MU and Warriors, A Unique "Brand" In The History Of Sports?

[Henry Sugar]

it's embarrassing to even mention the Warriors and the Devil Rays in the same sentence

to compare an expansion team to a team with decades of history is apples to oranges.

I think UND is the better comparison... of course they will be perpetually known as the Fighting Sioux

UND is not one of the most successful programs of all time, did not win a national championship, and did not have a legendary coach.  There is also nothing that says the Warrior name has to be tied to Indian heritage.  "a warrior is an empowered and compassionate protector of others", regardless of race, age, nationality, or historical era.

No offense, but I think it's embarrassing to compare the Warriors with the Fighting Sioux.

[GGGG]

UND is not one of the most successful programs of all time, did not win a national championship, and did not have a legendary coach.  There is also nothing that says the Warrior name has to be tied to Indian heritage.  "a warrior is an empowered and compassionate protector of others", regardless of race, age, nationality, or historical era.

No offense, but I think it's embarrassing to compare the Warriors with the Fighting Sioux.

In the sport they truly care about, college hockey, they are one of the legendary powers of all time. 

[Henry Sugar]

In the sport they truly care about, college hockey, they are one of the legendary powers of all time.  

I stand corrected.  But I don't give a crap about college hockey and don't know a single person that does.

[GGGG]

I stand corrected.  But I don't give a crap about college hockey and don't know a single person that does.

Well I used to.  Growing up in Madison in the 70s and 80s it was really the only thing the UW was good at. 

[ringout]

Marquette Warriors is as strong a brand as UCLA Bruins, Indiana Hoosiers or North Carolina Tar Heels, to name a few.

It remains a tragic mistake on the part of our university and should've been corrected years ago.

Catholic priests never make a mistake.  Just ask them.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

I stand corrected.  But I don't give a crap about college hockey and don't know a single person that does.

It's all perspective, my man. In ND, college hockey is huge.

[Henry Sugar]

Great.  So we really want to compare our brand with a team from a desolate state playing a much less popular sport?

[GGGG]

Great.  So we really want to compare our brand with a team from a desolate state playing a much less popular sport?

I don't think we are comparing brands.  We are comparing the use of former nicknames.

[Henry Sugar]

I don't think we are comparing brands.  We are comparing the use of former nicknames.

I was comparing brands

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Great.  So we really want to compare our brand with a team from a desolate state playing a much less popular sport?

Just providing some input on ND and the popularity of that team.

No comparison intended.

[Avenue Commons]

Couldn't someone start an unofficial clothing line featuring warrior apparel.  A sort of guerrilla marketing campaign.  If you got the students an fans to buy in and only wear the unofficial clothing line I would think that eventually the university and (nike) makes sure that we switch back to the warriors officially.

This is wishful thinking. There are all the bootleg Marquette Warriors tshirts out there anyone could ever want. This is a dead story. Marquette is never going back to the Warriors for reasons that have been discussed ad nauseum. Nike wouldn't touch the toxicity of the issues with a ten foot pole vaulting pole.

I'm ashamed of myself for even responding to this thread this issue is so dead. The current Marquette freshmen were born in 1991. The name change was announced in Spring of 1994. Even the "Marquette Gold" debacle is now 7 years ago. Life goes on. It's over.

[Lennys Tap]

We can't have the Warriors brand back because of Nike???

[Avenue Commons]

I did a search of "Marquette Golden Eagles" and "Marquette Warriors" on Google Trends. Here are the results:

Golden Eagles: http://www.google.com/trends/?q=marquette+golden+eagles

Warriors: http://www.google.com/trends/?q=marquette+warriors&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0


The idea that "most people" or even "a lot of people" still refer to Marquette's sports teams as the "Warriors" in 2012 seems to be misguided based on this data. Feel free to interpret this data however you see fit.

For the record the right thing to do was to keep the name Warriors and lose the Warrior-head logo. When that opportunity was lost, we should have gone back to the Hilltoppers. That said, we are where we are and it is what it is.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

I think UND will keep the Sioux much like we keep Warriors alive.

How could they not? Best logo in college sports. The UND Fighting Sioux is just an unreal team name.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

How could they not? Best logo in college sports. The UND Fighting Sioux is just an unreal team name.

