Illinois Football Uniforms

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#26      

Illini92and96

Illini92and96
Austin, TX
Illini92and96
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Interesting, thanks for sharing. Yeah, I have lived in Gold Coast and Roscoe Village, and I have been pleasantly surprised actually how prevalent Illini gear is, as I said in my edited post above. FWIW, my wife and I have a fun (if kind of weird, lol...) game where we have kept a note on my phone since we moved here of college gear we see. We obviously miss some, but it sounds harder than it is ... she'll text me while she's at work saying something like, "Saw a Michigan shirt in the cafeteria," and I'll mark it down. I obviously haven't totaled the denominator for percentages (I'm not THAT bored!), but through almost 5 years, this is the top 10...

Illinois - 271
Michigan - 115
Iowa - 108
Notre Dame - 88
Wisconsin - 81
Indiana - 67
Michigan State - 64
Northwestern - 57
Purdue - 49
Ohio State - 26

My friends claim I might have a bias to count more Illini shirts, but I honestly feel I am obsessed enough with finding what the true breakdown is that I record everything I can remember. :ROFLMAO:

** Fighter stops derailing the thread **
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I think your shared psychosis will be good for your marriage in the long run :p
 
#27      

GrayGhost77

GrayGhost77
Centennial, CO
GrayGhost77
ChiefGritty said:
The thing is, and I see evidence of this constantly and I think our football recruiting has reflected it, the pull of Illinois as the instate flagship school that people feel a connection with is much stronger in the city proper than the suburbs.

The suburbs are ground zero for ABI.
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I don't think that's universally true at all. Yes, there might be pockets where that's the case, but I'd say more of the 'burbs than not are pro-Illinois. I went to high school in a western suburb in DuPage county and I'd say that of my graduating class who went to college almost 1/3 went to Illinois, 1/3 to UIC, ISU, or one of the directional Illinois schools, and the rest to College of DuPage or elsewhere. I don't think that has changed much given what I've heard of the cohorts of my younger relatives who also live in the suburbs.
 
#28      

AutoPoster 3000

AutoPoster 3000
AutoPoster 3000
Since it’s something on topic for the thread, I’m going to take this as my one time opportunity to rant against “UIUC”, a name I always disliked.

After I graduated in 2008 I got a job in New York. I have not said “UIUC” or “the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign” since. If I told someone here that I attended “UIUC” they would have no clue what I was talking about.

Once you cross the state border, everyone understands there is a flagship, land-grant, public ivy major research university for the state of Illinois called “the University of Illinois” or “Illinois” or “U of I.” Whether or not they are aware of UIC or UIS specifically, they understand in general terms that states have university systems with additional lesser public universities. But nobody confuses those with the main university.

“University of (State)” denotes a status and level of prestige that “University of (State)-(City)” does not. If the board wants to formally call it the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and use that title in the context of university system matters, that’s fine. Most flagship universities do that ti sone extent if part of a statewide system. But I could never understand the reason to affirmatively brand the institution as UIUC for general purposes. Have you ever said “University of Texas Austin” because you didn’t want someone to mistakenly think you were referring to the University of Texas Permian Basin?

To illustrate my point, imagine that, back in 1860-whatever, New York had established one flagship, land-grant, public ivy university called “THE New York State University” (since NYU was already taken). The status and prestige of that hypothetical university in 2024 would almost certainly be on par with the most widely known and highly regarded public institutions in the nation. Instead, New York fragmented all its vast resources into four SUNY university groups, twenty colleges, and around ten other affiliate programs, that almost nobody has heard of anywhere west of Lake Erie. Sure, SUNY Binghamton is an excellent school. In fact it is considered a public ivy itself. But try pitching “SUNY Binghamton” to the hiring director at a firm in Seattle. Or you can say “I went to Michigan” and never have to explain that you mean the one in Ann Arbor and not the ones in Dearborn or Flint.
 
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#29      

GrayGhost77

GrayGhost77
Centennial, CO
GrayGhost77
AutoPoster 3000 said:
Since it’s someone on topic for the thread, I’m going to take this as my one time opportunity to rant against “UIUC”, a name I always disliked.

After I graduated in 2008 I got a job in New York. I have not said “UIUC” or “the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign” since. If I told someone here that I attended “UIUC” they would have no clue what I was talking about.

