Sports

Bloomington Mayor Pro Tem Karen Schmidt said Tuesday she thinks it's unfair to speculate whether aldermen bear blame for any factors that might have led to alleged theft of nearly a million dollars by the city's former arena management company.

On the first day of a 24-day bicycle race across Russia, a Bloomington-Normal endurance athlete realized she probably would not finish. 

"As soon as I started on the first day and I saw this pack of men, as fast as they went off, I knew there was no way," said Thursday Gervais during GLT's Sound Ideas. She called the men's pace "wicked fast" and said it surprised everyone, including the Red Bull organizers. 

With 116 teams representing 29 states, the Town of Normal hit another grand slam this week by hosting the USA Class A 16-and-under girls national softball tournament.

A mountain of research—including a stunning new study on the brains of deceased NFL players—is changing the way that the Illinois State football team is practicing this summer.

Nine months ago an exciting event took place that made thousands of people wildly exuberant and happily exhausted. Oh, and the Chicago Cubs won the World Series too. And now, it's a Cubs baby boomlet.

Even veteran coaches can get nervous when jumping into a new endeavor. Adding to the apprehension for Illinois Wesleyan women’s basketball coach Mia Smith is jumping midstream into an at-large representative for selecting athletes and coaches for the national USA Basketball committee. She had no idea she was even being considered. 

A potential multi-sports complex on Bloomington-Normal's west side could top $50 million in public-private investment.

In an interview  for GLT's Sound Ideas, Katie Kim of the Kim Group, a developer working with landowner Dave Stark on a multi-use sports complex in Bloomington-Normal, said she continues to meet with stakeholders.

Illinois State University Athletics recently outsourced its comprehensive multi-media rights to Learfield Sports Inc. The Plano, TX based company will pay ISU $19.8 million dollars over 10 years for the rights to manage, market and sell Redbird athletics signage, digital, radio play-by-play and coaches shows. 

Runners, cyclists, swimmers and more can find support and comradeship  at the Central Illinois MultiSport Expo in Normal.

The Red Bull Trans-Siberian Extreme, starting July 18, is the longest and most difficult bike race in the world. Bloomington-Normal resident Thursday Gervais is training to be the first woman solo competitor in this 5,700-mile, 24-day race from Moscow to Vladivostok. Factor in weather, road conditions, and elevation climb and the race sounds impossible, but it's not. 

Illinois State University basketball coach Dan Muller fired off a tweet Monday that reverberated through college basketball.  The viral tweet came on the heels of the Redbirds being passed up for an "at-large" bid March 12 to play in the upcoming NCAA March Madness tournament.  Despite it's 27-6 season record, ISU was told it didn't have enough "quality wins" against strong opponents to be selected.

A new partnership in the Twin Cities aims to help the next generation by forging new bonds and friendships.

Bloomington Normal resident Doug Rosenbaum worked the Superbowl on Sunday. It is Rosenbaum's second stint as an NFL Referee of the biggest game of the year.

He was part of the top ranked crew during the regular season, which earned the right to ref the big game.

Super Bowl week activities took a backseat, at least for several hours, to a previously-unknown Illinois State University football recruit who dominated social media for more than a day.

Kansas high school football player Kobe Buffalomeat literally made headlines when his decision to play at ISU was made public during national college signing day, February 1st. His unique handle was highlighted online and otherwise by Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Washington Post, New York Times and other media outlets.

As Illinois State University's football Redbirds prepare for an unprecedented third consecutive appearance in the NCAA-Football Championship Subdivision post-season tournament, a central Illinois native has written a book on the history of the program.

Campus area taverns. restaurants, and sports bars were all at capacity with people lined up outside to watch the Cubs win the World Series.

After the ten inning end to a 108 year drought in championships, people poured out onto the streets and headed for the Illinois State University quad in the thousands.