Sweet Sioux Tomahawk goes the way of Chief Illiniwek

By Terry Bannon |Chicago Tribune staff reporter

The Northwestern Wildcats and former head coach Randy Walker display the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk trophy after capturing the 2003 rivalry contest. (NU Media Services photo)

A 63-year-old tradition is ending Saturday.

The Sweet Sioux Tomahawk, long a symbol of the Illinois-Northwestern football rivalry, is going the way of Chief Illiniwek.

The decision to retire the trophy comes one year after Illinois retired Chief Illiniwek, a tradition that dated to 1926.

The NCAA directed Illinois to remove all Native American imagery from its athletic teams or lose the right to host postseason NCAA events.

"We were directed by the board of trustees through the chancellor's office to retire the trophy," Illinois athletic department spokesman Kent Brown said Friday.

The Sweet Sioux Tomahawk trophy, now enclosed in a framed case with the scores of the Northwestern-Illinois games, returned to Champaign last year after the Illini's victory over the Wildcats.

The tradition will end Saturday, when the Illini bring the trophy to Evanston. It will remain at Northwestern no matter who wins Saturday's game.

"Out of tremendous respect for the Native American community as well as for Illinois and Northwestern, this was the right thing to do," said Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips, an Illinois graduate. "After the first of the year, Northwestern and Illinois will get together and develop a new rivalry trophy."

The Sweet Sioux Tomahawk tradition was introduced by the staffs of the schools' student newspapers in 1945. The original trophy resembled a cigar-store Indian, which was common at the time. However, in 1946, it was stolen from a showcase at Northwestern.

The Tomahawk Trophy replaced it in 1947 and has gone to the winner of the game ever since. The original wooden Indian turned up in 1948 but was retired because of its size.

Exchanging of trophies between teams is a college football tradition, and Illinois still has two of them. Ohio State and Illinois exchange a wooden turtle known as Illibuck. The Illini and Purdue trade possession of a cannon.

•Illinois offensive coordinator Mike Locksley has been interviewed for the Clemson head coaching job and may be a candidate at Syracuse, where his recruiting ties in the East could be appealing.

Tribune reporter Shannon Ryan contributed to this report.

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