Stevegarbs
- Mokena, IL
not sure "admire" is the word...
Illinois Football Uniforms
- Status
The script version looks soft to me. The Butkus era version looks tough. I'm all in on Team Butkus.
Interesting aside. I understand that cursive handwriting is not being taught in grade school much anymore.
"Daddy, what's that on the Illini helmet?"
"That spells Illinois in something called cursive handwriting. They used to teach us to write it and use all the time when I was a little boy."
BZuppke
- Plainfield
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
My issue with the Butkus helmet is the striping pattern … B/W/B is so much better than W/B/W on an orange helmet.
Last edited:
I would if it looked like a second grader discovered a word processor, typed it up in Arial Narrow, and clicked Bold, Italic, Underline.
Hey, if you don't like the font, that's fair. But that's not the criticism I was responding to. The idea that displaying the name at all shows insecurity has nothing to do with whether you like the font or not.
mattcoldagelli
- Script Illinois Enthusiast
"This font is so boring and basic. It looks like anyone could do it. Can't we have something that is more unique to us?"
[monkey's paw unfurls]
The Galloping Ghost
- Washington, DC
How I learned to stop worrying and accept Illinois. It’s amazing what competency, winning, and time can do.
Coming from the DC suburbs, it was impossible for me to not associate that wordmark with the Giants, a team I hated. Couple that with having no attachment to the university till I stepped on campus in 2003 and those helmets came to represent the worst aspects of the university to me. Going 1-15 in the conference with an uninspired copy-cat word mark of one of my team’s rivals does that.
Then, you take that wordmark and slap it across a block I and, somehow even worse, a basketball and it just felt like we didn’t care about our brand. In a sea of iconic collegiate identifiers, we decided to punt on the entire endeavor. We joke about RG running the DIA as if he was the AD of the University of East-Central Illinois, but for me, that wordmark was the very real representation of that.
Now, obviously, I know another thing was going on during that time that created the void the slant wordmark filled. Goodness knows I don’t want to open that can of worms. All I’m saying is that intermediate steps could have been taken. Steps our current DIA and JW have shown can be applied thoughtfully and rapidly.
And that’s the thing. The reintegration of the slant wordmark in 2024 by the DIA and JW feels natural. It was done in a series of helmet decals representing our past on the 100th anniversary of one of the most historic stadiums in college football. It’s amazing what smart people and a little bit of effort can do. Now, you couple a profoundly competent DIA with the Giants no longer utilizing that helmet and actually winning games, and suddenly what once represented mediocrity is significantly more palatable.
Now, admittedly, I’m never going to love Illinois. I prefer the arched Illini and, of course, the script, but darn it, I don’t hate it anymore. And damn it feels good to have a DIA that understands and cares about the brand as much as we do.
Coming from the DC suburbs, it was impossible for me to not associate that wordmark with the Giants, a team I hated. Couple that with having no attachment to the university till I stepped on campus in 2003 and those helmets came to represent the worst aspects of the university to me. Going 1-15 in the conference with an uninspired copy-cat word mark of one of my team’s rivals does that.
Then, you take that wordmark and slap it across a block I and, somehow even worse, a basketball and it just felt like we didn’t care about our brand. In a sea of iconic collegiate identifiers, we decided to punt on the entire endeavor. We joke about RG running the DIA as if he was the AD of the University of East-Central Illinois, but for me, that wordmark was the very real representation of that.
Now, obviously, I know another thing was going on during that time that created the void the slant wordmark filled. Goodness knows I don’t want to open that can of worms. All I’m saying is that intermediate steps could have been taken. Steps our current DIA and JW have shown can be applied thoughtfully and rapidly.
And that’s the thing. The reintegration of the slant wordmark in 2024 by the DIA and JW feels natural. It was done in a series of helmet decals representing our past on the 100th anniversary of one of the most historic stadiums in college football. It’s amazing what smart people and a little bit of effort can do. Now, you couple a profoundly competent DIA with the Giants no longer utilizing that helmet and actually winning games, and suddenly what once represented mediocrity is significantly more palatable.
Now, admittedly, I’m never going to love Illinois. I prefer the arched Illini and, of course, the script, but darn it, I don’t hate it anymore. And damn it feels good to have a DIA that understands and cares about the brand as much as we do.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I think people's (and my) issue is not really with the font ... it's that having a boring font (which is not problematic at all) and then adding two "accents" to it that are simultaneously boring/unimaginative/lame AND overkill (i.e., hitting ctrl + B and ctrl + I) is a bad combo ... just as our new font is a bad combo of trendy and minimalist."This font is so boring and basic. It looks like anyone could do it. Can't we have something that is more unique to us?"
[monkey's paw unfurls]
I don't think you'd get complaints about our team name written in the same font as the Flyin' Illini jerseys, and obviously most people like the script. It's fine for people to have subtleties baked into their subjective opinions here and not go by some *code*, haha.
