Illini Basketball Loyalty: The Passion of the Fans
Alright, let me tell ya ’bout this Illini basketball, you know, the one with the fellas runnin’ and jumpin’ with the orange ball? Folks ’round here, they go crazy for it. Real crazy, I tell ya.
It ain’t just some game, no sir. It’s like… well, it’s like when you bake a real good pie, and everyone wants a slice. Everyone ’round here, they want a piece of that Illini basketball action. They call it “Fighting Illini,” and fight they do, them boys. Been fightin’ since way back when, somethin’ about 1911, they say. Heard tell it started with the basketball team, then everyone else joined in. Fightin’ Illini, that’s what they are.
Now, I ain’t no expert, mind you. I just watch the games, sometimes on that there TV thing, sometimes with the neighbors. We yell and holler, cheer when they score, groan when they miss. It’s like a big ol’ family get-together, only with more jumpin’ and yellin’. And lemme tell ya, those boys, they make us proud… most of the time, anyways. Sometimes they lose, and that ain’t fun. But we stick with ‘em, thick and thin, that’s what you do with family, right?
Heard some fella on the TV, Andy Katz I think his name was, he said Illini fans are some of the best, the most… uh… “passionate,” he called it. Said we were like, the sixth best in the whole country. Now, I don’t know about all that ranking stuff, sounds like fancy talk to me. But I do know folks ’round here love their Illini. They wear the shirts, the hats, they paint their faces orange and blue, looks plumb silly if you ask me, but they do it.
- They even got them signs, big ones, little ones, all sayin’ “Go Illini!”
- And them chants, oh boy, the chants! You can hear ’em a mile away.
- It gets real loud in there, that stadium place where they play.
Folks say it’s been like this for years, decades even. Mamas and papas, grandmas and grandpas, they all cheered for the Illini. It’s like… it’s like somethin’ in the blood, I reckon. You grow up with it, you live with it. You get happy when they win, you get sad when they lose. It’s just the way it is.
Now, some folks, they move away, go off to other places. And they still cheer for the Illini. I heard one fella sayin’ he couldn’t find no one else who loved the Illini as much as he did. Poor fella. He probably just needed to come back home, where everyone’s got that Illini spirit. ‘Cause around here, you ain’t alone in your love for them boys. We’re all in it together.
And this year, well, they say the team is doin’ alright. Ranked in the top 25, they say. Football, basketball, the ladies too! That’s pretty good, I reckon. Means they’re winnin’ more than they’re losin’, and that’s always a good thing. Gives folks somethin’ to cheer about, somethin’ to be proud of. Keeps the spirits up, ya know?
There was this boy, Coleman Hawkins, played for the Illini. Real good player, folks liked him. Then he went off to play somewhere else, Kansas State they said. Some folks got upset, thought he was turnin’ his back on us. But the boy, he said he didn’t have no bad feelin’s, still liked the Illini and the fans. Well, that’s good, I say. You gotta do what you gotta do, and sometimes that means movin’ on. But the Illini, they keep on goin’, no matter who comes and goes. That’s loyalty, ain’t it? Stickin’ with somethin’ even when things change.
Even got a big game comin’ up, against Wisconsin. Tuesday, December 10th, eight o’clock they say. Folks will be glued to their TVs, or maybe even goin’ to that stadium place. Gonna be a lot of yellin’ and hollerin’ that night, you can bet on that. And win or lose, we’ll still be Illini fans. That’s just the way it is ’round here. Loyal ’til the end, like a good ol’ dog, that’s us.
So yeah, Illini basketball… it’s more than just a game. It’s somethin’ that brings folks together, somethin’ to be proud of. It’s… well, it’s just Illini basketball, and that’s all you need to say.
Tags: [Illini Basketball, Fighting Illini, College Basketball, Fan Loyalty, Illinois, Basketball Fans, Team Spirit, Sports, Big Ten Conference, University of Illinois]
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