William and Mary uses common sense approach

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

What a novel idea! William and Mary keeps "Tribe" nickname, but decides to change mascots! What clever bastards!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/basketball/ncaa/06/22/william.mary.ap/index.html

[rocky_warrior]

Ingenious!  Why didn't I think of that.

Oh wait....

[Ready2Fly]

Would you rather be called the Warriors with a different mascot and have a hoops program on William & Mary's level, or be called the Golden Eagles and have the program at its current level?

[GGGG]

Would you rather be called the Warriors with a different mascot and have a hoops program on William & Mary's level, or be called the Golden Eagles and have the program at its current level?

What does that have to do with anything?

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

Would you rather be called the Warriors with a different mascot and have a hoops program on William & Mary's level, or be called the Golden Eagles and have the program at its current level?

Would you rather slide down a bannister covered in razor blades or suck the boogers out of a dead person's nose?

[StillAWarrior]

Would you rather be called the Warriors with a different mascot and have a hoops program on William & Mary's level, or be called the Golden Eagles and have the program at its current level?

[ChicosBailBonds]

What a novel idea! William and Mary keeps "Tribe" nickname, but decides to change mascots! What clever bastards!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/basketball/ncaa/06/22/william.mary.ap/index.html

My brother in law teaches down there.  We spoke about it months ago and how it was bungled so badly at Marquette.  He wasn't on any committee or anything at William and Mary, but when we spoke about simply changing the mascot and keeping the name he felt that many were leaning toward that notion.

Glad to see it come to fruition.  In 5, 10, 15, 20 years....with each successive year, people will not remember the Indian association.  It's what we should have done from the get-go and what we should have done a few years ago.

The image will be burned into my memory for a lifetime and could have been avoided is of the MU student (female) looking at the tv in complete stunned disbelief.

Wade also couldn't have said it better.   

http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&um=1&q=%22marquette%20gold%22&ndsp=18&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iv#

[ChicosBailBonds]

Would you rather slide down a bannister covered in razor blades or suck the boogers out of a dead person's nose?

[ChicosBailBonds]

Would you rather be called the Warriors with a different mascot and have a hoops program on William & Mary's level, or be called the Golden Eagles and have the program at its current level?

I'd rather be called the Warriors and have a program at Marquette's level.  Not sure why the nickname determines the level of the program, but it often does determine many other things, including the cow towing to political correctness, etc.  Otherwise, I honestly don't get your analogy at all, what does one have to do with the other?

[Marquette84]

So let me get this straight. . .

William and Mary first changes from the "Indians" to the "Tribe" in the 1980's, becoming one of the first schools to bow to political correctness.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5inmHVW7pfhSlwoFmep82lmheVJQgD98VQ0T00

Then, they try to pass off an "amorphous, asexual green blob" as their mascot while keeping the Tribe name?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Ebirt

NOW they have to change yet again, keeping the Tribe name, but changing the mascot to potentially a stalk of asparagus?

And this is defined here as "common sense?"

My god, we could have wound up with this:



or this. . .

[dsfire]

Y'know, when I first read the part about the asparagus, my thought was, "I'll bet you could get Veggie Tales as a corporate sponsor."

[ChicosBailBonds]

I don't think many care about the actual mascot itself, it's just some coed dancing around in a costume.  But the nickname carries on more value to many alums, just my opinion.  It's difficult to come up with a symbol for Tribe that isn't Indian.

It's very very easy to come up with a symbol or mascot for Warriors that isn't Indian.  I don't think we would have ended up with a stalk of celery or blueteaux, but even if we had I'll bet the vast majority of alums that wanted Warriors back would have taken that trade.

Just doing a quick exercise of going to google and typing in "warrior" in the images section results in 18 images...3 of them Indian, 3 soldiers, a bunch of medeval warrior types (archers, barbarian types), a few warrior priests (love that), etc.  We would have ended up with something very warrior like without the Indian imagery.  No problem at all in my opinion.

