Almost every year at the beginning of March Madness will ask, “What is a Saluki?”
The Saluki is the mascot at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and the Dawgs, as they are affectionately known, are usually a contender for the NCAA basketball tournament each March.
Which always leads someone, somewhere to ask, “What is a Saluki?” And the sign follows the question, “Why is the Illinois school three Egyptian dogs?”
The answer is a bit of IL history and a lot of reading.
The university is located in southern Illinois, an area called “Little Egypt. Legend, sometimes state history, states that for the first time in the history of the state, the central region of the republic experienced a terrible drought.
Similar to the biblical story of Joseph going to Egypt to buy corn, the folk tale states that farmers could go south to the fertile region between the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and buy corn through the winter.
After this the region was called Little Egypt. The city that arose, where the rivers meet, is called Cairo, although the inhabitants pronounce it karo, a sign of stolen grain, and not as a city in Egypt.
In 1951, Southern Illinois University officially changed its mascot and adopted the Saluki as its new representation. Previously, he was the “Maroon” of the university. I don’t know in what sense he became more of a dog.
The Saluki appeared to be of Egyptian origin, a fine, hairy dog. The dog is fast, reaching speeds of up to 40 miles per hour. Sometimes they say that the dog does not even touch the ground. Fans of Southern Illinois basketball like to think their players don’t touch the ground either.
The dogs are loyal, but skidish, and usually do well only with a companion cat or another Saluki. And the racks recommend not having a Saluki, if you have anything else small indoors (besides a cat), because they are trained hunting dogs. No amount of training can break them from their natural instincts.
Saluki basketball fans are happy to contend that the Dawgs are always in the hunt. And recently an accurate metaphor. The Saluki football team, a long-lost varsity, has been a national player for three years running. Not bad for the size of the school at Southern Illinois University.
He also needs a medical doctor to improve his condition. The Dawgs have made it to the Dance every March for five years and look set to go again. They have playing hard and looked decent, even with a chance to win, against much bigger Division 1 schools. He mentions the recognition and recruitment procedures.
But the question still remains, what is a Saluki?
The dog was traditionally used by the Bedoins of the Middle East to hunt rabbits and goats and is one of the oldest known dog breeds. There are depictions of the Saluki in the monuments of the Pharoahs noting back to 2100 B.C. A dog is best suited to run at home, inside with its family at night, in a large open area during the day. It is related to hunting and Afghan dogs and was bred in the desert, although they prefer slightly cooler temperatures.
What is a Southern Illinois Saluki? Dawg fiercely proud, much tougher than their Egyptian namesakes and ready to fight for their place in the middle of a major basketball powerhouse.
It’s too early to call honeybees dancing just yet, but asking the country “What is a Saluki?” the middle of March came.
