>Everyone I talk to views the Chief as a symbol of the spirit of the Illini. I've never thought of it as derogatory at all. Of course, we'll probably have to rename the state pretty soon!!!

Me too. There are degrees of this sort of thing. There's been some pressure on the Atlanta Braves to change their nickname. Of course, the Cherokee Indians (who are in the area), have made a bunch of money by licensing and sell Braves stuff. I'm sure you've heard the: "Well, there are no teams with nicknames of based on white people". Wrong! Let's see, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Minnesota Vikings, the New York Yankees...

>I'm giving Turner another year. Mackovic rested on Mike White's laurel's and never really recruited so I view it as ten years of bad recruiting and that's going to take a while to recover from.
>
>Hopefully, Lon will take us to the Sweet 16 or Elite 8.

At least, I hope that this year Turner can at least beat Northwestern. Lon's recruiting in the Chicago area better be good. With Kennedy at DePaul, there's serious competition.