LadyLoyalty
- Indian Wells, CA
I wish I had the same problems as all the folks getting apoplectic over the lettering on a college football helmet. Do I love it? Not particularly, I think white and blue could be reversed to display our school colors better, but it’s hardly something to get emotional over.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Regarding other comments, though, I actually have no problem myself with having multiple helmets. I think the "consistency" or establishing our "own look" is accomplished with the return to a striping pattern that at least resembles what we had from 1989 to 2005. JMO, of course, but our current set looks so much more classic, visually complete and "like Illinois" than what we were wearing pre-2023. Having a few different helmets (as long as they are all orange) doesn't detract from that very much.
For example, if we pretty much always wore O/B/O, O/W/O and sparingly used an orange uniform and (PLEASE) O/W/B but mixed in every helmet we used this year, I still feel we'd have a "consistent look."
For example, if we pretty much always wore O/B/O, O/W/O and sparingly used an orange uniform and (PLEASE) O/W/B but mixed in every helmet we used this year, I still feel we'd have a "consistent look."
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
You just summarized my epistle from Saturday morning into two very concise paragraphs. I don't have anything additional to add.
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
I have different gripe with the Butkus, it is surprisingly hard to see the numbers and stars on the helmet when they wore it versus Purdue. I think the orange the Illini currently wear is much darker than the Butkus era orange. I think it is the best design of all Illini helmets, but for the modern color scheme it needs to tweaked a bit.
SuperMetroid
- Evanston
This is how you do it. Something new for the bowl game that fits right into our current brand and the fanbase loves.
10/10 no notes.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Yeah, I have posted this before in the basketball uniforms thread, but not enough people comment on the fact that we didn't just revive the orange Flyin' Illini uniforms ... we improved them for a new, if barely different, look:
Our modern spin on those uniforms makes the lettering and numbers look so much better-proportioned, and it cleans up the striping patterns to look a bit sleeker. I cannot find a good enough picture of the Script throwbacks, but I assume we did a similar thing there. I would love to see a version of the Butkus Era helmets where we did a similar thing, making the numbers bigger/more visible and switched the striping pattern to match our other helmets.
Cook
- Richmond, VA
Will continue to beat these drums:
1. Use ILLINI more for every sport and uniform, it literally provides all the things every side of these debates ask for. Unique, recognizable, reps the state, etc. I wish it were more on par with how Hoosier or Volunteer gets used in reference to the whole state/anyone from the state and others like Mizzou e.g. couldn't pull off with something like Tigers.
2. Don't forsake the blue, just for the love of orange. Orange can be primary and accentuated. Really need blue unis in MBB and FB to come back. Damn the stitions or just break them, it's time.
3. White is not a school color and should be relegated to accent and required road uni usage only. BPOTR!
4. Our best helmet stickers are far away 1. Arched ILLINI with the different center stripe we wore with them this year. 2. Script, I'd like to see Illini but Illinois is
3. Block I and then 4. ILLINOIS, worst option we have and I'd like it gone forever, but realize some folks like it a lot.
1. Use ILLINI more for every sport and uniform, it literally provides all the things every side of these debates ask for. Unique, recognizable, reps the state, etc. I wish it were more on par with how Hoosier or Volunteer gets used in reference to the whole state/anyone from the state and others like Mizzou e.g. couldn't pull off with something like Tigers.
2. Don't forsake the blue, just for the love of orange. Orange can be primary and accentuated. Really need blue unis in MBB and FB to come back. Damn the stitions or just break them, it's time.
3. White is not a school color and should be relegated to accent and required road uni usage only. BPOTR!
4. Our best helmet stickers are far away 1. Arched ILLINI with the different center stripe we wore with them this year. 2. Script, I'd like to see Illini but Illinois is
3. Block I and then 4. ILLINOIS, worst option we have and I'd like it gone forever, but realize some folks like it a lot.mattcoldagelli
- Script Illinois Enthusiast
Yeah, "consistency" can be defined in different ways. IMO, always having our helmet be orange is an important part of creating a consistent football look. And in some ways, that grants us a bit more flexibility with what we put on said helmet.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
^This. Exactly.
+ remember that JW sported the slant ILLINOIS as a football player on fairly solid teams that didn't conjure in any way shape or form the unmitigated horror of the 2003 season. (And my sincere condolences that your undergrad years began with that absolute dumpster fire and likely ended before the program emerged into the sunny alpine uplands of the 2007 season.)
What I remember of the 2003 season: (1) thumbwrestling UCLA to a 6-3 defeat; and (2) attending a wedding in NYC in late Sept or early October and, in the bar at the reception, watching SPORTSCENTER "highlights" (resembling a Benny Hill episode) of Illinois getting crushed at Purdue and the ESPN anchor intoning of the Illini that "they just look like they've given up." In late Sept./early October, mind you.
Cue: *Bart Simpson shiver as he's asked to rub Aunt Patty's feet*
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
No idea how this would look in real life, but the render looks great:
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Definitely AI created, but it’s actually pretty close
Attachments
Yes! That looks so awesome!
- Status