Speaking of all things golden, the Marquette University board of trustees, in an effort to make a bad situation worse, decided against returning to the school’s old Warriors nickname, but also ditched the Golden Eagles moniker that has been in use since 1994. Instead, university president Father Robert Wild (isn’t "Father Wild" an oxymoron?) and board chairman John Bergstrom announced that the school’s athletic teams will be called the Gold.
The Golden Eagles nickname was never really embraced by anyone. It was considered to be too bland and uninspiring, and there was even another team in its conference (at the time) that was using it already. Of course, the people who liked Warriors weren’t going to like any new nickname, so there may have been some of that dynamic in the complaint.
Still, nobody was actively thinking about changing the name until someone came forward and offered the school $2M to go back to Warriors. That’s what led to the process that brought about the current change.
The name change has done one good thing; it has united the Marquette community. Everyone hates the new name. Online polling done by the Milwaukee and school newspapers asking people to vote hate/like/don’t care show "hate" garnering upwards of 98% of the votes.
An on-campus protest has been organized for tonight. You know the students are serious about this if they are willing to give up some of their valuable Friday night drinking time to go to a protest.
Here is a link to some of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s coverage of the name change. There is reaction and suggested mascots, some of which are pretty funny. There’s also a priceless photo of some dumbfounded students reacting to the news.
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6 comments:
what was wrong with the nickname 'warriors' in the first place? that is, why did marquette change from 'warriors' to 'golden eagles'??
al mcguire must be spinning in his grave right now.
Warriors was deemed politically incorrect.
they had an indian head as their logo and mascot.
many wanted to bring back warriors without the indian mascot and logo.
the dwayne wade interview is also classic.
they are claiming here that there will be no change...the admin at mu thinks people will "warm up" to the name. i am highly doubting that right now
as a uw badger alum, i just laugh!
what did dwyane wade say? as a side note, for a player in only his second year in the NBA, he is already a premier player.
UGH! This topic just ticks me off...
Sporting teams for how many years have had names like; Warriors, Indians (i was one once go LC!), Blackhawks, etc. for as long as teams have been named. Why didn't the people who are offended by such things protest when the name was chosen and help to choose a different name? I realize that age has something to do with it, but clearly at the time of the naming it wasn't such a big deal. And why is it such a huge deal that sports teams are named after Native American peoples or icons? What's offensive about that? I've never understood the whole fuss. I would have thought that it would have been looked upon as more of an homage to the history of those native peoples who used to occupy the area where the team comes from, but maybe that's just me?
I feel the same doggon way about all of the fuss over the Illini Mascot too. Aren't there other things in life to be upset over?
Blog on...
~Suz~
Here's a link to Dwayne Wade's comments
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