CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: ELA on March 06, 2019, 10:40:46 AM
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This for real?
https://dailyillini.com/opinions/2019/03/04/illinois-hails-alma-otter-for-potential-mascot/
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0r9KyrX4AYJGX4.jpg)
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It's true. Made the 9PM news last night.
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I'm trying to avoid the politics here by avoiding commenting on whether or not Illinois should have done away with the Illini mascot and whether or not they should do away with the Illini name:
Getting a new, non-Illini mascot while keeping the Illini name is a stupid compromise that pleases nobody. IMHO, the choices should be either:
- Keep the Illini name and mascot, or
- Get a new name and a new mascot.
It just makes no sense to see a giant Otter (or any other non-Illini mascot) running around cheering for the Illini. If you are going to do it then I say rip the band aid off and start fresh as the Illinois (insert fearsome sounding animal or poisonous nut or whatever) and have your mascot reflect that.
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I won't be so non-politically correct. I think it is a continued sign of how weak and sissified we have become as a society! I have no dog in the in the fight, other than my opinion, but IF I were an Illini Alumni, I would not send another penny to the school, nor would my children consider attending the school.
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I won't be so non-politically correct. I think it is a continued sign of how weak and sissified we have become as a society! I have no dog in the in the fight, other than my opinion, but IF I were an Illini Alumni, I would not send another penny to the school, nor would my children consider attending the school.
I know many of these, and most of them no longer donate. One (my BFF) figures the protesters who "won" will pick up the slack...
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I'm trying to avoid the politics here by avoiding commenting on whether or not Illinois should have done away with the Illini mascot and whether or not they should do away with the Illini name:
Getting a new, non-Illini mascot while keeping the Illini name is a stupid compromise that pleases nobody. IMHO, the choices should be either:
- Keep the Illini name and mascot, or
- Get a new name and a new mascot.
It just makes no sense to see a giant Otter (or any other non-Illini mascot) running around cheering for the Illini. If you are going to do it then I say rip the band aid off and start fresh as the Illinois (insert fearsome sounding animal or poisonous nut or whatever) and have your mascot reflect that.
Or keep the Illini name and just don't have a mascot?
This feels like a cheap way to sell plush otters to kids and nothing more.
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"If we can't sell these Otters, we will have to raise our tax levy."
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What has been the Illini tribes opinion on this? Shouldn't their opinion be the one that really matters?
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What does an otter have to do with anything?
How did they come up with "otter"?
I mean, if you want to ignite fear, be the Illinois Capones or something? Trade the Chief for a rotund man with slicked back hair in an expensive suit and pocket square, carrying a tommy gun.
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The Illini tribe? No such thing. The Illinois Confederation (Illini) was a group of a number of individual tribes. The confederation no longer exists, and most of the tribes don't either.
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What has been the Illini tribes opinion on this? Shouldn't their opinion be the one that really matters?
That's the thing. There is no Illini tribe.
It seems like they sort of started calling themselves the Illini, simply meaning "people from" or "students of" Illinois around the same time as some on campus tried to use Indians as the nickname, but it didn't stick. Also using Native American imagery was en vogue in advertising and in the military at the time, so it seems like it all got conflated into Fighting Illini being a tribal thing.
So just strip that part away, as they've done, leave the name the same, but don't run a stupid otter out there.
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The Illini tribe? No such thing. The Illinois Confederation (Illini) was a group of a number of individual tribes. The confederation no longer exists, and most of the tribes don't either.
Did not realize that.... who says you can't learn anything from sports chat rooms? =)
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That's the thing. There is no Illini tribe.
It seems like they sort of started calling themselves the Illini, simply meaning "people from" or "students of" Illinois around the same time as some on campus tried to use Indians as the nickname, but it didn't stick. Also using Native American imagery was en vogue in advertising and in the military at the time, so it seems like it all got conflated into Fighting Illini being a tribal thing.
So just strip that part away, as they've done, leave the name the same, but don't run a stupid otter out there.
I'd guess you could also work with tribes who have objected on ways to honor the Illini heritage...
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Maybe I could restart the Illini group and claim to be native American?
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Illinois Governors has a nice ring to it, honoring the state's rich heritage of having fine, upstanding executives running the state.
Plus we don't have enough mascots in powdered wigs and knee-breeches prancing around on the sidelines.
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Illinois Governors has a nice ring to it, honoring the state's rich heritage of having fine, upstanding executives running the state.
