Howdy, TCR community!
My name is Stephen Cohn and I'll be serving as manager of The Champaign Room moving forward! I’m actually in the main photo with this article. You can see a silhouette of my face sticking out from the right shoulder from the guy playing trombone, second from the left.
That photo was taken when Illinois was playing getting crushed in the first round of 2017 Big Ten Tournament against Michigan. If you haven’t caught on yet, I’m a band geek, specifically for the Marching Illini and the Fighting Illini Basketball Band.
Growing up in Buffalo Grove, Illinois — a northwest suburb of Chicago — I truly became an Illini fan during their magical 2004-05 season, and it has been an absolute honor to perform in the band at football and basketball games the past two seasons.