Nice to hear from you Bytor and Talon.

Well things went something like this.

One of our more potty mouth posters made a comment about Howard Schnellenberger starting to drink again. I made the comment it wasn't very funny knowing a little about Howard's past. I also know Howard and his staff read this board!!!

I got two replys. One from Ghost of Bucolic saying that "Ron Zook sucks and University of Illinois blows and that what my problem is" or something close to that.

What in the world kind of comment is that? I'm not from Illinois to begin with. I'm from Florida. I work up here for a Fortune 50 company. Thats what brought me here. Why would someone his age make a comment like that for just saying his joke wasn't funny? Especially a joke about Howard's drinking.

The other reply was from our member from north of the border saying it was only a joke. Oh well.

I got a pissed and snapped back and told him he blows. That wasn't the best thing to do but I lost it.

Then I got a message from one of the two guys who thought Howard falling off the wagon was really funny telling me to "GROW UP".

My feeling was this has been getting me too wound up and for some reason I take too much of what is happening on the board to heart. I don't know why. I decided to delete my profile from the board. I guess being told to grow up after a joke was made suggesting Howard start drinking again seemed totaly rediculous. His drinking was brought up in the other forum and I know it wasn't well received by Bytor nor me and probably others. I'm sure this is something Howard would rather put in his past. I can't imagin what he felt reading it on the board and seeing people make a joke of it.

Frankly speaking I would like to see you reconsider your position, it is good to hear from you and I would really like to see you back. I like the bantering and it does get out of hand now and then but I think the underlying support from this board just as you said the staff reads this or they are directed to it. That underlying support is heard and is getting stronger. You were a big part of that. This is a pretty good way to let off steam and also to keep current events on the front burner.

I went back to find some info from last year and read a few of the old post and when the board was getting quite it had some life to it.

Think about it Illi, Official visits start this weekend good time to come back.

I agree. We need as much support on this board as we can get. From time to tome I go to other teams boards and they have thousands of members. You, like the rest of us here, are key to us reaching that level of fan support. Sadly, we lost a key member in OG and we can hardly afford to lose another important member over something as childish as a poor joke. I understand the reasons for you leaving initially, but certainly enough time has past where we can move past it. You don't have to like everyone on the board, and if you find something distasteful, it is your right to not read it, or respond to it. Just leaving altogether accomplishes nothing. I really hope that you will reconsider. Even though you are in Illinois and cannot attend many games, this is as good a place as any to support the program and your input is valued.

We all handle certain situations differently and I just hope that IlliniosOwl can see the benefits of taking part in this forum, which at one point was a big part of, far out weights the incident that occurred and force him into hibernation.

This like many other similar boards offer a forum that allows anyone to speak his or her mind with an understanding that the posters abide by certain protocols and respecting other posters being one of them. Difference of opinions should be expected anytime you make a post in these forums.

Again, I do hope that Illiniosowl will consider the benefit of taking part in this forum and join us again with a better understating of
not to take certain things to heart. I do believe that Howard has moved past that particular instance and has not allowed it to define who he is - his actions of today speaks more volume for who he is as a person (remember his post he made here after OG's passing), how we deal with failures & mistakes help shape the persons we become making us stronger in the process.

illinoisowl said

Nice to hear from you Bytor and Talon.

Well things went something like this.

One of our more potty mouth posters made a comment about Howard Schnellenberger starting to drink again. I made the comment it wasn't very funny knowing a little about Howard's past. I also know Howard and his staff read this board!!!

I got two replys. One from Ghost of Bucolic saying that "Ron Zook sucks and University of Illinois blows and that what my problem is" or something close to that.

What in the world kind of comment is that? I'm not from Illinois to begin with. I'm from Florida. I work up here for a Fortune 50 company. Thats what brought me here. Why would someone his age make a comment like that for just saying his joke wasn't funny? Especially a joke about Howard's drinking.

The other reply was from our member from north of the border saying it was only a joke. Oh well.

I got a pissed and snapped back and told him he blows. That wasn't the best thing to do but I lost it.

Then I got a message from one of the two guys who thought Howard falling off the wagon was really funny telling me to "GROW UP".

My feeling was this has been getting me too wound up and for some reason I take too much of what is happening on the board to heart. I don't know why. I decided to delete my profile from the board. I guess being told to grow up after a joke was made suggesting Howard start drinking again seemed totally ridiculous. His drinking was brought up in the other forum and I know it wasn't well received by Bytor nor me and probably others. I'm sure this is something Howard would rather put in his past. I can't imagine what he felt reading it on the board and seeing people make a joke of it.

Illi…I know what you are saying, I can't explain it either but for some reason I was really beginning to get caught up in this board and what was being said by who. I felt it was beginning to occupy to much of my time and energy. As I have explained to my wife, my emotions regarding the football team and the university in general have become intense over the last 5-6 years as the program has grown, this is a good thing.

You can't let a few small minded people determine your interaction with the rest of the board. I remind myself that these are for the most part anonymous posters and the posts in general carry very little weight, I'm sure Howard knows this also.

As 44 said, we need people on this board who care about the Owls as much as you do, I have decided to stay on the board but not let myself get carried away by other members posts, I'm here because I care about this team and want to stay on top of any information about where the university is going, other than that I am just going to ignore the junk. I hope you will do the same.

Good luck in the snow, it's been the warmest winter in a very long time down here…even though it's changed, I don't know if I could ever move away (I'm holding out for the eventually sold out 70,000 seat stadium and I still have season tickets on the 50 yard line and ever one is begging me for a ticket). ;D

Hey Illi recruiting is starting and you need to drag your butt back to this board. Be nice to start gertting some opinions from youon this years incoming class. 8-)