How one school kept "Warriors"

[jce]

Around the time of the nickname controversy, someone honestly tried to remove the Indian from the seal, saying it was a slave and demeaning.

Like I said, leave logic at the door when heading into ultra-PC academia.

The problem is that your assertion is pretty much illogical.  The "academia" at MU never pushed for dropping the Warrior name.  In fact, there was never much pressure on the University at all to drop the name - just the use of the Native imagery.  It was pretty much Fr. DiUlio pushing it and I wouldn't call him "ultra-PC."

I appreciate that you fought to bring it back while you were a student there.  But as a young alumnus back in the early 90s who was living in Milwaukee at the time, I can tell you that there wasn't a bunch of pressure from anywhere about changing the name.

(BTW, I voted "Golden Avalanche" in '05)

[MUfan12]

I can't speak for what it was like on campus in 94- I was in 4th grade.

I can speak for what it was like in 05, and there was overwhelming faculty opposition to bringing the name back, and they wouldn't even consider Warriors as anything but an insensitive racial slur. They couldn't wrap their minds around the fact that the word Warrior carries no ethnicity and had a hard time believing that the bigoted students and alumni that wanted the awful word back couldn't embrace a new logo.

[jce]

My recollection from reading McAdam's blog at the time was that about half of the faculty supported the change back to Warriors.

[MUfan12]

There were some, admittedly less organized. Whole departments spoke out against it though, like the English dept. Also, the University bureaucrats were definitely opposed for the most part.

That was a time I really wish I had back... we put a ton of work into it. If only I would have known the process was a sham and the Indians had veto power, I would have left it well enough alone.

[Ahoya06]

There were some, admittedly less organized. Whole departments spoke out against it though, like the English dept. Also, the University bureaucrats were definitely opposed for the most part.

That was a time I really wish I had back... we put a ton of work into it. If only I would have known the process was a sham and the Indians had veto power, I would have left it well enough alone.

eh, we had nothing better to do... 

[MUfan12]

eh, we had nothing better to do... 

My GPA begged to differ....   

[jce]

There were some, admittedly less organized. Whole departments spoke out against it though, like the English dept. Also, the University bureaucrats were definitely opposed for the most part.

That was a time I really wish I had back... we put a ton of work into it. If only I would have known the process was a sham and the Indians had veto power, I would have left it well enough alone.

Ah the naivety of youth.  I remember being SOOO upset when they dropped it originally, but over the course of time I realized that it wasn't that big a deal.  I became hardened and calloused.

And it doesn't surprise me about the English Department.  English Departments are always the source of the most radical thoughts on college campuses.  It comes from having no marketable skills and little income.   

[bma725]

The problem is that your assertion is pretty much illogical.  The "academia" at MU never pushed for dropping the Warrior name.  In fact, there was never much pressure on the University at all to drop the name - just the use of the Native imagery.  It was pretty much Fr. DiUlio pushing it and I wouldn't call him "ultra-PC."

I don't know if you'd classify Diulio as ultra PC, but he is against the use of human imagery of any kind in sports nicknames, and it's not just Warriors.  When he was at Xavier, DiUlio wanted them to get rid of Muskateers and the pirate logo and switch to an animal nickname and mascot.

[MARQKC]

I don't know if you'd classify Diulio as ultra PC, but he is against the use of human imagery of any kind in sports nicknames, and it's not just Warriors.  When he was at Xavier, DiUlio wanted them to get rid of Muskateers and the pirate logo and switch to an animal nickname and mascot.

Wished he'd brought that sort of passion to the Fighting Irish. Making it a leprechaun doesn't give ND a pass. The name is an ethnic reference, and to some (like me), it's an offensive one. If the name rule must apply to one ethnic group, it ought to apply to all.

Human mascots are fine with the NCAA, apparently. West Virginia has a Mountaineer; Tennessee has a Volunteer, as well as a dog or something. The Mountaineer carries a rifle, and some of us were wondering how that weapon got past security at MSG at the Big East a couple of years ago. (OK, it's probably a prop, but I remember that the NY Times had a story about it.)