IUCK FLLINOIS
and your stupid tshirts.
edit: if you've never seen the shirts, they say Muck Fichigan and they are EVERYWHERE that there's Illinois fans.
How sad is it to wear t-shirts disparaging a team that couldn't give a crap about you. News flash Illinois: you're no where near our list of rivals, even though we are number 2 for you!
I cringed during the game when the announcers talked about us being rivals.
Illinois is not our rival. Iowa isn't either. I keep needing to say that since a section of the Iowa fanbase seems to think otherwise...
Purdue is now Iowa's most hated rival. The Big Ten conference told me so.
You guys sound young. Let an old geezer (mid40s) provide some historic context.
Twenty years ago, Illinois WAS our #2 basketball rival. Sparty was always #1. But when UM was good (Roy Tarpley teams, Glen Rice teams, Fab 5er4), Illinois was constantly (with Indiana) one of the teams we had to get past. The national semifinal game in 1989 helped install UM/UI as arch rivals. When I used to go to UM games as an undergrad (mid 80s), Illinois was ALWAYS probably the most intense atmosphere, after Sparty. Iowa was really good (Dr. Tom in those days) and with Roy Marble etc. were a rival too. But Illinois had such great players and a couple of good coaches, and they were typically top-15, top-10.
Let an equally old geezer (mid 40s) provide the truth.
The atmosphere at Indiana games was always the most intense from the early 1970s through the late 1980s, although Michigan State sometimes surpassed it. The Indiana game was the one that sold out, no matter what. It was the game with the season-ticket holders in the seats, and all of the seats filled.
Illinois was an afterthought before 1988, and after 1990. They were never a rival.
You guys are a bit older than me but yeah, for me it was always Indiana that was the game to win after MSU.
That doesn't seem like Lloyd Brady's style. He's a classier kind of fan.
I don't even care enough about Illinois to be bothered.
something like forever. Not too original, I don't even notice them really.
Wouldn't you even be embarassed to wear such things? In public let alone national TV no less?
What a game! The guy next to me at the bar left in the second half. Oh boy, what a win.
Did not notice the shirts. What did they say?
When you've kicked someone's ass constantly in everything for the past 50 years, then their going to consider you a rival / hate you. It's just part of being (one of two of) the Big Ten's historical "Big Dog."
what did the shirts say? didn't catch a glance of them.
The shirts were just like the title of this thread, but directed at Michigan instead of Illinois.
Muck Fichigan. Any time we play Illinois in basketball or football you'll see crowd shots of Illinois dudebrahs wearing them.
March 12th, 2011 at 12:18 AM ^
"Ann Arbor is a whore"
Put the two sides together, and it suggests that the Illini enjoy prostitutes.
Stay classy, Champaign.
Only in there minds, for several reasons. 1)They hired Gary Moeller as head coach in 1978, and Illinois won 5 games in 3 years. 2)Coach at Illinois, Mike White, committed NCAA violations and Bo had the audacity to say he should be fired. 3)Michigan won 70-21 in 1981(82?) over Illinois, rubbing it in since Michigan had rehired Moeller.
I went to the M vs. UofI game at Champaign in 1985. Illinois person comes up to me with a "BO HAS AIDS" button. Classy group of people. Game ended in 3-3 tie. Chris White, coaches son, misses field goal at end of game to preserve Michigan tie. Dieter Heren partially blocked the kick for Michigan.
It was 1981 that Michigan destroyed Illinois 70-21. The crazy part is that the score at halftime was 21-7 in favor of the Illini...Bo's boys racked up 63 unanswered points in the final 2 quarters.
Bo always said "There are some teams where 100 points isn't enough...and Illinois is 3 of those teams!"
Gary Moeller was fired after only 3 years as head coach, upsetting Bo.
When they had a good football team, it was with Mike White as coach, who used a lot of Community College players to make his teams competitive. That was and still is not the normal way of building a competitive team in the Big Ten.
after just 3 seasons.
Bo Schembechler: "Illinois hired him (Moeller) as their head coach in 1977, and promised him five years- they canned him after three. Just ridiculous."
David Brandon: "I will forever be grateful for the lessons he (Bo) taught me about leadership... And he helped shape my education, my career, and my leadership style."
Uh, right.
Of course, Bo was thisclose to firing Steve Fisher if he'd lost a game at any point during the '89 title run, and Fish had only been on the job a few weeks.
Bo's issue was that Mo was his friend and protégé, and he didn't want to see him out of a job. Illinois could have employed him for six years and then fired him, and Bo still would have taken it personally.
Fisher was an interim head coach during the title run, so Bo might not have re-hired him, but that's very different.
March 11th, 2011 at 10:32 PM ^
He was in line to get a head job. He'd paid his dues. I think most people expected him to be the permanent coach as soon as he was named the interim guy. That was how Frieder had gotten the job, and I think Orr before him. In fact, I don't think any interim coach at this school has ever failed to land the job permanently.
March 11th, 2011 at 10:36 PM ^
Frieder was an interim coach? News to me
I've said it several times. Take away Ohio State and Illinois has the worst fans in the Big Ten. For GOD's sake, their school president sent UM a letter of apology for the way they treated our fans in Champaign 10 years ago.
Their student section has been wearing those "Muck Fichigan" shirts for more than a decade. Their ENTIRE student section was wearing them when we played them in football in 2002.
Fuck them. Yeah, we had some classic battles with them in basketball and we knocked them out of the final four in 1989. The hard feelings started in the early 1980's in football. Fans looked forward to the games but it was never really a rivalry. Their cheating coach, Mike White, beat us one time in the entire decade. Not long before he got the program put on probation for his recruiting violations.
Their fans have been jackasses ever since. I hope they enjoyed their trip home today.
Don't forget the "Biting Illini" football teams from the 80s that played uber-dirty. I think one of your videos from the late 80s has an Illinois CB running a Michigan WR into the bench after making a catch.
1982, actually. Larry Ricks is 3 feet out of bounds and an Illini defender then drove him into the bench. Bo argued that Illinois should have been flagged because of that and the ref threw a flag on Bo instead, knocking us out of field goal range and forcing us to punt.
Crap like that is why you should hate Illinois. But that still doesn't make them a rival.
I think the shirts are terrible, but keep in mind that "Buck The Fuckeyes" is typically a big seller on Hoover St. as well.
Its all poor form, bush league stuff unless it comes from the blogstore or moes.
March 11th, 2011 at 10:44 PM ^
Illinois fans must be rooting their hearts out for Wisconsin right now. Wins by Michigan and MSU are leaving the B10 bubble picture crowded, and now PSU might be making a statement. Illinois has lost 10 of its last 16. I'm not sure they should be a given.