By Sean McDevitt, FightingIllini.com
Illini families are special.
For many Illini families, Saturday's in the Fall means tailgating and football. For other Illini families, it might mean gathering around the TV to watch their favorite team.
Illini families come in all shapes and sizes. You might have been lucky enough to be born into one. Perhaps you married into one. Maybe you can't wait to start your own Illini family.
However, just like every family, Illini families start with a father and a mother. And in the case with the Passaneau Illini Family, it started with Robert and Carol Passaneau and passed down to their children Mike, Missy, and Steve.
As with all the Illini families, the Passaneau family are passionate fans and have been for decades. There was no one more passionate than Robert Passaneau. In honor of his love of Illinois Athletics, the family is making a gift to the Richard T. Ubben Basketball Complex Renovation Project. It is a fitting way to honor the patriarch of this particular Illini family permanently.
"Illini basketball has always been our family favorite"
The whole Passaneau family graduated from the University of Illinois. In fact, Robert and Carol met on campus and married in 1963. Right from the start, the family started attending football and basketball games.
Steve said, "My Dad had season tickets for pretty much forever. So we'd go down to a bunch of the games every year and a handful of the basketball games too. He introduced Illini sports to us when we were little kids and would always bring us down there. My sister married a Fighting Illini, Mike McBain. He played football at Illinois and was part of the Rose Bowl squad in '83."
The siblings have carried on the Illinois tradition. Mike's and Missy's oldest sons graduated from Illinois, and Missy's daughter is a senior. For the last 15 years, the family had season tickets and made Illinois athletics a part of their family outings.
"We love to get down there and tailgate," said Steve. "Plus, having nieces and nephews down there too made it nice to go down and just coordinate a whole weekend out of it."
Basketball was a significant passion for Robert. So much so that it was sometimes hard for him to watch.
"While we have had season football tickets since the early 1980s when my sister and I were at Illinois, Illini basketball has always been our family favorite," said Mike. "From the strong teams in the early eighties to the Flying Illini in 1989, and the NCAA runner ups in 2005, we have lived and died with them. We knew that whenever a big Illini basketball game got close, my Dad would get so nervous, he would leave the room and peek back in from time to time."
"Help attract elite talent"
Earlier in the year, Athletic Director Josh Whitman announced the development of plans for updates and renovations to the Ubben Basketball Complex.
The renovations scheduled for Ubben include adding nearly 45,000-square-feet to the existing building and remodeling more than 8,000-square-feet. Additions to both the men's and women's gym space include new half courts. The project also adds a state-of-the-art sports medicine area, two-story strength and conditioning room, dedicated meeting spaces for academics, and team meals.
This year, the $79.2 million Henry Dale and Betty Smith Football Center became the new home of Illinois football. The world-class facility offers expanded strength and conditioning and sports medicine space, position meeting rooms, state-of-the-art locker rooms, and other areas for recruiting and prospect hosting. The Passaneau family anticipates similar benefits of a renovated basketball facility.
"I think if Illinois wants to compete against everyone else in the big time, you've got to keep the facilities current, and certainly, you want someplace where the recruits really want to go and practice," said Steve. "Just like on the football thing with the new Smith Center. I mean, you're already hearing the players say how much they love just being at the new facility and how much of a commitment that the University has to them. So, that'll be the same kind of example shown on the basketball side."
Missy agrees, "My Dad was an excellent high school basketball player, and I think the gift to the Ubben Renovation will help attract elite talent with top of the line facilities and help the program that my Dad loved to remain at or near the top of the Big Ten for a long time to come."
"A good way to celebrate his legacy"
The family has a long history of being involved in the University.
Missy said, "Our parents have been donating to the U of I for years through giving to the Endowment Fund in 1996 for the College of Business, donating to athletic scholarships, and donating to scholarships in the College of Education. Dad always wanted to give back to the University that gave him the foundation to be successful in his life."
The opportunity to create a permanent place of remembrance for their Dad was something they couldn't pass up. Steve said, "We figured this was a good way to celebrate his legacy and his memory that would be a great way to get involved in the enhancement of the Ubben center."
Mike added, "It is important to honor my Dad with this gift because I don't know of anyone who bled orange and blue more than he did. He always made efforts to give back to the University of Illinois. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta at Illinois and was a huge reason why the fraternity was able to get a new house on campus. He was in charge of the annual Phi Gamma Delta reunions and was planning for the following year's reunion, even as his health was failing. He instilled what it was and is to be an Illini into all of us, and we want to carry on this goal and tradition as long as we can, and a dedication to him is a perfect way to honor him."
