The University of Illinois put Chief Illiniwek on the shelf last year and the school says it’s now retiring another piece of American Indian imagery.
Saturday was to be the last time Illinois and Northwestern play football for the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk, Illinois athletic department spokesman Kent Brown said Friday.
The framed tomahawk has been a part of the instate rivalry since 1947. Its run was to end as part of the 2005 NCAA directive to stop using American Indian imagery, Brown said.
“We for several months have been working toward this,” he said, explaining that university trustees told Chancellor Richard Herman that, like the chief mascot, the tomahawk had to go. “This was part of that edict on campus.”
The schools agreed to stop playing for the tomahawk “out of tremendous respect for the Native American community,” Northwestern Athletic Director Jim Phillips said in an e-mailed statement.
Both Brown and Phillips said the two schools will work next year on a new trophy for the rivalry game. It’s been played every year since 1927, and the teams first met in 1892.
The NCAA in 2005 told Illinois to stop using American Indian imagery, which it called demeaning and offensive, and barred the school’s sports teams from hosting postseason games.
