Why MU Picked Warriors In 1954?

[Tugg Speedman]

I've never heard this before.  Can anyone confirm this story?

Also I think the story has a typo ... it should be 1995 that they considered changing back to Warriors, not 2005, correct?  And when was "lightning" ever in the conversation?

http://www.lebanondemocrat.com/article/sports/420396

Sports world has long history of changing nicknames
By Joe Knowles Chicago Tribune (MCT)
Jun 19, 2014

Marquette University has had several colorful nicknames, including the Blue and Gold, the Hilltoppers and the Golden Avalanche (go figure). They changed the name to Warriors in 1954, inspired in part by Major League Baseball's Boston Braves relocating to Milwaukee. At the time the city had a definite theme going — the NBA team was named the Hawks and the minor league hockey team was named the Chiefs. None of those teams still play in Milwaukee today; baseball's Braves are in Atlanta, as are the NBA's Hawks (after a stop in St. Louis). The Chiefs lasted only three seasons in the International Hockey League before folding in 1954.

Marquette introduced a cartoonish tomahawk-wielding new mascot, Willy Wampum, in 1961, but he had disappeared by the mid-'70s when the basketball team was rising into a national championship contender. A more restrained logo replaced Willy's image depicting a warrior in profile.

Marquette dropped Warriors as a nickname for its sports teams in 1993 and chose Golden Eagles over Lightning.

In 2005, the school's board of trustees considered switching back to Warriors in an effort to recall the school's glory days as a basketball power. One prominent alumnus and board trustee told the school that he and a fellow trustee were willing to donate $2 million to the school if they would go back to the Warriors nickname.

Thinking better of it, the board decided instead to float another alternative: The Gold.

It was not well received. In fact, it was panned roundly and quickly sunk like the piece of heavy metal it was.

Former Marquette star Dwyane Wade, who was playing for the NBA's Heat at the time, summed up the feelings of many alumni in an interview with ESPN.

"The Gold?" Wade asked incredulously. "I got to make a phone call to Marquette."

The school abandoned Gold and stuck with Golden Eagles.

[rocket surgeon]

thank you dwyane wade!!

[RubyWiscy]

No 2005 was the year of the Great Tease.  I still can't get over what they university pulled that year.  Almost got me to stop being a fan. 

[77ncaachamps]

Yes. I do remember Lightning from 1994/95?.


2005 - Here's the Chicago Tribune write-up (cached) on the Marquette vs. Hilltoppers run-off.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0oaI39-ZKa4J:articles.chicagotribune.com/2005-06-08/sports/0506080167_1_students-vote-students-protest-new-nickname+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Am I the only one who kind of liked the Gold? It's unique at least.

People who were around at the time, was there a serious contingent behind lightning?

[ChicosBailBonds]

Which part Berg?  The Warriors chosen because of the Braves...yes.    Lightning, yes, but that was in 1994.  The change back to the Warriors was 2005, not 1995. 


God Bless Hank Raymonds  June 3rd, 2005, MJS..."Marquette's former basketball coach and athletic director, said he won't even cast a ballot "because I'm a Warrior."

[alexius23]

Remember the Milwaukee Does? Brief pre-WNBA women's league.

[Jay Bee]

More accurately.. the 'voting' was held in fall '93 and Lightning was an option... the name change was not until 1994.

[MU82]

I think so many people are under the impression we were always the Warriors. Fact is, we were only the Warriors for 40 years. Lots of "traditions" go back way longer, including Redskins. And slavery.

I still call 'em the Warriors but I was never upset about the change. Some friends were so furious they said they'd never give another dime to the school; pretty silly if you ask me.

I just wish we would have gone back to Hilltoppers because THAT would have been returning to a tradition. Besides, there's something like 15 schools that have Golden Eagles or Eagles as mascots. So unoriginal.

I got my first head-coaching job last fall and the school's mascot is the Eagles. Ugh!

[The Love House]

Am I the only one who kind of liked the Gold? It's unique at least.

People who were around at the time, was there a serious contingent behind lightning?