Plus we don't have enough mascots in powdered wigs and knee-breeches prancing around on the sidelines.
Hey, they already wear orange, so the jumpsuits would already be color-coordinated!
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I nominate Illinois Fighting Baizuo.
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Lots of people here do not believe me when I tell them that Illinois is the country's laughing stock.
1 year, 9 months, 24 days.
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The Underachievers?
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The Underachievers?
Michigan already has that.
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Michigan already has that.
Zing...
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Illinois Governors has a nice ring to it, honoring the state's rich heritage of having fine, upstanding executives running the state.
Plus we don't have enough mascots in powdered wigs and knee-breeches prancing around on the sidelines.
(https://i.imgflip.com/2qd4ql.jpg)
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Lots of people here do not believe me when I tell them that Illinois is the country's laughing stock.
1 year, 9 months, 24 days.
I don't think it's the country's laughing stock, actually. I don't think it gets enough notice for that.
If they want to make fun of loony left politics, and bloated budgets based on fantasy, they have California to laugh at.
Outside of Illinois, people don't think of Illinois. They think of Chicago. And outside of the political reputation [vote early, vote often], what I usually here is "Oh, I love Chicago. What a great city!"
Always easier to praise a city that you visit, when you don't have to live there and deal with the mismanagement or taxes, right?
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The Underachievers?
you Otter try again...
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Chicago is nice to visit in summer, usually, it has interesting places and things to see. I've been downstate a few times, and it seems to be mostly corn and beans.
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I don't think it's the country's laughing stock, actually. I don't think it gets enough notice for that.
If they want to make fun of loony left politics, and bloated budgets based on fantasy, they have California to laugh at.
Outside of Illinois, people don't think of Illinois. They think of Chicago. And outside of the political reputation [vote early, vote often], what I usually here is "Oh, I love Chicago. What a great city!"
Always easier to praise a city that you visit, when you don't have to live there and deal with the mismanagement or taxes, right?
It takes a special kind of crooked to top Mississippi and Alabama politicians. Illinois has somehow managed that.
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I would opine that Louisiana is historically crooked politically, but I don't know if they are today.
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I don't think it's the country's laughing stock, actually. I don't think it gets enough notice for that.
If they want to make fun of loony left politics, and bloated budgets based on fantasy, they have California to laugh at.
Outside of Illinois, people don't think of Illinois. They think of Chicago. And outside of the political reputation [vote early, vote often], what I usually here is "Oh, I love Chicago. What a great city!"
Always easier to praise a city that you visit, when you don't have to live there and deal with the mismanagement or taxes, right?
Come visit. Today.
The comments would be different.
"You pay how much in taxes to live in this chit?"
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These clowns must have consulted with the same idiots at Marquette who thought Golden Eagles or Gold was a good idea.
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Or the Syracuse going from the Orangemen to just the Orange.
Or Stanford going from the Indians to the Cardinal. They have a tree for a mascot, just go with the Redwoods or Sequoias* or something. It's a hell of a lot cooler than just having a color.
*The PC types might cry foul over the Sequoias (especially since Stanford's mascot used to be the Indians), but the namesake of the tree was George Guest AKA "Sequoyah", a silversmith who was likely to have been of at least half European ancestry.
What's crazy is that Sequoyah was illiterate in the English language, but was crafty enough to devise an alphabet for the Cherokee language.
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Non sequitur mascots are the only kind I like. I barely like any but I do prefer those. So if I had to pick, this Alma Otter one and the Stanford tree would rank high for me. When Ole Miss attempted to make theirs Admiral Ackbar, I was all for that, too. Anything that isn't taken seriously - and especially anything that isn't a literal interpretation of the team's nickname - falls on the best side of the spectrum for me.
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Seems reasonable, do something interesting and odd, or it's predictable and boring.
I always liked "Thundering Herd". Symbols that somehow relate to your state are plus one for me. If the state has Wolverines in it, or Badgers, so much the better. A Buckeye of course is a useless ....
I like "Cavalier" also, but I am not concerned with why.
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One of the best sidesteppings of PC that I have seen with regards to athletics was a team called the Blue Skins whose logo was a blue Indian.
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It should be noted that this is not coming from the school or the athletic department. This is a group of students that, from what I can tell, are in the minority as to thinking this is a good idea. I fully believe this will go no where and am surprised it got this much traction. It's basically a meme.
