Aug. 6, 2009

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Be the first to know the scoop on all of your favorite Fighting Illini teams and coaches by following them on Twitter and Facebook. The Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics has jumped on board with both social media networks, creating official accounts for all 19 varsity sports, to better connect with Illini alumni and fans.

The pages are updated often with breaking news, in-game updates, links, information on former Illini playing professionally, photos and videos, as well as with interactive contests and giveaways. Recently, the Illinois Football Twitter page (@IlliniFootball) gave away 2008 Rose Bowl game programs and the page has a weekly trivia question where the winner receives a 2007 highlight DVD.

In addition to each sport having a fan page, also offered on Facebook is a general Fighting Illini Athletics page (www.facebook.com/FightingIlliniAthletics), which gives updates and highlights on the athletic department as a whole, including promotions and ticket specials.

The pages have already proven to be popular among fast. As of Aug. 6, Illinois' combined Facebook pages had over 27,000 fans and the Twitter pages had over 2,000 combined followers.

While sports information personnel update the individual sport Twitter pages, several Illinois head coaches also have started their own Twitter pages. Football Coach Ron Zook (@RonZook), men's basketball coach Bruce Weber (@coachbruceweber), volleyball coach Kevin Hambly (@IlliniVBHambly) and soccer coach Janet Rayfield (@janetrayfield) all keep fans up-to-date via Twitter. Zook's page has over 4,000 followers and Weber's over 2,200 as of Aug. 5.

For a list of all Official Fighting Illini Athletics Twitter and Facebook accounts, click here: