Watch the NCAA Tournament and you will come across some interesting team nicknames, some of which will cause curiosity about their origin. Teams such as the Illinois Fighting Illini, for example.

The University of Illinois will drop its 81-year-old American Indian mascot ... to use the name Illini because it's short for Illinois and the school can use the term Fighting Illini, because ...

“A lot of people like the fact that it’s historical. We’re the Fighting Illini, and that’s based off of Memorial Stadium. So it makes a lot of sense to have a mascot that’s based around the Fighting ...

For more than a century, Illinois' athletic teams have been known as the "Fighting Illini." And for more than ... in the school's now-discontinued mascot, Chief Illiniwek. The character, played ...

Sure. “The Chief was not a MASCOT, but an honorable school symbol; the Fighting Illini had no mascot,” said one reader. “Bring back The Chief.” “Your mascot misstatement puts our beloved ...

I write in response to Mark Toalson’s guest commetnary about a Fighting Illini “mascot.” The point should be made to Toalson that the Fighting Illini have never had a mascot. Chief Illiniwek ...