Illini Athletic Director Mike Thomas was at Nike Town on Michigan Avenue in Chicago today to help promote the new Illinois athletics re-brand by Nike. The new uniforms were revealed yesterday.
I had an exclusive conversation with Mike Thomas where we talked about those uniforms, but also next fall’s football team, the state of football at the University of Illinois, and also the State Farm Center renovations, among many other topics.
You also may be wondering about that mysterious orange and blue painted jet with the Nike swoosh spotted at Willard Airport in Champaign; tweeted by Flightstar and RTed by the Illini Athletics account.
Turns out that’s not an Illini plane or a Nike plane. Mike Thomas wasn’t able to tell us what the story behind that is.
All in all, the Illini re-brand went about as well as possible. And hopefully, the two revenue producing sports will start looking up next year, being as bright as the outfit outlook.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a frequent guest on national talk radio. Banks is a former contributor to NBC Chicago and the Washington Times, who’s been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)