FEATURE STORY — March/April 2009

 

UIC Naming Rights

The Chicago Clout? The Chicago Skyscrapers? Chi-Illini? The Chicas? Hull Cats? C.C. Riders?

The inside story on how picking a moniker for athletic teams proved to be more difficult than building Chicago Circle campus

By Michael John Goode
Historical images and artifacts courtesy of University Archives

After the merger of Chicago Circle and the Medical Center in 1982, the administration considered naming the campus’ sports teams either the Chicago Clout or Chicago Skyscrapers.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?
At the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Flames moniker is a crucial part of our public identity, influencing everything from the way the athletic teams are marketed to the choice of school colors (Indigo Blue and Flame Red) and mascots (Sparky D. Dragon).

A perusal through the athletic records at University Archives, Richard J. Daley Library, however, reveals that the Flames was not the first choice for representing UIC’s sports programs.

When the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle merged with the University of Illinois Medical Center to form the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1982, the administration considered two other names—Chicago Clout and Chicago Skyscrapers—but students ultimately rejected them. The Chicago Clout logo included a caricature of an Irish politician, while the Chicago Skyscraper design featured a rather uninspired silhouette of downtown Chicago.

The March 8, 1982 Chicago Commuter, an independent student newspaper, featured an editorial that panned the names as racist and boring, respectively. Meanwhile, in a campus-wide vote, which included more than 40 names, students selected the moniker Flames over second-place choice ChiHawks, by 208 to 177—a mere 31 votes. At stake was not only the University’s future logo but the choice of mascot as well: Imagine Harry the ChiHawk entertaining crowds at the Pavilion during half-time instead of Sparky D. Dragon!

The problem of naming the athletic teams has challenged UIC almost from the beginning. The origin of Chicago Circle (now referred to as the East Campus) began in 1946 as the Chicago Undergraduate Division of the University of Illinois. Classes were held at Navy Pier and the campus served a student population of almost 4,000. Because the Navy Pier campus was a formal extension of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the school adopted the blue and orange colors of its downstate sister campus. Navy Pier athletic teams adopted the moniker Chi-Illini, short for Chicago-Illini. Navy Pier had an Indian mascot known as Chief Chi-Illini, a character similar to Urbana’s Chief Illiniwek. Unfortunately, the Chi-Illini name and mascot didn’t prevent the Chicago media from sometimes confusing the Navy Pier athletic program with those of the U.S. Navy.

LITTLE GIRLS AND BIG, STRONG MALE ATHLETES
In 1964, with the grand opening of the UICC campus imminent, the administration settled on a new name, which it believed best represented the spirit of a first-rate university in the heart of a great Midwestern city: The Chicas. (The name was supposed to be shorthand for Chicago.)

The November 1964 issue of the university newspaper Chicago Illini embraced Chicas as a new, separate identity from the Urbana campus. “For 18 years, we have echoed the name of the ancient Urbana campus,” the Chicago Illini mused. “For 18 years we have played little maiden to the gigantic cold-hearted campus at Urbana. Let’s stop playing second string…We cast our vote for Chicas…a name designed to excite the emotions of men and warm their hearts.”

Despite the Chicago Illini’s strong endorsement, it didn’t take long for the Chicas name to attract controversy. As anyone familiar with Spanish knows, “chica” means girl. This caused problems for varsity athletic teams, especially for the male football and basketball players who had to endure taunts from opposing teams and their fans. By early 1965, UICC, along with Athletic Director Walter Versen, EDM ’53 UI proposed a compromise name change to Chika, ostensibly in reference to the Chickasaw Indian nation. What­ever its merits, the University probably imagined Chika to be a suitably masculine alternative to young girls.

Unfortunately for the University, the compromise failed to win popular support among students or to prevent them from associating the name Chikas with femininity. An editorial in the March 1, 1965 Chicago Illini printed an illustration of a distinctly masculine-looking student wearing a UICC jacket and asked, “Does he look like a Chika?” The Illini editorial noted that Chika, the name of an Indian tribe…also means ‘little girls’ in colloquial Spanish and pleaded, “Now is the time to act, and we hope it isn’t too late.” A Stu­­dent Con­gress com­­mittee went to work, soliciting more appropriate names.

Students responded by suggesting more than 100 names for the Student Congress’ consideration. Among them were the Cyclones, Braves, Vanguards, Windy-Citiers and Bullets. On April 26, 1965, the Student Congress settled on the Chieftons, Hull Cats, C.C. Riders, Unicorns, Warriors and Chikas for the upcoming campus-wide vote. On May 17, the C.C. Riders was declared the winner, with Chikas finishing second. Interestingly, students also offered a number of write-in votes, which included the Warriors (finished third) and Rail Splitters (fifth). Thankfully, Cement-mixers and Savages did not garner overwhelming support.

Surprisingly, despite the selection of C.C. Riders, Versen announced that the elections failed to deliver a clear mandate for an alternative and thus UICC would retain the name Chikas. Ironically, despite the attempts to distinguish Chicago Circle from Urbana, the Chika Indian mascot and logo differed little from the Chief Chi-Illini of Navy Pier days.

Since 1990, UIC’s mascot has been Sparky D. Dragon, whose fun-loving personality and crazy antics have made him a fan favorite..

THE FLAMES SMOKES THE C.C. RIDERS
After the creation of UIC in 1982, students selected the Flames by an even slimmer margin than C.C. Riders in 1965.

With the new name came the corresponding need for a new mascot. As with team nicknames, UIC experimented with several mascot iterations before arriving at Sparky D. Dragon. UIC’s first mascot was intended to look like a flame, but thanks to the squat, round shape of its uniform, it soon won the name “Tommy, the Tomato­head.” In 1986, Tommy was dropped in favor of a somewhat menacing-looking dragon, which bore a close-resemblance to the Tyran­nosaurus Rex in “Jurassic Park.”

However, UIC’s T. rex soon found itself extinct just like its prehistoric relatives when the Athletic Department decided it needed a furrier and friendlier mascot. It contacted a Cincin­nati-based company that de-signed mascots for Disney World and asked it for ideas. One sample the firm provided was based on the Loch Ness monster. Rick Harrigan, MS ’88 AHS, then assistant athletic director in charge of marketing, had the company remove the horns and make the costume red. And with that, Sparky’s current look was born.

Initially, students animated Sparky. Sheryl Coon ’93 CBA was one of them. The Athletic Department sent her to “mascot camp” at East Tennessee State University during the summer of 1990 where she joined dozens of students from other schools to learn how to walk, dance and manage their bulky outfits. From 1990 to 1993, Coon wore the dragon suit at men’s basketball and hockey games, hanging out with Flames fans in the stands or walking around the floor of the UIC Pavilion.

During hockey games, she mostly stayed in the stands except for halftime when she walked out on the ice to assist with the halftime shootout contest. “The Athletic Department wanted me to wear ice skates, so I could be out on the rink more,” recalls Coon. “There was no way I was going to do that.”

Since 1993, the dragon costume has been brought to life by Bill Bavirsha ’97 LAS, MS ’98 AHS, UIC associate athletic director/facilities. Bavirsha is credited with developing and perfecting the “Sparky D. Dragon” persona that we all know and love today. His innovative use of props and multiple outfits (“Elvis” Sparky, “Beach-bum” Sparky) make half-time shows a delight to watch, and his fun-loving personality has endeared him to legions of young children who attend Flames games with their parents.

So the next time you’re at the Pavilion, remember: Instead of the Flames, you could be rooting instead for the UIC ChiHawks. Or the C.C. Riders. Or the Unicorns. Or maybe the Rail Splitters.