be true to the future. I will not be able to come back to campus as an alumnus and see the chief take the field at halftime. Over the next two years, halftimes at these events will just not feel the same.
Since the announcement was made last Friday, you could definitely tell something's been different on campus, and I can't imagine how things will feel once tomorrow comes. But as much as it hurts, we are still one, we bleed ORANGE AND BLUE, we are still ILLINOIS, and nobody can take that away from us.
He does, and will continue, to live in all of us.
Chief Illiniwek Forever...
Above all, the Chief has stood for unity. When looking around Memorial Stadium and seeing everyone stand for the Chief... When looking around Assembly Hall and seeing everyone wrap their arms around the shoulders of the people around them to sing Alma Mater... When seeing some of the oldest alumni rise when Chief runs onto Zuppke Field... When everyone joins in the familiar clapping pattern at a volleyball game in Huff Hall... When you look around campus today and see thousands of people with his likeness on their shirts... When somebody on my floor spends over 6 hours drawing the Chief on his dry erase board in permanent marker... we know we lost something incredibly important today.
And the thing that's amazing is... it spreads beyond Champaign-Urbana... Hundreds from other schools, even rivals like Ohio State, have been joining the "Remember the Chief" groups on Facebook. The story of the Chief is making the news in Chicago, where it is seen by millions of people that never attended here. People have seen that he is a symbol that stands for so much.
I knew the performance tonight was going to be hard, but it was so much harder than I expected. The introduction video they played was an amazing tribute. To see the names listed of all of the Chiefs... Starting with the first and ending with the thirty-sixth...
The dance was received with as much enthusiasm as ever. I've never heard a crowd yell so loud. Yelling "Chief!" when he took the floor, yelling when he went into the fast kicks that we've all become so familiar with. The applause at the end was so powerful... and then he turned around and walked back to center court to salute only 16,618 of many millions of Chief loyalists. Then to see him walk off the court, into the tunnel... knowing that the Chief won't walk again in Memorial Stadium, Assembly Hall, or Huff Hall... A part of us just melted away. There were more than a few people in the hall with tears in their eyes, myself included.
Chief has been a connection to the past, and it is sad to know that the same will not be true to the future. I will not be able to come back to campus as an alumnus and see the chief take the field at halftime. Over the next two years, halftimes at these events will just not feel the same.
Since the announcement was made last Friday, you could definitely tell something's been different on campus, and I can't imagine how things will feel once tomorrow comes. But as much as it hurts, we are still one, we bleed ORANGE AND BLUE, we are still ILLINOIS, and nobody can take that away from us.
He does, and will continue, to live in all of us.
Chief Illiniwek Forever...