FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[redman04]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=ncf&id=3624798

http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/11007577

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ap-forsakenfinger&prov=ap&type=lgns

Here is an interesting article (on multiple web pages) that was featured on ESPN earlier this week. An offensive lineman from DII Mesa State had broken his pinkie finger(similar to that of Tony Romo) and decided to amputate his pinkie finger in order to play out the rest of his senior year.

I might have done the same thing....hard to say unless it actually happened though.

They actually showed this kids game on CBS C.... I doubt that Mesa state would have been on TV if it wasn't for this story.  It was kinda funny that all the fans large foam hands with out the pinky.  AWESOME!!!! 

[Dennis_Prikkel]

in 1967 i went on the NPC baseball spring trip to Mississippi and we played the Belhaven Klansmen.

They have changed their name, too.

dgp

[Dennis_Prikkel]

of course we play Millsaps College, too, (Their campus is about a mile from Belhaven) - we stayed in the basement of Millsaps gym in a dormitory room they had there for visiting teams -

the week before we got there was a cross-burning near the campus.

DGP

[Dennis_Prikkel]

in 1972 we played Jackson State in baseball - my friend Al Benson, JSU SID, took me over and showed me the dormitory with the bullet holes still in where students had been killed in their rooms by national guard troops.

the neighborhood around Jackson state was made up of wooden shanties on cinderblocks - with cardboard doors and windows.  The entire neighborhood was enclosed by an 8 foot chainlink fence and at night there were giant gates that rolled across the streets so cars couldn't drive in or out.

dgp

went to the old Mississippi State capitol building in Jackson and in one room they had on display the old Confederate battle flags - and dried blood stains were still evident on the well-holed flags a hundred years later.

now back to our regularly scheduled football discussion.

[wabashcpa]

Jackson State had a decent football player there in that time frame - some guy named Payton.

[79jaybird]

Jackson St. is part of the SWAC  which includes Grambling St., Alcorn St., Alabama A&M, Prairie View A&M, Ark-Pine Bluff, Texas Southern, Southern, etc.  This predominantly African American conference has produced a few NFLers
Alcorn St. Steve McNair
Jackson St.  Walter
legendary coach Eddie Robinson Sr. at Grambling.

Lot of talent in a conference not as well known as some of the others.

[orsky]

The Pekin Chinks derived their name from the local manufacturing of pottery.  Chinks are the gaps between the bricks in a kiln.  They used to plug the chinks with clay believing that it improved the quality of the firing.

Another school close to Pekin in the Peoria area used a similar theme and they were called the Morton Potters.  Of course when PC won the day the Chinks became the Dragons.

[AndOne]

redman04---

Good stuff re the various colorful nicknames.
Here are a few more---

My old high school, Glenbard West in Glen Ellyn, is known as the Hilltoppers----because
  the school is built in the style of a castle on top of a large hill in downtown Glen Ellyn.

In Minnesota---The Univ of St. Thomas Tommies

In college at Nebraska Wesleyan, I had a couple of friends from NE high schools with unusual names:

Cozad Haymakers
Minden Whippets----This one always struck me as one of the strangest. For those of you who don't know, a whippet is another name for a greyhound dog. My buddy said they always felt a certain stigma that could be associated with the word "whippet" and their opponents seldom passed on the opportunity to point out that fact.     

[Mr. Ypsi]

The Pekin Chinks derived their name from the local manufacturing of pottery.  Chinks are the gaps between the bricks in a kiln.  They used to plug the chinks with clay believing that it improved the quality of the firing.

Another school close to Pekin in the Peoria area used a similar theme and they were called the Morton Potters.  Of course when PC won the day the Chinks became the Dragons.

I grew up in Peoria, and that is NOT my understanding of the nickname.  Pekin itself is named for Peking (now Beijing) because it was thought (erroneously) that it was located exactly opposite the Chinese capital.  And the nickname, according to what I'd always heard, was indeed the derogatory name for Chinese people.  (Back then Pekin was a proudly racist community.  At least as late as the 1960s there was a local ordinance that any non-white seen inside the city limits after sunset could be shot - though, to the best of my knowledge, no one ever tested the ordinanace's legality!)

[CardinalAlum]

in 1967 i went on the NPC baseball spring trip to Mississippi and we played the Belhaven Klansmen.

They have changed their name, too.

dgp

In 1967, I.......oh wait, I wasn't born yet!!   

[Carthage Fan]

Orsky-  "Pekin Chinks"     How can they get away with "Chinks"?  I know the word Chink is not a good word and a derogatory way to refer to somebody from the Far East (China).  I would not want that nickname as it just doesn't have a good connotation to it.
I was a Knight in HS, BlueJay in College, and my current hockey team are the Chicago American Eagles. 


Pekin changed the nicknae quite a few years ago - they are now the Dragons.
Yipsi beat me to it. Back In high school (1984) My basketball team played in the Pekin Holliday tourny that was hosted in there gym and if I remember correctly that was about the time they changed the name to Dragons. I remember the painting on the gym wall of a large chinese Dragon.

That dragon was on the wall in the mid-70's as well. 

[CardinalAlum]

redman04---

My old high school, Glenbard West in Glen Ellyn, is known as the Hilltoppers----because
the school is built in the style of a castle on top of a large hill in downtown Glen Ellyn.

One of my favorite high schools!  I loved playing games there.  There isn't a better setting for a high school game, especially when the leaves start turning colors.

[devildog29]

If anyone caught it, the Fisher Bunnies were featured on ESPN this week about teams with "unique" mascots.

As for Pekin, rumor has it (this could very easily be urban legend as I have no firsthand account) that when the schools mascot was changed, many of the old timers who were against the change could be found at the local sporting events with shirts that read something to the effect of 'Chinks never die, they just DragOn.'  Not sure if it's true or not, but it makes for a good story.

[robertgoulet]

redman04---

My old high school, Glenbard West in Glen Ellyn, is known as the Hilltoppers----because
the school is built in the style of a castle on top of a large hill in downtown Glen Ellyn.

One of my favorite high schools!  I loved playing games there.  There isn't a better setting for a high school game, especially when the leaves start turning colors.

Definitely a nice setting. I played in a men's bball league there a couple years ago. Very nice school.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Orsky-  "Pekin Chinks"     How can they get away with "Chinks"?  I know the word Chink is not a good word and a derogatory way to refer to somebody from the Far East (China).  I would not want that nickname as it just doesn't have a good connotation to it.
I was a Knight in HS, BlueJay in College, and my current hockey team are the Chicago American Eagles. 


Pekin changed the nicknae quite a few years ago - they are now the Dragons.
Yipsi beat me to it. Back In high school (1984) My basketball team played in the Pekin Holliday tourny that was hosted in there gym and if I remember correctly that was about the time they changed the name to Dragons. I remember the painting on the gym wall of a large chinese Dragon.

That dragon was on the wall in the mid-70's as well. 

Pretty sure I recall the dragon on the wall in the mid-60s, when they were definitely still the "Chinks".  Since a dragon fits in with the "Chinese" motif, I'm not sure that will help date the name change.

BTW, Richwoods (my school) and Pekin were conference rivals simultaneously in TWO conferences (Mid-State 8 and Illini) - any schools still simultaneously in two conferences?