You are NOT the only one who kind of liked Gold. Remember, 38 members of the board-of-trustees liked it too. I have to admit, at first blush it seemed a bit odd but in time it would have been grown in popularity. Imagine all the cool iterations of shiny gold uniforms we could have added to our legacy of unique uniforms. But instead, the name didn't last a week. I think the premature death was due to three things. First, Dwyane Wade made fun of it in an ESPN interview and everyone immediately followed his cue. Had he come out and said "Well, let's give the name some time to sink in" it might still be around today. Also, the Milwaukee Journal mocked it on the front page with "Bricky" the gold-bar mascot (probably designed by a Badger lover), and third I think what turned most people off was not the name itself but the fact that the decision was made behind closed doors without any alumni input.

[Nukem2]

I think so many people are under the impression we were always the Warriors. Fact is, we were only the Warriors for 40 years. Lots of "traditions" go back way longer, including Redskins. And slavery.

I still call 'em the Warriors but I was never upset about the change. Some friends were so furious they said they'd never give another dime to the school; pretty silly if you ask me.

I just wish we would have gone back to Hilltoppers because THAT would have been returning to a tradition. Besides, there's something like 15 schools that have Golden Eagles or Eagles as mascots. So unoriginal.

I got my first head-coaching job last fall and the school's mascot is the Eagles. Ugh!

Of course, pre-1954 does not really count.  So MU was the Warriors for a significant part of its relevant athletic history.  The name Hilltoppers is just lame.  I will be a Warrior forever.

[Mods, Delete me please. 8/26/2020]

I promise you that Tom Crean was the one selling "Gold". 

[The Lens]

Golden Avalanche seems so perfect.  Especially how the student section evolved with general admission and (usually) gold tees.

[Litehouse]

I thought Gold was OK, I like it way more than Golden Eagles.  If they would have just gone back to Hilltoppers in '94 it would have been so much simpler.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Golden Knights was one of the options back in the day.  I voted for that and wrote in Warriors.

[GooooMarquette]

I think so many people are under the impression we were always the Warriors. Fact is, we were only the Warriors for 40 years. Lots of "traditions" go back way longer, including Redskins. And slavery.

I still call 'em the Warriors but I was never upset about the change. Some friends were so furious they said they'd never give another dime to the school; pretty silly if you ask me.

I suspect most people who still talk about it, like us on message boards, are well aware of the previous nicknames.  There certainly was plenty of discussion about Hilltoppers and Golden Avanche during the Gold fiasco.  But regardless of the other nicknames, our greatest hoops success by far came while we were named the Warriors - our only National Championship, 2 of our 3 Final Fours, most of our All Americans, our only national POY, and our best and most colorful coach.  To me, that's why we'll always be the Warriors...and why we still hear announcers referring to us as Warriors on occasion.

I haven't totally given up donating to the school, but I spend more on bootleg Warriors shirts than anything they sell at the Spirit Store.

[mu03eng]

Am I the only one who kind of liked the Gold? It's unique at least.

People who were around at the time, was there a serious contingent behind lightning?

Gold isn't really unique....there are at least two other major universities that have color as their "mascot" (Standford and Syracuse).

I hated it because it was out of left field and yet another example of the bumbling incompetence of the board.  They had the opportunity to do all the things they should have wanted and basically crapped in their own hands.

They could have unified the alumni and current students under a single banner and eliminated(mostly) the allegiance to the warrior name, simply by having a very open and transparent method to select the new nickname that would have included voting, etc.

Instead they rolled Gold out from behind closed doors, further compounding the outrage from when they changed the nickname in the first place


How did the nickname thing not win the meme tournament???

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Gold isn't really unique....there are at least two other major universities that have color as their "mascot" (Standford and Syracuse).

I hated it because it was out of left field and yet another example of the bumbling incompetence of the board.  They had the opportunity to do all the things they should have wanted and basically crapped in their own hands.

They could have unified the alumni and current students under a single banner and eliminated(mostly) the allegiance to the warrior name, simply by having a very open and transparent method to select the new nickname that would have included voting, etc.

Instead they rolled Gold out from behind closed doors, further compounding the outrage from when they changed the nickname in the first place


How did the nickname thing not win the meme tournament???

Well, we'd be the only Gold. And two is a lot better (three with Harvard) than the dozens of schools with Eagles as the mascot.

I don't think changing the name would have stopped the animosity. There was a survey sent out, write in votes for Warriors won in a landslide.

[Tugg Speedman]

Gold isn't really unique....there are at least two other major universities that have color as their "mascot" (Standford and Syracuse).

