Posted on 05/05/2005 9:36:11 AM PDT by GSWarrior
RACINE - Local Marquette University graduates Wednesday night declared, "Go Gold," but not after they asked, "Go what?" The private Milwaukee university's Board of Trustees voted to change its nickname from Golden Eagles to the Marquette Gold Wednesday afternoon after years of uproar over a 1994 name change that dropped the school's old name, the Warriors.
Marquette had been known as the Warriors since 1954. The school's former mascot, an American Indian named Willie Wampum, was nixed in 1971 over concerns that it was offensive.
But the new name didn't get much more support Wednesday night in the Racine area.
"I think (the school's new name) seems a little obscure," said Beth Sucharda, a 1971 Marquette graduate who lives with her husband, also a Marquette grad, in Racine.
"We weren't crazy that they left the Warriors behind," she said, "But I can't say (the change) is better. It just doesn't seem like anything. You can't sink your teeth into a color."
Mike Armgardt, who graduated from Marquette in 1978 with an English degree, said the school should have stuck with Golden Eagles or considered Warriors over Gold.
"We always supported the name Warriors," said Armgardt, who lives in Sturtevant, "but I don't know if they should go back, either. I still think of (the school) as the Warriors, and the Golden Eagles worked. I just don't know why you would change to anything else."
In Wednesday's action, the Board of Trustees unanimously voted down an attempt by alumni to return Marquette to the nickname it bore during a golden run that saw it win the NCAA men's basketball championship in 1977 under legendary coach Al McGuire.
"We live in a different era than when the Warriors nickname was selected in 1954," the Rev. Robert Wild, Marquette president, said at a news conference. "The perspective of time has showed us that our actions, intended or not, can offend others."
After speaking with American Indian leaders, board chairman John Bergstrom, a business administration graduate in 1967, said he changed his mind on supporting the Warriors' return.
"I became convinced that the Warriors nickname could not be separated from past imagery," he said.
The most recent debate over the school's nickname was sparked last May at commencement, when board vice chair Wayne Sanders said he and another unnamed trustee would offer $1 million each to the school to restore the Warriors name.
Wild immediately rejected the offer but agreed to have the board discuss it.
A student group called Students for Warriors latched onto the idea, posted a Web site and eventually gathered 900 signatures of students in favor of a return to the past.
The co-chairman of the group, Dan Maciejewski, 19, said he grew up watching Marquette basketball, and the glory days were when the school had a different nickname.
Discounting a Final Four appearance by the Golden Eagles in 2003, he said, "the vast majority of that tradition came when we were the Warriors."
In contrast, more than half of some 9,000 students, alumni and staff responded in an online poll in November that the Golden Eagles nickname was "boring," "weak," or "common," the university said.
But students on campus were not thrilled with Gold, either.
"Marquette Gold?" chimed students Jaime Bohte, 20, and Tas Bhikhapurwala, 21, when they were told the news.
"It's not a mascot, it's a color," said Bohte, an accounting
sophomore.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Guess I'll have to change my screenname now that 'Warrior' has been deemed offensive.
Not many people can claim witness to one of the breathlessly stupid decisions in history.
I like the "Marquette Whiners"
Maybe he should try Orange.
IMO, the name "warriors" is good as Gold.
Good Grief!
What was wrong with Golden Eagles? Too patriotic? I don't understand.
Like the Syracuse Orangemen becoming the Orange...I guess to be like the Stanford Cardinal.
I'm waiting for the Harvard Puce or Nebraska Teal...I guess with a duck as a mascot, eh?
It was the PC choice to replace Warriors
I went to high school in Pekin, Illinois. We were the Pekin Chinks until the year after I graduated in 1979.
That's the comment of the day.
Seriesly, like their abandonment of "Warriors" in 1993 (when the administration started taking control of the nickname away from the students) before that movement started taking off, they want to be on the vanguard of political correctness. After all, PETA isn't all that happy with animals as nicknames or mascots.
They surely could have come up with a name more fitting to Marquette. My husband is a graduate and I went with him to his class reunion last year. Wasn't too bad but I couldn't talk politics with his classmates since they were still liberal.
my names are
Marquette Trotskies
Marquette Multiple Voters
Marquette Red Diapers
Marquette CINOs
And how much money have they spent on this decision? Maybe their nickname should be Fool's Gold.
;^)
The Marquette Warrior (a faculty member at Marquette)
The Triumvirate (a trio of Marquette students
The Office of Homeland Security (another MU student)
Badger Blog Alliance (a bunch of Cheddar Brains with blogs in a central "clearinghouse").
WTMJ-AM's Charlie Sykes (nothing in his blog yet, but a great tribute to the "Gold").
Maybe the Rainbow Social Workers would work for them.
Don't forget the UC Irvine Anteaters. Incidentally, ZOT is the sound an anteater makes when it sucks up an ant.
"Marquette French Friars"
Because:
--it honors the French missionary who "discovered" the area.
--it is politically correct.
--it lets everyone know that the former "Warrior" cage team have been about as exciting as french fries ever since Al McGuire departed.
Well, at least in Johnny Hart's cartoon strip...(g!)
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