Once you cross the state border, everyone understands there is a flagship, land-grant, public ivy major research university for the state of Illinois called “the University of Illinois” or “Illinois” or “U of I.” Whether or not they are aware of UIC or UIS specifically, they understand in general terms that states have university systems with additional lesser public universities. But nobody confuses those with the main university.

“University of (State)” denotes a status and level of prestige that “University of (State)-(City)” does not. If the board wants to formally call it the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and use that title in the context of university system matters, that’s fine. Most flagship universities do that ti sone extent if part of a statewide system. But I could never understand the reason to affirmatively brand the institution as UIUC for general purposes. Have you ever said “University of Texas Austin” because you didn’t want someone to mistakenly think you were referring to the University of Texas Permian Basin?

To illustrate my point, imagine that, back in 1860-whatever, New York had established one flagship, land-grant, public ivy university called “THE New York State University” (since NYU was already taken). The status and prestige of that hypothetical university in 2024 would almost certainly be on par with the most widely known and highly regarded public institutions in the nation. Instead, New York fragmented all its vast resources into four SUNY university groups, twenty colleges, and around ten other affiliate programs, that almost nobody has heard of anywhere west of Lake Erie. Sure, SUNY Binghamton is an excellent school. In fact it is considered a public ivy itself. But try pitching “SUNY Binghamton” to the hiring director at a firm in Seattle. Or you can say “I went to Michigan” and never have to explain that you mean the one in Ann Arbor and not the ones in Dearborn or Flint.
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Yeah. As someone who has lived outside of Illinois for the past 13 years, I've never once said "UIUC". If somebody asks where I went to school or it comes up in conversation I just say "Illinois" and they know what I mean. Even "U of I" would be confusing for most people outside the state, or at least outside the midwest since it could mean "Indiana", "Idaho", or even (*shudder*) "Iowa" to them. There's no confusing "Illinois" so it's the most elegant and simplest solution.
 
#30      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
AutoPoster 3000 said:
Since it’s someone on topic for the thread, I’m going to take this as my one time opportunity to rant against “UIUC”, a name I always disliked.

After I graduated in 2008 I got a job in New York. I have not said “UIUC” or “the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign” since. If I told someone here that I attended “UIUC” they would have no clue what I was talking about.

Once you cross the state border, everyone understands there is a flagship, land-grant, public ivy major research university for the state of Illinois called “the University of Illinois” or “Illinois” or “U of I.” Whether or not they are aware of UIC or UIS specifically, they understand in general terms that states have university systems with additional lesser public universities. But nobody confuses those with the main university.

“University of (State)” denotes a status and level of prestige that “University of (State)-(City)” does not. If the board wants to formally call it the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and use that title in the context of university system matters, that’s fine. Most flagship universities do that ti sone extent if part of a statewide system. But I could never understand the reason to affirmatively brand the institution as UIUC for general purposes. Have you ever said “University of Texas Austin” because you didn’t want someone to mistakenly think you were referring to the University of Texas Permian Basin?

To illustrate my point, imagine that, back in 1860-whatever, New York had established one flagship, land-grant, public ivy university called “THE New York State University” (since NYU was already taken). The status and prestige of that hypothetical university in 2024 would almost certainly be on par with the most widely known and highly regarded public institutions in the nation. Instead, New York fragmented all its vast resources into four SUNY university groups, twenty colleges, and around ten other affiliate programs, that almost nobody has heard of anywhere west of Lake Erie. Sure, SUNY Binghamton is an excellent school. In fact it is considered a public ivy itself. But try pitching “SUNY Binghamton” to the hiring director at a firm in Seattle. Or you can say “I went to Michigan” and never have to explain that you mean the one in Ann Arbor and not the ones in Dearborn or Flint.
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As long as we're grinding axes on semantic points, I understand that the Henry Admin building lies on the East side of Wright Street therefore the official legal address of the University is in Urbana, but that is not remotely a reason to refer to the location of the school as "Urbana-Champaign" when literally everyone in every other context calls the area "Champaign-Urbana".

That always drove me crazy.
 
#31      

Ghost77

Ghost77
Ghost77
I like the idea of the rebrand but unfortunately this isn't going to change in people's minds overnight. Count me in the group that never liked the UIUC name. I've actually been saying "Illinois" for years when asked where I went to school, but unfortunately more often than not if I say this to someone in state it is usually met with a response of "State?" from the the other person 😑
 
#32      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
AutoPoster 3000 said:
...
“University of (State)” denotes a status and level of prestige that “University of (State)-(City)” does not...
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This is a big part of my sentiment here, to be honest. Within the context of athletics, the University of Illinois has simply not lived up to its name enough over the years. It just simply should not be as associated with Champaign or even Central Illinois as it unfortunately is. The fact that it is located in Champaign should be nothing but a coincidence in this context, as even if it were in Arlington Heights, Peoria or Springfield, it would still be the University of ILLINOIS - an institution (and by extension sports team) that represents every Illinoisan (alum or not) whether they reciprocate that affection or not.