Stanford = Cardinal (color, not bird)
Syracuse = Orange (not the fruit)
Harvard = Crimson
Uni of Chicago = Maroon
Cornell = Big Red
Dartmouth = Big Green

To join this list of "colors" with "Marquette Gold" would have been much better than joining Tennessee Tech and Southern Mississippi (among many others) sharing Golden Eagles.

[Coleman]

Golden Avalanche seems so perfect.  Especially how the student section evolved with general admission and (usually) gold tees.

+1

[rocket surgeon]

Gold isn't really unique....there are at least two other major universities that have color as their "mascot" (Standford and Syracuse).

I hated it because it was out of left field and yet another example of the bumbling incompetence of the board.  They had the opportunity to do all the things they should have wanted and basically crapped in their own hands.

They could have unified the alumni and current students under a single banner and eliminated(mostly) the allegiance to the warrior name, simply by having a very open and transparent method to select the new nickname that would have included voting, etc.

Instead they rolled Gold out from behind closed doors, further compounding the outrage from when they changed the nickname in the first place


How did the nickname thing not win the meme tournament???

right on!!  not only do i think the name "gold" is lame, but coming from a jesuit university whose leaders take a vow of poverty, right?

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

I suspect most people who still talk about it, like us on message boards, are well aware of the previous nicknames.  There certainly was plenty of discussion about Hilltoppers and Golden Avanche during the Gold fiasco.  But regardless of the other nicknames, our greatest hoops success by far came while we were named the Warriors - our only National Championship, 2 of our 3 Final Fours, most of our All Americans, our only national POY, and our best and most colorful coach.  To me, that's why we'll always be the Warriors...and why we still hear announcers referring to us as Warriors on occasion.

I haven't totally given up donating to the school, but I spend more on bootleg Warriors shirts than anything they sell at the Spirit Store.

I don't think success is a good barometer for what the nickname should be. Realistically, it should have never been Warriors. (I know that's hard to admit)

It was changed for a stupid reason back then, and then changed for a stupid reason in 1994, and then temporarily changed again in 200?.

I completely understand why "warrior" alumni identify with that mascot/name, and that's cool, more power to you. But, if we want to get righteous about it, Hilltoppers is the name.

[GooooMarquette]

I don't think success is a good barometer for what the nickname should be. Realistically, it should have never been Warriors. (I know that's hard to admit)

It was changed for a stupid reason back then, and then changed for a stupid reason in 1994, and then temporarily changed again in 200?.

I completely understand why "warrior" alumni identify with that mascot/name, and that's cool, more power to you. But, if we want to get righteous about it, Hilltoppers is the name.

I agree that the reasons for the changes were pretty lame.  But just out of curiosity:  What is a good barometer of what a nickname should be?  The reality is that by the time of the Gold fiasco, we'd already had multiple nicknames.  At that point, what would you call the best barometer for choosing our next?  If you think it should have been  our first, we should have changed back to Blue and Gold, not Hilltoppers.  http://marquettewire.org/2014/02/06/journal/latest-issue/college-life/mascot-madness/

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

I agree that the reasons for the changes were pretty lame.  But just out of curiosity:  What is a good barometer of what a nickname should be?  The reality is that by the time of the Gold fiasco, we'd already had multiple nicknames.  At that point, what would you call the best barometer for choosing our next?  If you think it should have been  our first, we should have changed back to Blue and Gold, not Hilltoppers.  http://marquettewire.org/2014/02/06/journal/latest-issue/college-life/mascot-madness/

Touche!

I'd have to go with "Blue & Gold" then.

Whatever they originally picked, no matter how lame, is the only one I can really get all self-righteous about. (shaking my fist right now)

Which one do I personally like the best? Warriors. But, that's just because I like it, not because it's "right".

EDIT: Technically, "Hilltoppers" was the first official name, so I'd be fine with "Blue&Gold" or "Hilltoppers".

[Lennys Tap]

Golden Avalanche seems so perfect.  Especially how the student section evolved with general admission and (usually) gold tees.

This nickname would have been #2 behind Warriors with every other one miles behind. It had history (our football team was so nicknamed back in the day) and a unique/cool factor. Plus it would have forever enshrined the Avalanche Bar in spite of the administration tearing the joint down.