by Douglas Yeo (October 23, 2023)
Last week was homecoming at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where I am currently serving as the School of Music’s trombone professor through the 2023–2024 academic year. Homecoming is an annual tradition that dates back further than anyone can remember, and most colleges and universities hold the same tradition. It’s a time for alumni to come back to campus, there’s usually an important football game on the weekend, a parade, and school colors—orange and blue—are everywhere.
Sign promoting University of Illinois homecoming, outside of the University’s Native American House.
University of Illinois Bookstore, October 18, 2023.
Welcome sign in the University of Illinois School of Music.
I’ve always enjoyed school spirit. While it hasn’t always been evident in some of the schools where I’ve taught, I’ve taught at two schools that have exceptional school spirit. When I was professor of trombone at Arizona State University (2012-2016), school spirit was everywhere. Everyone—everyone—wore gear in ASU maroon and gold. You just did that. The same is true at University of Illinois. The campus bleeds orange and blue. Not just at homecoming weekend, but year round.
I’m a part of this. I think school spirit is important (more on why I feel that way in a moment). So I fly the flag. My office is full of reminders of University of Illinois, particularly the orange block “I” that permeates campus life. “The Power of I” is the slogan. Not “I” as in “me, myself, and I,” but “I” as a representative of University of Illinois and its community. Look at these photos of my office at Illinois that I took last week. You can engage in a little game of “Where’s Waldo?” and find all of the “I” in my office. I made it easy for you; they’re circled in red.
Nine Illinois I in this photo of my desk.
Five Illinois I in this photo of a wall in my office.
Four Illinois I in this photo of the door to my office.
We even put the Illinois block “I” on our computer keyboards:
You get the idea. I promote Illinois orange and blue and the Illinois I because I am proud to be a member of the University of Illinois community and in this, I show solidarity with my students, alumni, and all who have ever been associated with the University. And there is that word: Community.
Foellinger Auditorium on the quad at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
If you read my article on The Last Trombone that I posted on October 25, 2023, “What is happening? It’s not all about you. Or about me. It’s about the music.”, you saw that word there, too. Community. In that article, I talked about the fact that as trombonists, we work in community with other members of orchestras, bands, and other ensembles. We do not act as individuals—even when we have a solo. Everything we do is contextualized by our working in community. We work together. All parts of the community are always equally important, but not all members of the community are always as prominent as others at any given moment. There is a difference between importance and prominence. On a college campus as large as University of Illinois—44,000 students on campus—it might seem difficult to get your arms around the fact that we are all part of the same community. It’s true that none of us know everyone on campus, but we are part of the same community. We walk the same halls, we cross the same quad in the center of campus, and we all wear the Illinois “I.” We are bound together by our place, our purpose, and our sense of belonging.
The University of Illinois student section and Marching Illini at Memorial Stadium, Champaign, Illinois, October 21, 2023.
When my wife, Patricia, and I attended the Illinois/Wisconsin football game last Saturday, we sat in a section of the stadium where we did not know a single person by name. Yet we were bound together with those that were around us by the fact that we were all part of the Illinois community. We cheered the team, we cheered the Marching Illini, we cheered the alumni band, we cheered for Red Grange and George Halas and Dick Butkus, storied alumni of University of Illinois who went on to play for the Chicago Bears. I looked over at the packed student section that held up cards to make the Illinois “I” while the Marching Illini played the University’s fight song, “Oskee Wow-Wow.” When, the next day, Pat and I attended the Chicago Bears/Oakland Raiders game at Soldier Field in Chicago, I wore my Red Grange jersey on which Pat had sowed a University of Illinois patch. I brought “The Power of I” to Soldier Field with my Red Grange jersey.
The University of Illinois patch I have on my Chicago Bears Red Grange #77 jersey.
When we were recently in Florence, Italy (where Pat and I celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary and enjoyed a week of Renaissance art, churches, parks, and remarkable food), we were walking down a street when I heard, I-L-L! I was wearing a University of Illinois hat at the time and anyone who is part of that community knows that when someone says, I-L-L! the proper response is, I-N-I! There I was, nearly 5000 miles away from home, and “The Power of I” was at work. The same thing happens on hiking trails. Wearing school gear—a hat, a shirt, a sweatshirt, a backpack—identifies you as part of a community and it is a badge that reaches out to others who share the same connection with that place that you have. People you had never met before stop and talk with you about that connection. It’s happened to us many, many times. On a hiking trail in the middle of nowhere, you belong to something bigger than yourself. You belong to a community.
This is why I think school spirit is so great. In a time where it seems that “It’s all about ME,” school spirit says, “It’s all about US.” Community pushes against selfishness. Community pushes against self-centered individualism. Community brings us together, and school spirit is an important part of bringing people together.
John Donne wrote about this in his memorable Meditation CVII from his Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624). Donne, in a masterstroke of memorable prose, wrote:
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of friends or of thine
own were; any man’s death diminishes me
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
We are dependent upon one another, connected to one another, and our individual uniqueness is part of a greater whole. When we are together, we can do things we can’t do when we’re alone. School spirit is about togetherness, about belonging. It pushes against selfishness and “it’s all about me.” “The Power of I” is about “it’s all about us.” That’s why I like school spirit.
I-L-L!
I think I hear someone answering, I-N-I!
The statue of Alma mater by Laredo Taft, on the campus of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Alma mater is surrounded by representations of labor and learning.
The Last Trombone – Douglas Yeo 