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No more 'war chant' at University of Illinois sporting events

Chief Illiniwek has been "retired" for a decade or so, and now the war chant is, too.

The University of Illinois announced it no longer will be playing the "war chant" at sporting events, ending a school tradition that's
coincided with its mascot.

The school's band had still played it during football games last fall.

"There are people who felt that was an offensive Native American chant or music," athletic department spokesman Kent Brown told the Associated Press. "Another big part of that was that we had used it on third-down situations and our fan reaction to that was not as good as when we used our video board to prompt our fans.