Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Literally … so? Lol. No one is saying RG was worthless, but he was a small time thinker. He trained a GENERATION of people to associate the Illini with (only) Central Illinois, and the local big-fish-small-pond types were cool with it, and it made Illini Athletics behave like a private university - elite alumni only, others need not apply! If one can’t realize how damaging that is psychologically to our sports, I can’t explain it further. There are zero reasons kids from Rockford to Cairo shouldn’t grow up such huge Illini fans that they cheer for them even after they attend Indiana, Iowa, Purdue, etc …. and people in our state don’t look at it that way. Say what you want about “pro sports,” but RG was instrumental in perpetuating that perspective.If I'm not mistaken JW has talked to and taken advice from RG in the past.
I was born in Peoria. Parents went to NIU, moved us to Iowa City when I was 8 and I went to Iowa ($$$) and DePaul for school. Know why I’m an Illini fan?? Because I’ve loved our teams since I was a little kid, as my dad did. Because I’m an Illinoisan. I think it’s awesome most here are alumni (proudest day of my life was getting admitted to Illinois, money just prohibited going there), but it’s honestly a problem that the SOLE big state school for a state of 12.5 million has a fan base mostly made of alumni … I think JW and co. are changing the narrative, but kids need to grow up with the default of being an Illini, not caring about where you go to college. We’d be so much better for it.