University of Illinois: Should the Fighting Illini change their name?

It is time for the University of Illinois to change their name due to the history behind “Fighting Illini”?

Over the last few weeks in sports, much controversy has centered around teams whose name and logo are meant to represent Native American tribes. Professional sports franchises such as the Washington Redskins, Atlanta Braves, and Cleveland Indians have been mentioned as three of the biggest teams that need to change their names and logos.

Here in Illinois, the Chicago Blackhawks were also questioned. The Blackhawks don’t plan on doing so any time soon, according to a statement released by the team. However, maybe it’s time to add the University of Illinois Fighting Illini to that list as well.

Many do not seem to understand the significance behind the name. Illinois has historically always been proven to be one of the many areas where there was a strong presence of Native American tribes. Estimates show that during the year 1673, the Native American population of Illinois numbered upwards of 10,000 people, with the actual population being much more.

What many don’t know is that the Illinois Confederation was a federation composed of multiple Native American tribes who called present-day Illinois home. These tribes, who were from the Algonquin People, referred to themselves as “Illiniwek”, which literally means “men”. Eventually, the French would change the name to Illinois.

How did the name Illini come to be? Before we argue as to why or why not the name needs to change, we must first understand the origins of a name that many will say is crucial to the history of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s history. The biggest issue is that there doesn’t appear to be a specific date as to when the university made “Illini” its mascot or name for its sports teams.

An archive of the school newspaper from the early 1870s is when the term first appears. Over the years, it appeared to have become more popular, with the university’s athletic teams first using the term in 1907, and the term becoming more popular over the next decade.  Moreover, it was also around this time that the term “fighting Illini” originated as well, first being used at a basketball game on March 3rd, 1911.

Asked above are two questions that are crucial to the crux of this whole argument. Why should and why shouldn’t the name be changed? Let’s start with the latter first. Those who argue that the name shouldn’t be changed will argue that “Fighting Illini” is a part of the school’s history and that by changing the name, a piece of school history is being taken away. The university did take one major step back in 2007, by getting rid of Chief Illiniwek, the school’s Native American logo.

However, those who argue that the name should be changed, would point to the atrocities that were committed as American expansion continued westward. It is estimated that by the early 1830s, the population of Native Americans had dwindled to fewer than 300 people. The main causes of this? Colonization by Europeans, fighting with other Native American tribes, and diseases such as Smallpox, which came as a result of European Colonization. Many tribes were not immune to these diseases and three waves in 1704, 1732, and 1756 wiped out much of the Native American population.

These are truly different times that we are living in, here in the United States. While nobody has yet pushed for the University of Illinois to change its name, it’s something that is worth monitoring, especially with many pushing professional sports franchises heavily to change their names, mascots, and logos.