I like the Fighting Siouxies for the women's hockey team...

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

Nike wouldn't touch the toxicity of the issues with a ten foot pole vaulting pole.

Nike doesn't give a crap. This is a company that uses child labor to make their shoes!

[only a warrior]

Great.  So we really want to compare our brand with a team from a desolate state playing a much less popular sport?

Henry stop being a Richard.

[warriorchick]

At the DePaul game, one of their several dozen students in attendance held up a "Warriors Suck!" sign.  So I guess it isn't just the old folks.

[Stretchdeltsig]

The Marquette Warriors were well known as an elite team.  The current team plays like Warriors with their attacking and slashing style.

[MarsupialMadness]

This is wishful thinking. There are all the bootleg Marquette Warriors tshirts out there anyone could ever want. This is a dead story. Marquette is never going back to the Warriors for reasons that have been discussed ad nauseum. Nike wouldn't touch the toxicity of the issues with a ten foot pole vaulting pole.

I'm ashamed of myself for even responding to this thread this issue is so dead. The current Marquette freshmen were born in 1991. The name change was announced in Spring of 1994. Even the "Marquette Gold" debacle is now 7 years ago. Life goes on. It's over.

+1.  Who cares?  The current MU students surely don't.  If anything, they buy into the whole "Warrior Pride" thing because it's slightly rebellious against the administration, and who doesn't love to hate the "administration" when you're a college kid?

I think it's a little riduclous how people still refer to us as Warriors.  That's not our name.  If it's a slip-up because of what you're used to, that's one thing.  But why blatantly call us something we're not?  Wearing your "Warrior Pride" t-shirts that were made probably 20 days ago. You can still smell the fresh ink on the bright yellow cotton that clearly hasn't been through the spin cycle many times. Sweet, way to be vintage man.  

And then there's the group of alums that won't donate any money to school until we change our name back.  The same people that would yell at students on the phone (me, about 7 years ago, as a student worker making $6/hr calling alum for donation requests) about how appauled they are that we aren't Warriors anymore.  Get over yourself.  If you're going to donate money back to the school that put you where you are right now, do it for the right reasons... not because you loved there basketball team 30 years ago.

The university has done a pretty good job of covering up the whole thing, not showing the golden eagle anywhere.  So let's all relax.  

I was a student at Marquette when the whole "let's change our nickname to Gold" crap happened -- there were no student led committees trying to get the name changed back to Warriors -- and if there were, they didn't do a great job.  Sure, there were the kids selling Warriors screenprinted shirts for $20 that EVERYONE bought, and then came the "alternative" campus paper called The Warrior ... but the only people making a big deal about the whole thing were alum upset about such a "tradition" being washed away.  We're still here, being ultra competitive in one of the toughest conferences in college basketball.  

Some of you sound way too much like ND alum when this topic comes up.

I wonder if you ask Travis Diener, Steve Novak, Wesley Matthews, Jerel McNeal, D James, etc. whether they are Warriors or Golden Eagles, what would they say?

[leever]

+1.  Who cares?  The current MU students surely don't.  If anything, they buy into the whole "Warrior Pride" thing because it's slightly rebellious against the administration, and who doesn't love to hate the "administration" when you're a college kid?

I think it's a little riduclous how people still refer to us as Warriors.  That's not our name.  If it's a slip-up because of what you're used to, that's one thing.  But why blatantly call us something we're not?  Wearing your "Warrior Pride" t-shirts that were made probably 20 days ago. You can still smell the fresh ink on the bright yellow cotton that clearly hasn't been through the spin cycle many times. Sweet, way to be vintage man.  

And then there's the group of alums that won't donate any money to school until we change our name back.  The same people that would yell at students on the phone (me, about 7 years ago, as a student worker making $6/hr calling alum for donation requests) about how appauled they are that we aren't Warriors anymore.  Get over yourself.  If you're going to donate money back to the school that put you where you are right now, do it for the right reasons... not because you loved there basketball team 30 years ago.

The university has done a pretty good job of covering up the whole thing, not showing the golden eagle anywhere.  So let's all relax.  

