As some of you may know, Chief Illiniwek, the mascot of the University of Illinois Urbana-Chamapaign, performed his final halftime act (for at least the immediate future) tonight.
Due to NCAA mandates and other outside pressures, the Board of Trustees decided to remove the mascot from dancing at the halftimes of football, basketball, and volleyball games.
If anyone is interested, here is a link of the dance he performed tonight...
Chief's Last Dance
The dance he performs is not completely accurate according to Indian dances, and his costume isn't entirely accurate either. I personally believe U of I should have asked a neighboring Indian tribe to sponsor the chief, and correct any flaws the mascot might have.
Anyways, I just thought I would post this seeing if anyone were interested. I was at the game tonight, and it was a pretty emotional experience. I am not completely opposed to the University removing the chief as a mascot with the current situation, but I do blame the university for not stepping up to the plate and handling this issue before it got blown out of control. Still, tonight's perfomrance was very moving.
Anyways, just for this I hope we make it to the NCAA tournament. It would be weird to host an NIT game this year without the chief performing.