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Also, does "Alma Otter" bother anyone. I'd prefer "Almam Otter"
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There is a D2 school in St George Utah that has burned through three mascots in less than ten years. Initially they were The Rebels due to their proximity to UNLV as well as the name of the school being Dixie State. Well of course this was the worst thing in the World from the vantage point of the androgynous academic types in the State University system. So they had a contest and a vote and what have you, where they decided that the new mascot would be the Red Storm.
It wasn't that bad of a name for the area as they have a lot of red sand that blows around. But as luck would have it it was discovered after a few years that Red Storm is actually some sorta obscure slang term for a woman's menstrual cycle. Like the rest of the world I had never heard anyone call it that before, but once the crustacean was out of the bus station the White Left had a Red Storm of their own, and it was time to change the name again. So this time there was no contest. No vote. They just changed it to the Trailblazers and the mascot is a buffalo.
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Think of the problems these folks could solve if they could harness this zeal.
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I find the term "trailblazers" to be objectionable. It's a symbol of manifest destiny and elimination of native cultures.
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I find the term "trailblazers" to be objectionable. It's a symbol of manifest destiny and elimination of native cultures.
Yeah, it ignores that indigenous people have already formed trails.
Or, as someone once said, "You didn't build that."
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Ha!
With their luck there will no doubt be some controversy with this new name, as they Blaze their way down the Trail.
Their's was the first Confederate themed statue in the United States to ever get taken down, oddly enough. At least it was according to the sculptor, who currently has it displayed in front of his studio with a plaque that says as much.
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Badgerfan once had a name for this, and he probably still does.
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Ha!
With their luck there will no doubt be some controversy with this new name, as they Blaze their way down the Trail.
Their's was the first Confederate themed statue in the United States to ever get taken down, oddly enough. At least it was according to the sculptor, who currently has it displayed in front of his studio with a plaque that says as much.
But... Utah?!?!
That wasn't exactly part of the Confederacy... I'm assuming there's some historic back story here that I'm just completely missing about the city of St George.
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But... Utah?!?!
That wasn't exactly part of the Confederacy... I'm assuming there's some historic back story here that I'm just completely missing about the city of St George.
St George is called Utah's Dixie, due to its geographic location in the Southernmost edge of the State. Also it was initially thought that it would be a good place to grow cotton due to its warmer climate.
The cotton didn't wind up growing very well at all, but the name stuck.
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Badgerfan once had a name for this, and he probably still does.
Pussification of America rings a bell. I've got a trademark on that one. That, and bulljive. I should use those more, to keep my rights current.
I wonder if miners are insulted by the Badger mascot. UW's nickname did not come from the animal. That mascot came later. The nickname was for the miners, who dug through the ground, like Badgers.
The Badgers should probably be "The Dairy Farmers", most likely, but I'd hate to offend them.
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You guys sure are sensAtive about old mascots.
No Stanford fan has cared about changing mascots for probably forty years.
No one has ever seen a Michigan mascot, but it doesn't seem to hold it back.
It's been over ten years since Illinois cast off its imaginary friend. Get over it, lads. Maybe the changes were driven by over-sensitive souls. Maybe some of it made sense, while some of it didn't. Maybe it's irrational that Florida State remain the Seminoles, but North Dakota was pushed to give up the Sioux.
It's over. Move on.
Oh, and the otter is stupid.
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I for one have seen a Michigan mascot before.
(https://s3media.247sports.com/Uploads/Boards/796/19796/155496.jpg)
I also know of a Stanford fan on another board that uses their old Indian logo as his or her avatar.
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This thread has a lot of potential.
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It should be noted that this is not coming from the school or the athletic department. This is a group of students that, from what I can tell, are in the minority as to thinking this is a good idea. I fully believe this will go no where and am surprised it got this much traction. It's basically a meme.
Yeah, but this is fun. C'mon man.
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I used to work with a gal that was a few years older than I was. When I found out that she had played Tennis at Miami of Ohio I said something about how I didn't know that she was a Redhawk.
Boy did she get mad. Shat right down my proverbial throat. Pretty sure that was the first time that I had learned about their name change.
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I used to work with a gal that was a few years older than I was. When I found out that she had played Tennis at Miami of Ohio I said something about how I didn't know that she was a Redhawk.
Boy did she get mad. Shat right down my proverbial throat. Pretty sure that was the first time that I had learned about their name change.
This is the first time I heard of it.
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WE need to rename Lake Huron. Just call the whole thing Lake Michigan. Oh, wait...
