The Illini are headed to the Final Four! As called by @BBarn64 and the Illini radio broadcast.

Second half radio calls from Illinois’ 76-55 victory over VCU!!

It has been 35 years and I can still smell the rubber from my 1991 March Madness Pizza Hut mini basketball inside my nose.

Wildcat Basketball hosts the Mt. Vernon Rams for Senior Night! #SACRIFICE

The Air Force has been trying to retire the A-10 Warthog for over a decade, and Congress keeps telling them no. You would think after the tenth rejection they would take the hint, but apparently the Pentagon brass has the reading comprehension of a stop sign at a NASCAR event. Let me explain this in terms even an Air Force procurement officer can understand. The A-10 was not built and then given a gun. The GAU-8/A Avenger, a 30mm seven-barrel rotary cannon that fires 3,900 rounds per minute, was designed FIRST, and then they built an entire aircraft around it. The recoil alone produces roughly 10,000 pounds of force, nearly matching the thrust of one of its own engines. When those depleted uranium rounds hit a tank, the penetrator SELF-SHARPENS on impact, punches through armor, and ignites everything inside. During the Gulf War, T-72 turrets were blown completely off their hulls. Captain Eric Salomonson and Lieutenant John Marx destroyed 23 Iraqi tanks IN A SINGLE DAY during Desert Storm. Twenty-three. The F-35 carries 182 cannon rounds. The A-10 carries 1,174. Do the math. Actually, let me do it for you since the Air Force clearly cannot. In 2003, two A-10 pilots, callsigns Donk and Billy Bob, dove into a sandstorm near Baghdad under heavy anti-aircraft fire to save Task Force 2-69 pinned at the Muthanna Bridge. Donk's targeting computer failed. Billy Bob took lead and destroyed multiple T-72s. A shoulder-fired missile narrowly missed. They stayed in the fight for 40 MINUTES. Both earned the Silver Star. An F-35 would have dropped one bomb from 30,000 feet and gone home for the day. Captain Kim Campbell took anti-aircraft fire over Baghdad, lost ALL hydraulic systems, and flew her A-10 home using MANUAL REVERSION. She landed safely. Tell me what other aircraft in our inventory survives that. I will wait. The F-35 program has cost over $1.7 TRILLION in lifetime costs. Building 200 new A-10s with modernized avionics would cost approximately $6 billion. That is less than the COST OVERRUN on a single major acquisition program. The A-10 does not need pristine runways, climate-controlled hangars, or a team of PhDs to change a tire. It needs fuel, ammunition, and a reasonably flat stretch of dirt. Asking an F-35 to do close air support is like asking a Formula 1 car to plow a field. Sure, it can technically drive through dirt, but it was not designed for it, it will not do it well, and the cost is absolutely absurd. You want to know who does not care about stealth coatings and radar cross-sections? The soldier pinned behind a wall with rounds cracking over his head screaming into a radio for air support. He wants an aircraft that will show up in MINUTES, stay overhead for the DURATION of the fight, put 30mm rounds exactly where they need to go, take hits without falling out of the sky, and come back for another pass. That aircraft is, was, and always will be the A-10. Speaking of actually supporting our troops instead of just SAYING we support them, maybe while we are discussing $6 billion for new Warthogs, Congress could find the $10 billion over ten years to pass the Major Richard Star Act (S.Amdt.4056) and stop STEALING retirement pay from 50,000 combat-wounded veterans who were medically retired because they got blown up serving this country. We can spend $1.7 trillion on an aircraft that melts in the rain, but we cannot pay the men and women who bled for this nation what they were promised? The wheel is spinning but the hamster died years ago. Build more Warthogs. Same airframe. Same gun. Same titanium bathtub. Same twin engines. New computers. The troops on the ground are counting on it. BRRRRRT. But what do I know, I am only a medically retired Army combat medic who called in A-10 support in Iraq and can personally testify there is no sweeter sound on a battlefield than that cannon.

When you’re dead, you don’t know you’re dead. The pain is felt by others. The same thing happens when you’re stupid.

Kurt Russell’s performance as Herb Brooks in Miracle is so powerful & so real, I’ve found myself turning to this monologue at some of the hardest moments of my life. I’m from the Midwest. You have no idea what this story & this film means to people. Glad the #Olympics are here.

Really appreciated getting to meet @VincentDJohnson while watching the kid play at Taylorville this week. The man knows his gyms! Make sure to get his book - it is excellent!

Luke Altmyer was asked what the biggest thing he's learned about himself throughout his college career is. He cites scripture, 1 Thessalonians 4:11: "Let it be your ambition to lead a quiet life, to work with your hands and mind your business. Luke says: "It's so easy to talk about yourself and think you're all that - In reality, I'm in need of a savior, and that's Jesus." @lukealtmyer9 @BretBielema

Ask and you shall receive. Pat Hughes’ calls of: 1. PCA’s lunging catch in the top of the 8th (great banter between Pat & Ron) 2. PCA’s 452 ft. solo homer in the bottom half of the inning (radio broadcast returned live just in time for the crack of the bat). (@670TheScore)

Pat Hughes. One of one. 1. Miguel Amaya’s game-tying home run with two outs in the ninth. 2. Ian Happ’s walk-off single in the 10th (incl. a great prediction from Ron Coomer). Audio via @670TheScore (SiriusXM)

The great @PatandRon670 call the Cubs’ thrilling eighth-inning comeback.

Your chances of being hunted by a turkey are low, but never zero.

Man's Day Sure Would Brighten Up If An A-10 Warthog Would Fly Overhead Right About Now buff.ly/3MMYfEz

2024 Michigan Illinois throwback game highlights in old timey newsreel style

RT @TPICGalleries: OTD 100 years ago (October 18, 1924) the legendary Red Grange (seen here on that day) and his fellow Illinois Fighting I…

8 years ago today, Miguel Montero crushed a pinch-hit Grand Slam in the bottom of the 8th inning in Game 1 of the 2016 NLCS against the Dodgers 💪🏼 Dexter Fowler followed up with a solo-shot to the right-field basket. Wrigley was ROCKING! (📸: @cubs)

Final call view from the booth with ⁦@BBarn64⁩ & ⁦@Careydavis38⁩. #Illini

RT if your team has a ranked win this season! 💪