[Tom Crean's Tanning Bed]

[4everwarriors]

I don't think many care about the actual mascot itself, it's just some coed dancing around in a costume. 



So TallTitan is actually a chick?

AH is going to be pissed at you.

[rocky_warrior]

Well - I suppose we could count that as a warrior too.  Oh...that wasn't your point ???

[Ari Gold]

I like the WoW move to bring back the Warrior Nickname. Each player can change their name to an Avatar... just think of the options we would have on the jumbo-tron...

Or we could always bring back:

[muwarrior87]

some people in the athletics office will never let Blueteaux out of retirement unless it's the last year they are at MU, and then it's even a very very slim chance. TT knows who I'm talking about.

[GGGG]

The problem with Blueteaux wasn't the concept...it was the execution.  If they would have gotten a loveable Philly-fanatic type, or something like the Golden State Warrior mascot, it would have been OK.  But instead they instead got something that looked like a mangey, flea-ridden Grover with a gay little baret on his head.

And this ignores the issue that DiUlio was hell-bent on changing the name no matter what.

[StillAWarrior]

And this ignores the issue that DiUlio was hell-bent on changing the name no matter what.

I've heard for years that Shalala was instrumental in getting DiUlio to change the name, including that she would not be able to continue playing MU pursuant to Big 10 rules.  Anyone know if there is any truth to that?

[GGGG]

I've heard for years that Shalala was instrumental in getting DiUlio to change the name, including that she would not be able to continue playing MU pursuant to Big 10 rules.  Anyone know if there is any truth to that?

None.  He was apparently influenced by a couple tribal leaders in northern Wisconsin.  However, I think it was mostly driven by DiUlio's desire to shake things up when he got to MU.  Father Raynor was a wonderful, caring President who helped the University grow leaps and bounds.  But MU suffered from a malaise at the end of his tenure - poor enrollment, small endowment, infrastructure issues, etc.

DiUlio was brought in to shake things up and this was one of his battles.  He ended up picking too many of them, like his desire to divert Wisconsin Avenue, and pissed too many people off so he was let go.

[mu_hilltopper]

I think having Blueteaux walking around the Bradley Center for a couple games a year would be a HUGE crowd pleaser.

"Retro Mascot Days"

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

I think having Blueteaux walking around the Bradley Center for a couple games a year would be a HUGE crowd pleaser.

"Retro Mascot Days"

I agree! I think it would be hilarious. Of course, the perspective of some on this board is that the name "Warriors" cannot be separated from former incarnations of our mascots.

By that reasoning, these people cannot separate Blueteaux from "Warriors." Therefore, Blueteaux=Racist.

Perfect logic.

[ChicosBailBonds]

None.  He was apparently influenced by a couple tribal leaders in northern Wisconsin.  However, I think it was mostly driven by DiUlio's desire to shake things up when he got to MU.  Father Raynor was a wonderful, caring President who helped the University grow leaps and bounds.  But MU suffered from a malaise at the end of his tenure - poor enrollment, small endowment, infrastructure issues, etc.

DiUlio was brought in to shake things up and this was one of his battles.  He ended up picking too many of them, like his desire to divert Wisconsin Avenue, and pissed too many people off so he was let go.

Completely agree

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

I agree! I think it would be hilarious. Of course, the perspective of some on this board is that the name "Warriors" cannot be separated from former incarnations of our mascots.

By that reasoning, these people cannot separate Blueteaux from "Warriors." Therefore, Blueteaux=Racist.

Perfect logic.

I actually agree with you on this one.

However, you seem to imply that what "some on this board" think matters.

I don't think that that MU gives a rip about what the people on this board think. We can b*tch all we want, but MU won't care to listen until it benefits them in a significant way (most likely, in $$).

[muwarrior87]

it would have to be a new Blueteaux costume as both of the old ones are in the University archives and are in now shape to be worn. They are in pretty poor condition so maybe when Sesame Street on Ice is in town, someone could talk them into letting MU borrow a Grover outfit.