Dancing at Halftime: Sports and the Controversy over American Indian Mascots

Sons of Modern Illini

Sons of Modern Illini When the University of Pennsylvania was coming to play Illinois in 1926, its marching band offered to bring a William Penn costume for a halftime skit if Illinois would come up with a character to meet Penn. There was no question how the student who would shake Penn’s hand and welcome him to Illinois should dress. Of course he had to be an Indian. The year before, 1925, was the first time that Zuppke had taken a team east; there was a general feeling that the eastern teams played superior football and that Illinois would be out of its league there in more ways than one. The Penn team was undefeated that year and the Illinois team was young and green. Everything seemed to go wrong: the train carrying the Illinois band was delayed and the field was a sea of mud and snow. Perhaps the miraculous arrival of the band just before kickoff, playing as they marched into the stadium, gave the young Illinois team heart. Although it might seem impossible to pull off a play with multiple passes using a slippery ball, the “flea-flicker” worked like a dream. The Penn team had no idea where the ball had gone until they saw Red Grange holding it in the end zone. Red turned up in the end zone three times that day after long runs through the mud. Although undefeated Penn lost 24-2, and eastern teams lost their perceived superiority, they may have felt it was worth it to be treated to the spectacle of the Galloping Ghost in action. The Chicago Tribune headline, in huge black ink, said simply, “ILLINOIS, 24; PENN, 2; GRANGE!” The next year, when Penn came to Memorial Stadium, the Ghost was gone. He had evaded his tacklers once again after the last Illinois game, turning up not in the end zone, but in the five-year-old National Football League playing for the Chicago Bears. University promotional materials are not quick to point this out, 80 but turning pro before you graduate is also an Illinois tradition. Grange earned $100,000 in his first year of playing for the Chicago Bears and brought legitimacy to the NFL. Before Grange joined up, the Chicago Bears had been playing to crowds of six thousand fans. But thirty-six thousand watched Grange’s first game. However, Grange paid a price for his professional success. The man he most admired didn’t speak to him for two years: Zup thought that football should be played for love, not money. The manager who brought about Grange’s metamorphosis from college star to professional attraction was a movie theater owner from Champaign named C. C. Pyle. He sold the rights to use Grange’s name on everything from dolls to ginger ale, and while Red carried the football and earned bruises, Pyle carried off the profits and earned his nickname, “Cash and Carry.” It was the beginning of a new era in professional sports. George Halas, the Chicago Bears player, owner, and coach who had played for Zuppke, came to agree with his old coach that it wasn’t a good idea to encourage college players to leave school before their class graduated. Subsequently , they worked out the idea of the draft. The draft provided an orderly system to funnel well-trained players to the professional teams. For the halftime show on an October Saturday in 1926 the assistant band director recruited Lester Leutwiler, a student who was interested in Indian lore and had made an Indian costume for himself as a Scout project. Leutwiler ran out onto the field and led the band, dancing in front of them as they formed the letters PENN. When the band played Pennsylvania’s alma mater song, a drum major came out dressed as William Penn and accepted the catlinite pipe proffered by Leutwiler. After smoking the peace pipe, the two walked off the field arm in arm to (according to university literature) a “deafening ovation.” Applause from sixty thousand people is rarely anything less; however, Leutwiler’s performance was popular enough with football crowds that he continued to serve as “Chief Illiniwek” until he graduated. It couldn’t have hurt that the Illini won again that day without Grange. SONS OF MODERN ILLINI 81 The real William Penn would certainly have recognized Chief Illiniwek as an Indian, for in 1683 he wrote...