I was a student at Marquette when the whole "let's change our nickname to Gold" crap happened -- there were no student led committees trying to get the name changed back to Warriors -- and if there were, they didn't do a great job.  Sure, there were the kids selling Warriors screenprinted shirts for $20 that EVERYONE bought, and then came the "alternative" campus paper called The Warrior ... but the only people making a big deal about the whole thing were alum upset about such a "tradition" being washed away.  We're still here, being ultra competitive in one of the toughest conferences in college basketball.  

Some of you sound way too much like ND alum when this topic comes up.

I wonder if you ask Travis Diener, Steve Novak, Wesley Matthews, Jerel McNeal, D James, etc. whether they are Warriors or Golden Eagles, what would they say?

Who cares?  Obviously, the alums who were around before the University made a stupid pseudo-P.C. decision to drop the Warriors nickname.  Those of us who do care also realize that there is near zero chance that the Warriors "brand" will ever be reinstated, but we won't "get over ourselves".  Guess you'll just have to wait until we all die off!

As for the University "not showing the golden eagle anywhere", that's because the golden eagle is not the Marquette "brand" - they have chosen to try to be identified by that snazzy MU graphic (which I think looks quite good - certainly better than the golden chicken).

Last, I would hope that all of the basketball elite that you mentioned would simply state that they went to Marquette and refrain from being referenced as a "golden eagle".

[MarsupialMadness]

Who cares?  Obviously, the alums who were around before the University made a stupid pseudo-P.C. decision to drop the Warriors nickname.  Those of us who do care also realize that there is near zero chance that the Warriors "brand" will ever be reinstated, but we won't "get over ourselves".  Guess you'll just have to wait until we all die off!

As for the University "not showing the golden eagle anywhere", that's because the golden eagle is not the Marquette "brand" - they have chosen to try to be identified by that snazzy MU graphic (which I think looks quite good - certainly better than the golden chicken).

Last, I would hope that all of the basketball elite that you mentioned would simply state that they went to Marquette and refrain from being referenced as a "golden eagle".

Why would they state only that they went to Marquette and not reference a "golden eagle"?  They went to Marquette, they were Golden Eagles.  They played really well while they were here.  They should be proud about who they were and not try and hide it.

And we're not a "unique brand in the history of sports" because people still reference us as Warriors.  We're just the only group of people that complain about it, consistently, year in and year out.  Other sports fans get over it, realize it's not a big deal and continue to support their team.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

I wonder if you ask Travis Diener, Steve Novak, Wesley Matthews, Jerel McNeal, D James, etc. whether they are Warriors or Golden Eagles, what would they say?

I'll wager every single one of them would rather be Warriors. In fact, since you're such a name change history expert, perhaps you'll recall that immediately prior to Creans idea to name us Gold, Travis Diener was interviewed by a local TV station indicating he wants the old name back. Only losers prefer Golden Eagles.

[SERocks]

I don't understand why we need a nickname at all?  If we cannot be Warriors, why not just be Marquette.  "We are Marquette!"  They chant it, and it doesn't mean anything to say Marquette Golden Eagles.  Just be Marquette.  It says it all.

Golden Eagles, Gold, Avalanche, Hilltoppers...blah.  Who cares.

[leever]

Why would they state only that they went to Marquette and not reference a "golden eagle"?  They went to Marquette, they were Golden Eagles.  They played really well while they were here.  They should be proud about who they were and not try and hide it.

And we're not a "unique brand in the history of sports" because people still reference us as Warriors.  We're just the only group of people that complain about it, consistently, year in and year out.  Other sports fans get over it, realize it's not a big deal and continue to support their team.

I'm sure all of them ARE proud that they went to and played for MARQUETTE.  I doubt that they are trying to hide anything, but they didn't play at Golden Eagle U, eh?  Hey Travis, where did you go to college? Why thanks for asking.  I was a Golden Eagle.

As far as supporting the team, judging by the posters here who "prefer" Warriors, I'd say the Warrior alumni support the team very well.  Or, are you still hung up on the guy who refused to donate while you were making phone calls at $6 an hour?  Seriously?  What's the % of alums who DON'T contribute (regardless of the reason)?  Sorry you had a bad experience.