ChiefGritty said:
As long as we're grinding axes on semantic points, I understand that the Henry Admin building lies on the East side of Wright Street therefore the official legal address of the University is in Urbana, but that is not remotely a reason to refer to the location of the school as "Urbana-Champaign" when literally everyone in every other context calls the area "Champaign-Urbana".

That always drove me crazy.
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Hell, I would even argue 90% of people I have ever talked to just skip Urbana altogether and refer to the entire metro area as "Champaign." The fact that (A) Champaign is bigger and (B) Champaign has the main Campustown, Downtown AND both major sports stadiums probably leads to a lot of casual folks from around the Midwest likely not even knowing Urbana exists, haha.
 
#34      

Bucktown

B
Bucktown
ChiefGritty said:
As long as we're grinding axes on semantic points, I understand that the Henry Admin building lies on the East side of Wright Street therefore the official legal address of the University is in Urbana, but that is not remotely a reason to refer to the location of the school as "Urbana-Champaign" when literally everyone in every other context calls the area "Champaign-Urbana".

That always drove me crazy.
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Champaign may have been relegated to second class vs Urbana years ago had the Memorial Stadium and Assembly Hall not been located in Champaign. So all of the televised football and basketball games and all of he bi-lines of media covering games say Champaign.

I personally never lived in Urbana and still often refer to 'Champaign' when speaking about the university in Chicago. So, while they may want to use 'Urbana' as a brand it will be tough--stick with Illinois.
 
#35      

Yukon

Yukon
Yukon
redwingillini11 said:
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1793343093141655901

Because we often talk about University branding here, I thought I would repost this here.

The gist is that the University is pushing a hierarchy of branding: 1) Illinois; 2) U of I; 3) Urbana. Additionally, "UIUC" is being phased out.

I find it to be a puzzling move. I think UIUC is actually a very helpful acronym to have on hand. It is very unique, it can't be mistaken for another school. It is easy to say; I think UIUC comes off the tongue easier than U of I. I also recall using UIUC when Google-ing looking for specific university websites. I've heard younger generations use UIUC much more often than U of I. I just don't see why it was necessary to make this move.

Rather, I think the intent to use "Urbana" is kind of silly. Now, their intent is clearly to have a name that people use like "Berkeley," "Madison," "Austin," etc. But the problem is that 99% of students and alums and people in the State colloquially refer to the school/town as "Champaign." Expecting everyone to switch over to "Urbana" from "Champaign" overnight is a pretty lofty goal. If it works, then great. But this just sounds like something that sounds good in a Board room but just ever work out well in the real world.
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When I first UIUC I thought "what school is that?" Still think that.

It may be because I'm old but its always been U of I to me. ALWAYS! 🔶🔷
 
#36      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
Bucktown said:
Champaign may have been relegated to second class vs Urbana years ago had the Memorial Stadium and Assembly Hall not been located in Champaign. So all of the televised football and basketball games and all of he bi-lines of media covering games say Champaign.

I personally never lived in Urbana and still often refer to 'Champaign' when speaking about the university in Chicago. So, while they may want to use 'Urbana' as a brand it will be tough--stick with Illinois.
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Plus “Champaign” sounds infinitely cooler than “Urbana,” lol.
 
#37      

redwingillini11

redwingillini11
White and Sixth
North Aurora
redwingillini11
I can understand where everyone is coming from on UIUC. I still think it's a fine acronym to have at the end of the bench, but I can cede that one to the masses.

But I do think everyone appears to be with me on the Urbana issue. Just a silly, silly move that no one will buy in to.
 
#38      

Battle89

Battle89
Battle89
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Hell, I would even argue 90% of people I have ever talked to just skip Urbana altogether and refer to the entire metro area as "Champaign." The fact that (A) Champaign is bigger and (B) Champaign has the main Campustown, Downtown AND both major sports stadiums probably leads to a lot of casual folks from around the Midwest likely not even knowing Urbana exists, haha.
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This is the key. For 99% of the world their only connection to Illinois is via sporting events. And virtually all of those are mentioned to be in Champaign by the announcers, because, in fact, they are in Champaign.

