One Question Mailbag: My Favorite Part

We took some mailbag questions on the podcast last week (and this week). We didn't get to this question but I really wanted to get to this question so now I'm going to get to this question. Because my favorite part of this is answering questions about my favorite part of this.

Here's the question:

What’s your favorite part of a strong revenue sports run that has nothing to do with actually watching the games? (For example: national media attention, getting random “Go Illini” comments when you wear your shirts in public, etc.)

Relevance. Relevance relevance relevance. RELEVANCE.

I've referenced this one several times over the years but I wrote a post in 2009 that I titled Nose Prints. My son's school had called to say he was sick so I left work to go get him. Three hours later, he sees his friends, after school, walking past the school to go play football in the park near our house. He suddenly felt better and wanted to go join them. I responded with "too sick for school, too sick for football at the park" and so he put his face up to the front window and left a nose print on the glass pane as he watched them walking off to the park.

I related that to my 3-7 football team at the time (despite having a Vegas over-under win total of 7.5 games for the 2009 season), already out of bowl contention with two games to go. I pictured Iowa fans and Wisconsin fans and Missouri fans all walking to the park (bowl games) to play football while I left nose prints on the window.

Here were the previous 50 months leading up to that Nose Prints article in 2009:

• Illini football in 2007: 9-4 and in the Rose Bowl (yay!)
• Illini basketball in 2007-08: 16-19
• Illini football in 2008: 5-7
• Illini basketball in 2008-09: A 5-seed (yay!) but then a loss in the 5-12 game to Western Kentucky.
• Illini football in 2009: 3-9

And here are the previous 50 months now:

• Illini basketball in 2023-24: Elite Eight.
• Illini football in 2024: 10-3 and a Citrus Bowl win.
• Illini basketball in 2024-25: 6-seed and a loss to 3-seed Kentucky in the 2nd round (but then two first-round NBA draft picks).
• Illini football in 2025: 9-4 and a Music City Bowl win over Tennessee.
• Illini basketball in 2025-26: Final Four

What does that provide for me, the Illini fan who writes his feelings on the internet? RELEVANCE. In every public interaction and every conversation. An "I-L-L" from another Illini fan is great, but a conversation with a fan of another team is even better.

I'll start there because I just tweeted about it the other day. As I mentioned in the last article, I'm currently in Idaho meeting grandchild #7 (that's seven in less than five years if you're counting at home). I went to the grocery store to get some things and this was my interaction:

I knew that tweeting that would get me mocked by other fanbases. Especially Indiana fans who learned about college football last year saying "how cute that you think the Music City Bowl matters." I get the "it's just the Music City Bowl" side of things. But hear me now:

I don't care.

All I've ever wanted is relevance. All I've ever wanted is for Illini basketball to return to its rightful place in the college basketball world and for Illini football to be in the conversation. And we have that now.

We have that! Some 19-year old kid seeing my Music City Bowl shirt, remembering that he watched that game (from central Idaho) back in December, and wanting to tell me that the final drive and field goal to win the game were "awesome", is relevance.

I'm sitting in Starbucks writing this. Just outside the door immediately to my left, some guy stopped me when we were here back in February because he saw my Illini basketball shirt and wanted to talk about how good we were and that we could make a deep run (he had watched the W46ler game a few weeks prior). He told me he had played at Santa Clara in the late 1990's (a few years after Steve Nash graduated - I asked) and that they had a solid team that could finally get them back to the tournament for the first time since Nash's final season. When they got that 10-seed in March, I gave a little fist-pump for my new Santa Clara friend and his 30-year dream.

Those are the conversations I've always wanted to have. That's why I wear an Illini shirt nearly every day of my life. I'm one of those "my chest is a billboard for my school" alums and I don't think I'm ever going to change. I told my wife and daughter-in-law when I returned from the grocery store the other day that this kid in Idaho remembering David Olano's field goal to beat Tennessee back in December locked up at least 15 more years of me wearing Illini gear every day.

Maybe I can best explain it this way. I often think about what a cliché I am. Overweight Midwestern Guy Who Only Wears His College On His Chest. There's not an ounce of fashion sense in my bones. If I'm going for a golfing look with a quarter-zip, it's an Illini quarter-zip. My school logo is my fashion crutch. In the same way that every guy in central Idaho (including my son) has the "Patagonia vest and earth-toned ballcap" aesthetic, I only have one go-to: orange and blue.

And when you're That Guy, you only want one thing: your teams to be relevant. You want the conversations outside the coffeeshop and standing in line at the grocery store. I didn't shy away from wearing Illini gear when the football team was 2-10 or when the basketball team was 16-19 and I could sense every "poor guy" reaction. So these "great run this year" passing comments? It's all I've ever wanted.

National media attention is nice. Seeing the Willis Tower lit up with orange and blue (and then struck by lightning - that's a legit photo from April) is awesome. But for me, the best part of all of this are the individual conversations (in airports, in line at the store, at a concert) where our relevance is communicated directly. It's all I've ever wanted.

Today is the last day of preschool for the 4 year-old. I need to get over to the school for the celebration at lunchtime.

Hope someone comments on my Illini polo.