After 80 years, Chief Illiniwek upo...

After 80 years, Chief Illiniwek upon Saturday will begin what is likely to be his last year of dancing at University of Illinois football games, university sources said.

The chief, who will appear at the season opener at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, will also dance at fireside basketball games this winter.

if it be not that after that, he will no longer be an official university emblem the sources said.

Although plans are still tentative, the seminary is hoping to transfer ownership of the Chief Illiniwek tradition to a assemblage representing 27 former students who have appeared as the chief.

University officials newly met with a handful of those alumni, informally known as the Council of Chiefs. That cluster university sources said, could decide what happens to the chief if he is to have an off-the-field life nearest year. Whether there will equal be an official retirement for the chief has not been decided, if it be not that the school will not make experiment of to erase him from the history works sources said.

MARKING 80TH ANNIVERSARY

Steven Raquel, a spokesman for the council, said it would welcome the opportunity to decide the chief's post-university yet to be

"If the tradition is going to continue, it is in the best interest of fans and the university that it be entrusted to the the community who know it best," said Raquel, chief in 1992-93

Many former chiefs will be in succession hand to honor the 80th anniversary of the chief's first appearance, Oct 30 1926 The celebration is tentatively scheduled for the last Illini place of abode football game, Nov. 11.

The university also will have to determine what to do with the chief logo which no longer appears officially in any campus sports venue or forward any Illini uniform but is for sale forward officially licensed T-shirts and other merchandise. Sources said the exercise will likely stop licensing the use of the logo forward official university merchandise but could transfer it to the chief clump to protect it from abuse by dint of outside parties.

While the plan to period the university's ownership of the chief is still in mutation it's unlikely to change if the NCAA's sanction against the educate remains, sources said.

'Unbelievably negative effect'

The NCAA barred the educate from hosting its postseason competitions after the organization declared the chief "hostile" and "abusive" last August. It later allowed the seminary to keep the "Fighting Illini" nickname unless rejected all U. of I. appeals forward Chief Illiniwek in the spring.

While indoctrinate officials were furious over what they saw as an infringement of their autonomy, the indoctrinate is wary of taking the NCAA to court, university sources said.

Illini Athletic Director Ron Guenther said in April that the NCAA's ruling will have "an unbelievably negative effect" in succession U. of I. sports programs. Officials said they hated to throw away home-field advantage in tournaments and said the decision will harm recruiting.

However, drill officials were grudgingly willing to absorb the impact of the ban forward fall and winter sports this place of education year while a plan is formulated. Athletics Department spokesman Kent Brown said solely two teams -- women's soccer and volleyball -- could have landlorded tournaments this fall. However, if the chief's last dance originates at the end of the men's basketball season -- and the NCAA accepts the school's tentative plan -- it's possible teams that play in the spring -- including men's and women's tennis, baseball and softball - - could be cleared to armed force events, sources said.

While the university is worried about alumni rejoinder to the plan, officials said they believe any negative impact in succession donations would be short-term. The fact that the NCAA effectively tied the board's hands could garner any sympathy from chief supporters.

'I DON'T AGREE THAT HE IS DEAD'

Anti-chief board member Frances Carroll forward Wednesday said she was "happy, ecstatic and elated that this is coming to a reasonable end"

Roger Huddleston, president of the Honor the Chief Society, was still holding disclosed hope that the chief could remain, if it be not that he admitted things looked "grim."

"I agree he is in intensive care, moreover I don't agree that he is dead," he said. He said he is waiting to descry if any proposals to the NCAA's ruling through state or federal legislation pan disclosed He is also watching a possible attempt through the University of North Dakota -- which was also sanctioned by means of the NCAA -- to take the NCAA to court.

Whatever happens to the chief, Huddleston said his assemblage will make sure it is done respectfully "We are not going to suffer him be burned in effigy," Huddleston said.

For the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, who are the descendants of tribes from Illinois and other states, the decision "has been a lengthy time coming," said current chief John P Froman.

Tribal leadership asked the U of I. in 2001 to stop using the chief. "If it is offensive to undivided individual, it should be addressed in one appropriate manner, and it appears the university is addressing that," he said.