Edit: what @Bucktown said.
 
#39      

AutoPoster 3000

AutoPoster 3000
AutoPoster 3000
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Plus “Champaign” sounds infinitely cooler than “Urbana,” lol.
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Totally agree.

If you die, fearing god, and painfully employed

No you will not go to heaven, you’ll go to Urbana Illinois

1716493833051.gif
 
#40      

AZILL

AZILL
AZILL
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Interesting, thanks for sharing. Yeah, I have lived in Gold Coast and Roscoe Village, and I have been pleasantly surprised actually how prevalent Illini gear is, as I said in my edited post above. FWIW, my wife and I have a fun (if kind of weird, lol...) game where we have kept a note on my phone since we moved here of college gear we see. We obviously miss some, but it sounds harder than it is ... she'll text me while she's at work saying something like, "Saw a Michigan shirt in the cafeteria," and I'll mark it down. I obviously haven't totaled the denominator for percentages (I'm not THAT bored!), but through almost 5 years, this is the top 10...

Illinois - 271
Michigan - 115
Iowa - 108
Notre Dame - 88
Wisconsin - 81
Indiana - 67
Michigan State - 64
Northwestern - 57
Purdue - 49
Ohio State - 26

My friends claim I might have a bias to count more Illini shirts, but I honestly feel I am obsessed enough with finding what the true breakdown is that I record everything I can remember. :ROFLMAO:

** Fighter stops derailing the thread **
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You're such a Nerd!!!! But you're our (IL) nerd, so we love you!
 
#41      

Dkayak

D
Dkayak
I went in the other room to check my diploma. I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, with the location in very fine print, as it should be. It’s the state’s flagship Land Grant University, similar to Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana. None of these states see any need to include references to the cities in which their top state universities are located. Other campuses are best regarded as satellites rather than peers. The UIUC tag is an administrative detail and detracts from the university’s prestigious status, suggesting it’s just another state university, one among many.
 
#42      

Frumundawood

Frumundawood
Frumundawood
Dkayak said:
I went in the other room to check my diploma. I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, with the location in very fine print, as it should be. It’s the state’s flagship Land Grant University, similar to Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana. None of these states see any need to include references to the cities in which their top state universities are located. Other campuses are best regarded as satellites rather than peers. The UIUC tag is an administrative detail and detracts from the university’s prestigious status, suggesting it’s just another state university, one among many.
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Pretty sure only one of those four (which refers to itself as University of Wisconsin-Madison) is a land grant, but I get what you’re saying.
 
#43      

Illiniguy74

I
Illiniguy74
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Very true, and I do not expect that we would ever approach the levels of instate dominance you see in Wisconsin, let alone Iowa or Nebraska. However...

1. We realistically should have Iowa-level dominance in Central Illinois - a population of over 2 million people. I would say we enjoy this level of support in the areas around Champaign, but it remains a realistic-if-optimistic goal to have kids in Peoria, Springfield, Bloomington, etc. growing up as diehard Illini fans regardless of where their parents went to school - the kind of thing I can say happens in Iowa from firsthand experience.

2. We should shoot for Michigan State-level appeal in Northern Illinois (excluding Chicago) and Southern Illinois, IMO. In other words, it might take a parent being an alum and/or having a connection to the U of I to be a big fan, but we should also pick up just as many if not more casual fans as out-of-state schools. For example, a high school kid in Rockford looking for a team to cheer for should not be MORE likely to cheer for the Badgers than the Illini ... same for the Quad Cities and Iowa/Illini, the Metro East and Mizzou/Illini, Southern Illinois and Kentucky/Illini, etc. I think we are punching below our weight here.

3. It is probably only realistic to expect our Chicago Area fan base to mostly consist of alumni and their families (though I myself am a contradiction to this being a non-alum fan in Chicago, and I will say there are more of us than is assumed!!). However, just given the massive population of the Chicago MSA, we should always be doing aggressive fan outreach up here. Even just picking up a small percentage of the unaffiliated fans who think to themselves, "Hey, I guess the natural choice is to cheer for the state school" equates to a significant boost in fan support. * Additional comment at the bottom, slightly OT.

