Opponents of Chief Illiniwek upset to see merchandise online
CHAMPAIGN — Opponents of the University of Illinois’ old mascot say they’re upset that merchandise featuring Chief Illiniwek is available online after the school made the logo available to a licensing company.
Emeritus professor Stephen Kaufman wrote to interim Chancellor Barbara Wilson and President Timothy Killeen on Wednesday asking why the items are available, the ( Champaign) News-Gazette reported.
“Kindly explain what appears to be the official licensing of this prohibited use of university property and what you plan to do to bring the Urbana campus and vendors and manufacturers into compliance with both U of I policy as well as NCAA policy without delay,” he wrote.
University trustees voted in 2007 to stop using the Chief Illiniwek name, logo and related Native American imagery. And the NCAA doesn’t allow the athletic department to have an official association with the logo or the Chief. The school kept ownership of the logo and ordered its 400 licensees to stop making Chief Illiniwek goods.
But in 2009, the school added the logo to Atlantabased Collegiate Licensing Co.’s College Vault program, making a limited number of Chief Illiniwek items available online only. About $1,300 of the $25,000 the university received from licensing for the fiscal year that ended on June 30 was from Chief Illiniwek-related merchandise.
Assistant Athletic Director Marty Kaufmann said the licensing program allows people “to remember that history and memory but not have it on campus or have it where it’s overly accessible to our students or to the local community.” He also said the sales protect the school’s trademark.
But Kaufman, a longtime opponent of the old mascot, said the school “should do the minimum necessary to maintain the trademark, and they’re going far beyond that.”