In the absurdities of the modern world, the continued use of a caricature to represent the Illini tribe with a foolish moron at U of I athletic events bothers few. Fighting Illini itself isn’t offensive, but some idiot running around the field acting like a chicken with his head cut off is not an appropriate representative of Native American culture.
Why is there such attachment to such an obnoxious symbol? An obvious solution would be to involve the descendants of the Illini tribe in a discussion of how a mascot could honorably represent the tribe and the school.