As Nat and I are packing our bags and heading out the door this afternoon for a drive down to St. Louis for the Labor Day weekend, my mind keeps wandering back to a post I wrote almost a year ago. We’re multi-tasking in St. Louis: Nat is going to a wedding and I’m going to see my Illini take on the Mizzou Tigers in something they’re billing as the “Arch Rivalry”. I’ll be tagging along to the wedding, and Nat has consented to joining me at the game, so it’s a win-win for everyone involved.

While I’m putting on my orange t-shirt, I keep thinking that we should have a similar impact on St. Louis that Clemson has on towns they travel to. In fact, other teams could/should be doing this, too. The Hawkeyes of Iowa are playing NIU at Soldier Field tomorrow. Imagine all those crazy farm folks from Iowa staying at the Fairfield Inns and La Quintas around the Chicagoland area spreading out 2 dollar bills with yellow hawks on them at the Chi-Chi’s and Olive Gardens. The staffs and owners of the stores and restaurants would certainly be surprised by the impact that the travelers are having.

So…I guess I first need to get a Chief Illiniwek stamp made up and then get a few people using it. Start spreading the love at games.

Or, what if we built an effort to get people using the “Chief Dollars” or “Chief 2 Dollars” just in Champaign during football weekends. We could demonstrate the spending power of the pro-Chief alums and at the same time keep the Chief alive around town! I wonder what it would take to start selling black market chief stampers? Maybe my original idea of Sacajawea dollars is a better thought!