Illinois celebrated its bicentennial as a state in December of 2018. To celebrate, the Chicago Tribune published the Bicentennial Bucket List: 200 Things To Do In Illinois, celebrating the best the state has to offer in history, food, architecture, culture, sports, nature, drink, and oddities. With the state still shut down due to the corona virus outbreak, I figured this was the second-best time to look through this collection and cover the ones I’ve done/eaten/seen.
We kick things off with one of the entries from the Sports category: Fighting Illini Basketball, from Champaign, IL.
Get swept up in Big 10 school spirit at the University of Illinois’ recently renovated State Farm Center. The space-shiplike dome contains an intense student section, the Orange Krush, created at the urging of former coach Lou Henson in the mid-1970s.
Decades later, the Krush continues to put the squeeze on opposing teams with an intimidating sea of orange and trademark cheers.
I’ve attended 2 Fighting Illini home basketball games, one in 2016 and the second this past January. In both cases, I’ve left the State Farm Center disappointed as the Illini managed to defeat my beloved Purdue Boilermakers. With Danny now committed to Purdue, there probably isn’t a reason why I’d need to go back to Champaign to see another game.