Mascots are meant to embody the people of the region and school it represents, but few have brought on as much scrutiny as ...

Watch the NCAA Tournament and you will come across some interesting team nicknames, some of which will cause curiosity about their origin. Teams such as the Illinois Fighting Illini, for example.

For years, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had the mascot 'Fighting Illini' as a reference to the Illinois Confederation of indigenous people. Since the mid-2000s, the name has been ...