This all obviously must compliment engaging Illinois' massive alumni base. I feel right now that we are about equally average (given the expectations for each category) at engaging our alumni base and #1-3 above. Just by engaging alumni and doing #1 effectively, you already would have a bigger football fan base than Iowa. If you do #1 and #2 well, you are talking a program whose TV following likely keeps it safe in any conference reshuffling in 10 years or so. Obviously, if we ever did all of these even at a B- level or above, you are talking about a VERY large fan base.

Obviously that was a bit of a ramble, and people might not agree with my assumptions here. My personal guess is that by being about a B at engaging alumni, a B+ at #1, a C at #2 and a C- at #3, we end up with a football fan base that would have a "gross" total of fans somewhere between Iowa and Wisconsin, but our "active" fan base would be between a Maryland and an Iowa. Again, just total guesses.

Either way, I think all can agree there is room for improvement regardless of how high or low the ceiling is, and it will be essential to engage as many potential fans as possible in the next decade as conferences realign. At least IMO. While we might think our situation is difficult in some ways, we should be thankful we at least have this room to improve. There are only so many alumni a school like Northwestern or Wake Forest can engage, and there are only so many potential fan populations schools like Kansas State, Iowa State, Ole Miss, etc. can even tap into in the first place. Again, sorry for the rant, haha ... fan base size/geography/dynamics/etc. is one of my more obscure side obsessions.

* I will also die on this hill RE: Chicago NCAA football fandom after living here since 2019 and somewhat aggressively trying to notice the college sports apparel we see around in that timeframe. Chicago is obviously a pro sports city first and foremost, and that must be taken into account. It is also a cosmopolitan city that has a "trans-state" feel that only so many other cities like New York have (compared to an undoubtedly major city like Detroit that is nonetheless quintessentially "Michigan"), and this means TONS of alumni from other schools that will always keep Illinois from dominating the market. You also have a strange obsession with Notre Dame from a vocal (smaller-than-assumed-by-most) minority that supports Notre Dame because of the Catholic angle, and that will always be a factor. With that said ... I have lived here while Northwestern made the Big Ten Championship Game, Iowa football was ranked #2 in the nation, Michigan literally won a National Championship, Notre Dame made the College Football Playoff, etc., and I will say this - NO school actually increases its ceiling for fans here when they are good like Illinois. I always see a good number of Notre Dame and Michigan shirts, but it barely increased when they each had generationally special seasons. Meanwhile, Illinois will go from a "first among equals" status among the crowd to decidedly #1 in relatively short order when we get good. The uptick in 2022 was very noticeable to me, and the basketball uptick since I moved here (again, we were bad then!!) has been VERY significant to the point that I am convinced the #2 basketball fan base is a materially distant second. It is my pretty strong opinion that regardless of where things stand today, the "casual" or "unaffiliated" or whatever college sports fan in Chicago is decidedly more likely to jump on an Illini bandwagon than any other school. Unfortunately, it ALWAYS takes wins to attract a casual fan.
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I read it all. Good piece.
 
#44      

Dkayak

D
Dkayak
Frumundawood said:
Pretty sure only one of those four (which refers to itself as University of Wisconsin-Madison) is a land grant, but I get what you’re saying.
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You’re correct re: Land Grant Universities. Interesting list: including Purdue but not Indiana, Michigan State, but not Michigan, Iowa State but not Iowa. Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, and OSU were also Land Grants.
 
#45      

chibar

C
chibar
Dkayak said:
You’re correct re: Land Grant Universities. Interesting list: including Purdue but not Indiana, Michigan State, but not Michigan, Iowa State but not Iowa. Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, and OSU were also Land Grants.
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I obviously know what that means and understand the implications of a Land Grant, but maybe explain for those lurking that may be confused
 
#47      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Personally, I love this. UIUC sort of identifies Illinois as simply a piece of the whole. We need kids at UIC and UIS being rabid Illini fans because they think of that as their natural team because they’re part of the “Illinois System.” A school like UIC should be seen as just an extension of the Illini Universe that’s only somewhere else due to coincidence and logistics.
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A friend of mine has a coworker who went to UIUC and hates that anyone that goes to UIC or UIS gets a degree that says they went to the University of Illinois even though they didn't go to the school in Chambana.
 
#48      

Mr. Tibbs

Mr. Tibbs
southeast DuPage
Mr. Tibbs
IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
A friend of mine has a coworker who went to UIUC and hates that anyone that goes to UIC or UIS gets a degree that says they went to the University of Illinois even though they didn't go to the school in Chambana.
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when interviewing for a job , the school you want to have gone to is the same one as the person who is interviewing you
 
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