Talk:Chief Illiniwek

Symbol or mascot
A mascot, is defined as "...any person, animal, or object ... used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name."

The logo might be called a "symbol" but live performances at halftime by "the Chief" made him a mascot for the majority that write about the issue, including many that support his return. The choice of the correct term should therefore be determined by the source that is cited for that content. Changing all the uses of "mascot" to "symbol" is pushing a biased point of view.FriendlyFred (talk) 17:42, 10 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Reverted another change of "mascot" to "symbol". Since this was once again done by an anonymous editor, there can be no discussion. WP articles must follow the wording in the majority of reliable sources, not reflect opinion from one side of a controversy. The NCAA and all the academic references categorize the Chief with other sports mascots, only some, not all, alumni and fans use the word "symbol". --WriterArtistDC (talk) 00:28, 30 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Symbol NOT Mascot 2601:243:1300:82B0:302F:11B1:5627:86D9 (talk) 01:58, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

Request made for semi-protection to eliminate POV edits by IP users, which have taken an insulting turn. --WriterArtistDC (talk) 03:30, 1 February 2019 (UTC)

Note: This article by a conservative organization reporting on the 2019 outcome of the chancellor's commission repeatedly refers to Chief Illiniwek as a mascot. This is a clear example that a majority, including supporters of the Chief, understanding the dictionary definition of "mascot" as including any person who does a performance in costume at a sporting event, regardless of to whether an insulting caricature or respectful representation.--WriterArtistDC (talk) 17:43, 17 June 2019 (UTC)

Dead External links
Given the warning about the extensive list of external links, I checked and found that most were dead.FriendlyFred (talk) 02:34, 12 November 2015 (UTC)
 * https://archive.org/web/ could be used to recover some of those if they are needed for citation purposes or for historical context. --Dual Freq (talk) 02:56, 12 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Here are the eternal links that could be retrieved, although fixing the dead links in the article itself should be the priority.



External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 one external links on Chief Illiniwek. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.chiefilliniwek.org/phoenix/library/threeinone.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20060830070607/http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/news/archive/chief.html to http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/news/archive/chief.html

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External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 5 one external links on Chief Illiniwek. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20080216022158/http://www.nah.uiuc.edu/faculty/tyeeme/documents/peoria_resolution.pdf to http://www.nah.uiuc.edu/faculty/tyeeme/documents/peoria_resolution.pdf
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20110604021444/http://www.dailyillini.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=7d161c2c-6bd4-466a-bffa-92e7825e264e to http://www.dailyillini.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=7d161c2c-6bd4-466a-bffa-92e7825e264e
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20080216022157/http://www.nah.uiuc.edu/faculty/tyeeme/documents/froman2006.pdf to http://www.nah.uiuc.edu/faculty/tyeeme/documents/froman2006.pdf
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20110222060716/http://www.news-gazette.com:80/localnews/story.cfm?Number=19804 to http://www.news-gazette.com/localnews/story.cfm?Number=19804
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20110607095755/http://media.www.dailyillini.com/media/storage/paper736/news/2008/10/30/News/Students.For.Chief.Illiniwek.Plans.the.Next.Dance-3516587.shtml to http://media.www.dailyillini.com/media/storage/paper736/news/2008/10/30/News/Students.For.Chief.Illiniwek.Plans.the.Next.Dance-3516587.shtml

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Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 20:25, 28 February 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 one external links on Chief Illiniwek. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20091012135839/http://www.ucimc.org:80/content/chief-illiniwek-regalia-returned-ogalala-lakota to http://www.ucimc.org/content/chief-illiniwek-regalia-returned-ogalala-lakota
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120819102929/http://www.dailyillini.com/index.php/article/2010/10/the_next_dance_event_perseveres to http://www.dailyillini.com/index.php/article/2010/10/the_next_dance_event_perseveres#
 * Added tag to http://www.dailyillini.com/image_b32c4b0e-21c1-11e2-b0d7-0019bb30f31a.html
 * Added tag to http://www.dailyillini.com/news/article_293c8aea-7c1c-59a7-b875-a72d04d72d94.html

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External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Chief Illiniwek. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060904174535/https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ro/www/UnionofProfessionalEmployees/ChiefIlliniwek.htm to https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ro/www/UnionofProfessionalEmployees/ChiefIlliniwek.htm
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.ucimc.org/content/chief-illiniwek-regalia-returned-ogalala-lakota

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External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Chief Illiniwek. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150106030300/http://www.illinoishomepage.net/story/d/story/district-cancels-chief-after-threats/54961/Pz95Dbvm9U-vH8sAJX-3XQ/ to http://www.illinoishomepage.net/story/d/story/district-cancels-chief-after-threats/54961/Pz95Dbvm9U-vH8sAJX-3XQ/

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Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 01:43, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

On the "Un/Official Chief portrayal list"s
I believe these lists are more suited to University/club PR pages and not appropriate on Wikipedia. Please see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_an_indiscriminate_collection_of_information Discussion on a similar list on FSU Osceola mascot page resulted in removal of the list. What are your thoughts? -- GreaterPonce665 (talk) GreaterPonce665 12:39, 1 July 2019 (UTC) §
 * I think a case could be made for either elimination or retention of these lists. These are embedded lists, which are allowed under WP guidelines if they follow other criteria for inclusion. Are they less ""encyclopedic" than lists of every student that ever played basketball at UIUC?
 * Where they may fail is in lacking a reliable source. The official list may have come from a university publication, but is not used as a reference. The list is current available on the "Council of Chiefs" website, hardly a RS. The appointment of the unofficial chiefs was newsworthy, so there are sources that are cited in the article for them.--WriterArtistDC (talk) 16:43, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

Possible redirect
I am wondering if we should make a redirect for Illinois Kingfishers. If so, should it link here Chief Illiniwek or should it link to Illinois Fighting Illini? Or since it is unofficial at this point should it even be a redirect? WriterArtistDC any thoughts? Or anyone else? -TenorTwelve (talk) 10:16, 21 March 2021 (UTC)
 * - The current situation seems appropriate for now. Are you proposing "Kingfishers" redirect to Fighting Illini when it becomes official? I don't think the Chief or the controversy will disappear entirely until all Native references have been removed, but this article will remain a distinct topic, even if only a historical one. Compare what was done then the UND Fighting Sioux became the Hawks.--WriterArtistDC (talk) 15:33, 21 March 2021 (UTC)
 * While some have proposed changing the symbol or mascot to a kingfisher, it is not proposed to change the team name to the Illinois Kingfishers. The team would still be known as the Fighting Illini.Baller McGee (talk) 18:38, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

Symbol or mascot revisited
After another round of reversion between mascot and symbol, some were changed to "symbol/mascot" which is no solution. As I said above four years ago, the word used in each sentence should follow what the source being cited to support that sentence used, not one point of view or the other, and not an invented term that no one uses. WriterArtistDC (talk) 04:25, 12 December 2022 (UTC)


 * I've added a sentence to the end of the lead section calling out the debate over the mascot vs. symbol terminology, with a reference, here. This doesn't solve the issue of which term to use in the body of the article, but at least it explains the question to our readers. — Mudwater (Talk) 08:24, 12 December 2022 (UTC)

Symbol NOT Mascot
All references to the Chief should be corrected to refer to the Chief as the former SYMBOL of the University of Illinois athletics.

The Chief has never been a mascot. 2601:243:1300:82B0:302F:11B1:5627:86D9 (talk) 01:56, 12 January 2024 (UTC)