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We should also change the name of Georgia, since they were part of the Confederacy. Then we can change Tennessee and Florida and Alabama... aw Hell, let's just expel the entire Southeast from the United States. That'll learn 'em real good.
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This for real?
https://dailyillini.com/opinions/2019/03/04/illinois-hails-alma-otter-for-potential-mascot/
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0r9KyrX4AYJGX4.jpg)
I think its cute. To make it consistent the full name should be The Illinois
Fighting Otters, or the Illinois Friendly Otters.
Actually, I like this new solution, but an Illinois theme might be the Illinois Railsplitters.
Since U.S. Grant lived in Galena, Illinois, how about we attach U.S. Grant's nickname to Illinois in some fashion, such as The Illinois Unconditional Surrender.
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We should also change the name of Georgia, since they were part of the Confederacy. Then we can change Tennessee and Florida and Alabama... aw Hell, let's just expel the entire Southeast from the United States. That'll learn 'em real good.
Listen, you want some folks excited about participation trophies, look no farther.
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If Illinois were to come up with something original, would it be Otters? What would work, a la Badgers/Wolverines, etc? The 3 big schools in Florida all make sense. Georgia has nothing original - the G from Green Bay and the bulldog from Yale. Spartans is a great one, Gophers makes sense, if not strikes fear, lol.
What would make sense for Illinois? I've never been to that part of the country.
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Aren't Illinois and Illini derived from the same word? If they have to change the name of the team while the school carries on with a similar name as the one deemed too offensive to use as a mascot, it would easily take the cake as the most absurd PC name change imaginable.
That goes double for the Utah Utes.
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I know many of these, and most of them no longer donate. One (my BFF) figures the protesters who "won" will pick up the slack...
Do not blame them. I am not, but my grandfather was an Illini Alumni, and it would make him sick to hear about all this BS. He chose Illinois back in the 1950's because at the time they were one of only a handful of college campuses that were wheelchair accessible. He played on the one of the first collegiate wheelchair basketball teams (U of I Gizz Kids) and was lucky to play on two Title teams during his time at Illinois. My first trip to the Campus, was a dinner honoring several of those players who were recognized as U of I Lettermen for their sports careers in 2005ish. It was a very humbling honor and I was amazed at the stories my grandfather shared during our campus visit about how he would chair across campus for school, work and practice. Such a shame to disregard history of a schools mascot and other traditions. I did not like it when Miami of Ohio caved, or several of the other MAC schools, and this just adds to the list of "pussification".
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Tip of the Cap to your Father.What did he get his degree in?
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You guys sure are sensAtive about old mascots.
No Stanford fan has cared about changing mascots for probably forty years.
No one has ever seen a Michigan mascot, but it doesn't seem to hold it back.
We have not seen Michigan since 1946 or so..............have we? Maybe it has held them back! :)
It's been over ten years since Illinois cast off its imaginary friend. Get over it, lads. Maybe the changes were driven by over-sensitive souls. Maybe some of it made sense, while some of it didn't. Maybe it's irrational that Florida State remain the Seminoles, but North Dakota was pushed to give up the Sioux.
It's over. Move on.
Oh, and the otter is stupid.
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Tip of the Cap to your Father.What did he get his degree in?
Business Degree and two time U of I Letterman.
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It's odd. People LOVE being offended at other people being offended.
Letting a 20-year-old paleface wander around in a headdress before Ron Zook was a Rose Bowl participant. The Otter is silly, mostly a way to get some attention and move some plush toys. Granted, when my school invented its plush toy mascot, people took this less seriously.
Anyway, if not having the 20-year-old paleface in a headdress is a sign of POA, our definition of that first letter is real soft.
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(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/af/19/5e/af195ef0ad4556222d329ff5483a57e6.gif)
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2c/87/fb/2c87fb1cad06b8e543d3b6ef27802a72.jpg)
(https://icon2.kisspng.com/20180410/eiq/kisspng-notre-dame-fighting-irish-football-leprechaun-masc-fight-5acd2777725061.7516918615233944234682.jpg)
(https://radfordathletics.com/common/controls/image_handler.aspx?thumb_id=12&image_path=/images/2015/6/5/highlandermasoct.jpg)
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It's odd. People LOVE being offended at other people being offended.
I still stand by my own quote on this one...
Offense can never be given, it can only be taken.
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That's the thing. There is no Illini tribe.
