Illinois to stop playing ‘war chant’ music
The University of Illinois will no longer play “war chant “music during sporting events, ending a tradition that stemmed from the school’s former mascot Chief Illiniwek.
The decision to stop using the music was made at the end of last football season, athletic department spokesman Kent Brown said Friday. It wasn’t publicized until Thursday when athletic department representatives asked members of the student group Illini Pride to stop playing the song on a drum at a soccer game. The school’s band, the Marching Illini, had played the cadence at football games.
Illinois made the decision in an effort to be more inclusive and because students haven’t responded to it as much at football games recently, Brown said.
“There are people who felt that was an offensive Native American chant or music,” Brown said. “Another big part of that was that we had used it on third-down situations and our fan reaction to that was not as good as when we used our video board to prompt our fans.”
American Indians and the NCAA pushed the university for years to do away with Chief Illiniwek, which had been portrayed since 1926 by a student in a buckskin costume who danced at football and basketball games and other events. Many American Indians found those dances and the portrayal offensive.
Clemson’s Swinney gets raise
CLEMSON, S.C. » Clemson coach is getting a hefty raise after winning the national championship.
Dabo Swinney and the Board of Trustees agreed to a new 8-year, $54 million contract Friday that averages out to $6.75 million a year. It includes $3.2 million in signing bonuses in three installments and a $6 million buyout until the end of 2018.
The deal makes Swinney the third highest-paid football coach in the country, behind only Alabama’s Nick Saban and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh.
Swinney’s new contract pays him $6 million this season with his base salary increasing to $6.6 million in 2024.