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Illini LB Khalan Tolson On Black Lives Matter Protests: ‘I love to see that stuff’

Illinois junior linebacker proudly watched his head coach and teammates speak out against social injustice over the last month.

Matthew Stevens

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Every time you mention the Black Lives Matter protests all across the country, Khalan Tolson begins to show what turns into a giant smile.

The Illinois junior linebacker says he remembers being in his hometown of St. Petersburg and watching the video posted on social media of his teammate Ra'Von Bonner standing in near a corner near his hometown of Cincinnati with a bullhorn. The video shows Bonner giving a speech about what the Black Lives Matter movement in our country means to him.

“Because what you see right here, it’s not a lot of (black) brothers and sisters that’s out here. It’s my white brothers and sisters that are choosing to take a stand, that are choosing to stand in the fire with us and say that we will not stand for this because this is the America we want our kids to grow up in. This isn’t equality. This isn’t equity. We haven’t seen justice. But from here on out, what I want for my kids in the future, they’re going to grow up in a new America.”

In a Zoom video conference with local reporters Tuesday afternoon, Tolson said he saw the video and his first emotion was pride for his teammate. The next was love for a movement that he hopes will provide a better social world to live in long after he leaves the University of Illinois in a few years.

“I’m just proud we have people on our team like that standing up for justice and what is right,” Tolson said. “I love to see that stuff. It’s really exciting to see. Change is starting to happen now. I love when people on our football team speak up on stuff like that.”

On June 15, Bonner was named as one of Illinois' nine representatives to the Anti-Hate and Anti-Racism Coalition created and sponsored by the Big Ten Conference. 

"I am thankful to have been nominated for such an incredible union,” said Coalition member and Illinois football student-athlete Ra’Von Bonner said in a statement. “I am an agent of change and will use my platform to create real change in this country. I am very motivated and dedicated to progressing my people, BLACK people.”

“I’m just proud we have people on our team like that standing up for justice and what is right. I love to see that stuff. It’s really exciting to see. Change is starting to happen now. I love when people on our football team speak up on stuff like that.” - Illinois linebacker Khalan Tolson on the Blacks Lives Matter protests and his teammate, Ra’Von Bonner being active in the movement. 

Tolson then watched his head coach, a self-proclaimed “62 year old black man from the south in a biracial marriage who has seen a lot”, do a national interview on NBC Sports Network with host Mike Tirico about his feelings on the potential social change movement happening across the nation among all races, ages and backgrounds.

“I've been asked a lot of times, 'hey Lovie can you give me a statement on what's been going on right now. Can you do that?' It's so much more than that,” Smith said on NBC Sports’ LunchTime Live. “A few things that I think we need to acknowledge. And we can't go much further until we do this. Systemic racism exists in our world. We have to acknowledge that before we can go any further. I've seen it. It's one thing to identify problems, then it's how do we change that problem. That's what we've been doing at the University of Illinois. Trying to make the world better but it can't be words.”

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Tolson finished watching the interview and immediately became reaffirmed as to why he chose to play at Illinois for Smith, the first African-American head coach hired in football or men’s basketball at Illinois.

“It’s how they communicated with me and just kept it real with me the entire time,” Tolson said. “I think a lot of (recruits) are interested in Illinois because of the diversity we have. (Lovie Smith) supports us and we’re a very diverse group here so you love to see that type of stuff from a college football program.”

The feeling of pride and love for his teammates, coach and program is why Tolson made a 15-hour drive back to the Champaign-Urbana campus from St. Petersburg, Fla., back to campus for the summer voluntary workouts.

“It was a long drive, but I managed to do it," Tolson said. "It wasn’t that hard getting back up here. Actually, I was ready to get back up here, to be honest; to be back in my element. I’d rather be back up here than back at home so it wasn’t that hard.”

Tolson, a 6-foot and 220-pound who is expected to challenge for the open starting linebacker position on Lovie Smith's defense this season, played in 11 games with four starts at linebacker during the 2019 campaign. Tolson started those four games last season in place of the injured Butkus Award semifinalist Jake Hansen and finished with 38 tackles, 1.5 TFL, two PBUs, one fumble recovery, one quarterback hurry on the season.

Tolson, who was a former three-star prospect out of Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Fla., was a stalwart on special teams by leading the Illini in kickoff tackles with four and being third on the team in overall special teams tackles with six.

“I learned pretty much how fast-paced the game is," Tolson said. “I took away everything (from last season) positives and negatives...how to prepare from the vets and how to get ready for game day. It really taught me a lot."

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Matthew Stevens
MATTHEW STEVENS

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