It seems like they sort of started calling themselves the Illini, simply meaning "people from" or "students of" Illinois around the same time as some on campus tried to use Indians as the nickname, but it didn't stick. Also using Native American imagery was en vogue in advertising and in the military at the time, so it seems like it all got conflated into Fighting Illini being a tribal thing.
So just strip that part away, as they've done, leave the name the same, but don't run a stupid otter out there.
in that case, get ss# of everyone from illinois, have a random one chosen, and have a caricature created of that person and use that as the mascot. pay that person royalties for likeness if needed.
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Just use Badge?
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How about the Illinois Soybean Smashers? I thought about Cornhuskers, but for some reason it sounded redundant already.
The US production of soybeans is something to behold, if you're in space anyway.
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How about the Illinois Soybean Smashers? I thought about Cornhuskers, but for some reason it sounded redundant already.
The US production of soybeans is something to behold, if you're in space anyway.
I always correct people when they say driving through the midwest is just cornfields as far as the eye can see...
"That's not true! We have soybeans too!"
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The Illinois Soybean Smashers. I like it. "ISS" would be nice marketing.
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The Illinois Gun Grabbers. Get a different group of people all riled up.
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I'm fine with the new mascot. Prefer that a team has one over not. I also prefer cheerleaders over not having them.
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Illinois Thrashers.
Illinois Annoyers.
Illinois Bumpinroaders
Illinois Layflatearthers
Illinois Whooping Cranes
Illinois Blue Stockings with Orange Trim
Illinois Blues - heh, might be something.
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just don't allow the Hawkeyes to come up with the name or the image
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just don't allow the Hawkeyes to come up with the name or the image
Just a moment. I thought Illinois Fighting or Friendly Otters, Illinois Unconditional Surrender (named after U.S. Grant), and Illinois, Land of Lincoln Railsplitters, were good.
They could sell a lot of cuddly otters to the freshmen co-eds at the bookstore every year.
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Otter, the new mascot!
(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/01/13/obituaries/13BLOOM-OBIT1/12BLOOM1-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale)
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There is a D2 school in St George Utah that has burned through three mascots in less than ten years. Initially they were The Rebels due to their proximity to UNLV as well as the name of the school being Dixie State. Well of course this was the worst thing in the World from the vantage point of the androgynous academic types in the State University system. So they had a contest and a vote and what have you, where they decided that the new mascot would be the Red Storm.
It wasn't that bad of a name for the area as they have a lot of red sand that blows around. But as luck would have it it was discovered after a few years that Red Storm is actually some sorta obscure slang term for a woman's menstrual cycle. Like the rest of the world I had never heard anyone call it that before, but once the crustacean was out of the bus station the White Left had a Red Storm of their own, and it was time to change the name again. So this time there was no contest. No vote. They just changed it to the Trailblazers and the mascot is a buffalo.
The University of Tennessee, Chattanooga went through a similar progression. From Wikipedia: "Chattanooga was formerly the "Moccasins", named after nearby Moccasin Bend (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moccasin_Bend). Several identities have been associated with UTC. A water moccasin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_moccasin) mascot was used in the 1920s. A Native American (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States) mascot, "Chief Moccanooga", was used until 1996 (http://www.darkfiber.com/utcmascot/). There was a short time in the 1980s when a moccasin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moccasin) shoe was used as the mascot. Due to politically sensitive issues, it was decided to drop the use of Native American imagery. The nickname "Moccasins" was shortened to "Mocs" and the state bird was selected as mascot." I think they should have gone back to the snake.
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How do you pronounce the possessive form of Illinois with the apostrophe at the end, like in the thread title? No silent S?
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The "s" is pronounced in that case. In other news...
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-university-of-illinois-otter-defeat-20190310-story.html
So, no.
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The water moccasin is also known as the cotton mouth for obvious reasons.
They are ill tempered.
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Otter is at least kind of original.
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https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-university-of-illinois-otter-defeat-20190310-story.html
So, no.
I thought the thread was sort of ingest - in jest. I did not know there was actually a movement for the alma otter. I actually think the otter is kind of a cool idea, and at least in Iowa the DNR has re-introduced it into our rivers and the otter is coming back. It is a suitably native species to the area. The gopher mascot, and the badger mascot, add something that Illinois now lacks.
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Every few years there is a movement to change Otterbein to the Otters, which would make a lot more sense than the Cardinals. It always gets voted down though, likely due to not wanting to bite on the style of the Allegheny Alligators.