Thank you Mr. Whitman
- CG Facer
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
On March 1st, 2018, University of Illinois Athletic Director Josh Whitman posted one of the more prophetic tweets in college sports history.
At the time this proclamation was issued to the world, this is where things stood for the Fighting Illini’s top revenue-generating sports:
The Illini football team had gone 2-10 during their most recent season. They were 0-9 in conference play.
The Men's basketball team's season had just ended in February due to a first round loss to Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament on February 28th. The Illini's record was 14-18.
The Women's basketball team completed a 9-22 season with a conference record of 0-16.
"#WeWillWin"
............When?
This was the question we couldn't help but ask.
For most of my life, winning as a fan of Illinois sports had felt more like a fluke than an earned result. Every once in a while we might run into a hot stretch of games or have a single solid season, but those instances were few and far between.
Our hopes for turning over a new leaf were always accompanied by a sense of dread that our luck would inevitably run out.
There was the 2007 football season that ended with embarrassment at the Rose Bowl. The team failed to reach any bowl game the following year.
Then there was the 2009 NCAA Basketball tournament where the men's team lost to 12 seed Western Kentucky in the first round. The team missed the tournament in its entirety the next season.
Matt Bollant took the women's basketball team to a 19-win season during his inaugural stint back in 2013. His program would fail to reach 10 wins in three of the next four seasons.
We came to expect this as fans. Anything that seemed good would always falter. Failure was inevitable.
For this reason, we became overly nostalgic for the 2005 men’s basketball team that reached the National Championship. We couldn’t let go of the remorse from failing to finish the dream season with a win. There was no reason to believe we might ever find ourselves in that position again; our one shot at glory had slipped away.
So when Josh Whitman promised us wins in the future despite all evidence indicating otherwise, we just rolled our eyes.
He didn't understand that's not how things go around here.
Or so we thought.
A couple months ago, Josh Whitman penned a letter to Illini Nation. He referenced that tweet from 2018 in his letter. Mr. Whitman said that prior to posting the tweet-
"I was a bundle of raw emotion. Embarrassed. Angry. Disappointed. But never discouraged. Never wavering. Committed. Proud. Motivated. Defiant, even."
After reading those words, I reflected on how I (CG) have felt in moments of failure. Certainly embarrassed, angry and disappointed. But also discouraged. Doubtful. Never proud. Sometimes motivated, and sometimes wishing I could walk away from things and forget about them.
Rarely in my life have I followed failure with an attitude of-
"No, I know this is the right thing to do. I just need to keep going and this will work out."
Instead, I am far more likely to say to myself:
"Clearly this didn't work out so I must be doing something wrong. Maybe I can't do this after all."
And NEVER would I consider taking the path that Josh Whitman took, going to Twitter to tell anyone who would listen, "Trust me, I've got this."
Reading Mr. Whitman's letter prompted me to search for news articles from the days when he was hired as the University of Illinois' Athletic Director. I wanted to see if there were any clues from that time that would reveal where this innate sense of belief came from.
What I found was nothing short of serendipitous.
On February 18th, 2016, University-related Illinois Public Media published an article reporting on Josh Whitman's introduction as Athletic Director. The article includes a quote from one of the hiring committee's members, 6th Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Dan Flannell, who said of Whitman-
"The one vision that he [Whitman] stated over and over, as others did, was - we need to win the right way. You don’t win long term by taking short term shortcuts. You have to rebuild the foundation and do it with integrity."
If you happened to catch my post from last week, you may be starting to notice a trend here: The path to success is seemingly not beholden to any time table, but rather a commitment to doing the right things from start to finish.
After all, if Josh Whitman had come to the students, faculty, alumni, and fans of the University of Illinois on the day he was hired and said-
“I don’t know how long it will take, but I promise you the time will come where-
The football team will win the Citrus Bowl and the Music City Bowl over SEC opponents in back to back years, totaling the highest two-season win total in program history.
The men's basketball team will return to the Final Four.
The women's basketball team will have back to back 22-win seasons and reach the NCAA tournament round of 32 on both occasions.
-and it will all be happening at the same time.”
We probably would have told him to take as long as he needed. And then we’d ask him to share whatever he was smoking.
Yet, here we are.
The story that Josh Whitman told us about, the one that he could see on that bleak day in March eight years ago, is unfolding in front of us right now.
Is Mr. Whitman the sole person responsible? Of course not.
Brad Underwood. Bret Bielema. Shauna Green.
Keaton Wagler. Luke Altmyer. Berry Wallace.
Larry Gies. Rich and Leslie Frank. Henry Dale and Betty Smith.
Every student, faculty, and fan who showed up and cheered them on.
And every other student-athlete, assistant, manager, and coach who played their part.
We needed all of them.
As Brad Underwood humbly pointed out following the Men's basketball team's win over Iowa in the 2026 Elite Eight-
"You're only as good as the people you have around you."
I would say the people we have around in Champaign-Urbana right now are awfully good.
I do not know what will happen Saturday evening in Indianapolis. The Illini might beat UConn and return to the National Championship. They may even win it all. Or they might lose, and another great season will come to a close.
But I do know three things-
None of this happened by accident.
I am grateful for Josh Whitman, his resilience, and his entire staff's contribution to our community.
Regardless of what happens this weekend, I will be a proud fan of the Fighting Illini.
I-L-L.
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