More reaction to NCAA's new policy on Indian mascots

National
More reaction to NCAA's new policy on Indian mascots
Tuesday, August 9, 2005

More views and opinions on the new Indian mascot policy of the NCAA that bans the use of "hostile and abusive" images during post-season tournaments.

BYE BYE MASCOTS
"Now that the NCAA has taken action to remove Native American mascots from its member institutions - the Utah Utes, the Illinois Fighting Illini and the Florida State Seminoles are the major holdouts - it is inevitable that we soon will have the Utah Hawks, the Illinois Eagles and the Florida State Pelicans. The land will surely be swept free of 'hostile and abusive' mascot names, as committee chairman Walter Harrison called them last week."
• For truly callous moniker, see 1899 (The Arizona Daily Star 8/9)

CHALLENGE POLICY
"UND should join with those schools that are appealing the NCAA's arbitrary rule. First, the university can make a good case that its use of the nickname is neither "hostile" nor "abusive," the terms used in the NCAA decision. Second, whatever changed between last year - when the NCAA happily touted UND's Engelstad Arena as the site of a 2006 regional hockey championship - and last week is not worth the millions of dollars it would cost UND to refurbish The Ralph."
• OUR OPINION : UND should appeal NCAA nickname rule (The Grand Forks Herald 8/9)
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PIMPS UP, SQUAWS DOWN
"It's odd that while our society sometimes seems to have an unlimited tolerance for bad manners, poor taste and outright vulgarity, the delicate concept of "offensiveness" maintains a powerful and sometimes intimidating influence. Famous people might wear flip-flops and diamond navel studs to black-tie ceremonies honoring music that celebrates the pimp-and-ho subculture, but we can't stomach baseball teams named Indians or Braves?"
• Jacquielynn Floyd: Is tribe mentality so bad for universities? (The Dallas Morning News 8/9)
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MASCOTS NOT REAL ISSUE
"It too often seems that somewhere, in the vast social change of recent decades, we Americans have misplaced our common sense, thereby opening the doors to would-be morality dictators who consistently make false analogies to real issues. There are indeed real issues facing Indians in America today and there are real solutions. Cracking down on nicknames is not one of them."
• Jay Ambrose: Stop tomahawk-chopping NCAA mascots (The Washington Examiner 8/9)

MASCOTS A WASTE OF TIME
"Amid a landscape where member schools employ coaches who perpetually graduate nobody and still flourish, a landscape where member schools benignly neglect boosters who run unrestrained, where Title IX issues remain significant ... The NCAA (Nitwit Collegiate Athletic Association) identified its true scourge last week: American Indian nicknames."
• Mike DiMauro: Doesn't NCAA Have Anything Better To Do? (The New London Day 8/9)
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BAN WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER
"We'd prefer an all-out ban, but the NCAA says it lacks the authority to impose one. Half a loaf is worth settling for at this point. The umbrella organization that oversees fair play and standards has advanced the campaign against cultural prejudice. There's nothing wrong with this move even if it seems timid. What is wrong is naming college athletes after people, especially those with whom they have no common bond and especially in cultural distortion. If anyone finds the Minnesota Gophers a strange moniker, try on the Minnesota Nigerians as a teams name, or the Minnesota Australians. It's the same concept � the presumption that an identifying racial, ethnic or national group would not take offense when athletes 'borrow' their name, or that the 'borrowing' ever made sense in the first place."
• NCAA moves in right direction (The St. Paul Pioneer Press 8/9)
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LONG OVERDUE
"I am shocked, stunned and most definitely delighted. The NCAA ruled last week that the use of American Indian mascots and logos deemed ethnically or racially 'hostile' or 'abusive' will be banned from all postseason tournaments. Schools that display such mascots or images can no longer host NCAA tournament events, and by 2008, all such logos on uniforms must be removed. The Fighting Sioux, the Braves, the Indians, the Savages, and others, may one day be history. It's only taken a century."
• Joe Palladino: Overdue Decision (The Waterburn Republican-American 8/9)

BOLD BUT STRANGE
"Honchos with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (www2.ncaa.org) announced last week a rather bold, yet strange step to eliminate �hostile and abusive racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery� by banning such public displays at all of its 88 NCAA championships. Bold, because the Executive Committee named names and pointed fingers. Strange, because the NCAA did not ban the practice during the regular season."
• John David Powell: Redmen, Seminoles, and Savages: The Scourges of Academe (The American Daily 8/9)

NCAA PARIAHS
"Eighteen colleges are now on the mascot pariah list of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Three are Braves. Six are Indians. Four identify as specific tribes � Seminoles, Utes, Chippewas, and Choctaws. Carthage College calls itself the Redmen. The University of Illinois has created its own tribe, the Fighting Illini. The last university on the list � Southeastern Oklahoma State � doesn�t beat around the bush or go for modifiers. Its team name is the Savages."
• Carol Spinel: Racism and Ignorance (Inside Higher Education 8/9)

LET TRIBE DECIDE
"If we weren't trying to kill all pre-Columbian occupants of what became the United States, we were herding them onto reservations, forcibly shipping their children off to English-only boarding schools or trotting them out for public amusement at Wild West Shows. But try and turn a Euro-Native encounter into a mutually beneficial arrangement, as the University of Utah has with the local Ute Tribal Council, and some well-meaning busybody slaps you down."
• Editorial: Let's make a deal: Let the Utes decide who can use their name (The Salt Lake Tribune 8/9)

FSU WRONG TO FIGHT
" Florida State University is fighting the wrong fight in trying to keep its Seminole mascot that many American Indians find offensive. Ideally, the institution and its fans will recognize that before embarking on an expensive and embarrassing court battle. FSU's fans consider 'Chief' Osceola leading the Seminoles onto the football field and sticking a flaming spear into the turf a treasured tradition."
• Editorial: Wrong fight (The South Florida Sun-Sentinel 8/9)
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JEB BUSH SUPPORTS MASCOT
"Gov. Bush executed a perfect blindside blitz of the NCAA when he spoke out in vigorous defense of Florida State University's use of the nickname Seminoles despite recent NCAA actions to curb that use. Bush described the NCAA decisions as 'ludicrous.' 'I support [FSU] President T.K. Wetherell completely,' Gov. Bush said at the conclusion of his visit. 'It [the recent NCAA ruling] is ludicrous. They need to get out more.'"
• Jerry Greene: Gov. Bush blitzes in defense of FSU (The South Florida Sun-Sentinel 8/9)
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NCAA IGNORES TRADITION
"The NCAA is wrong to ban use of American Indian mascots and nicknames by college sports teams during the postseason. The decision to take action against traditions deeply rooted in school history is an example of misplaced sensibilities. By disregarding the relationships between schools and the Indian tribe each is associated with, the NCAA makes itself seem misinformed. Indian tribes, and particularly the Seminole Tribe of Florida, have expressed their support in association with these colleges."
• Editorial: Indomitable Seminoles (The Miami Herald 8/9)
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NCAA IS DEAD SERIOUS
"We would prefer to believe that the NCAA, which works with and sets policy for so many institutions of higher learning, is kidding when it bans the use of American Indian mascots by sports teams during its postseason tournaments. Those schools also would not be allowed to host championship events. Yet, the National Collegiate Athletic Association is serious. That places the Florida State University Seminoles front and center."
• Editorial: College mascots (The Naples Daily News 8/9)
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NOT ALL NAMES HOSTILE
"OK, some nicknames are offensive. Savages? Yeah, that's a hard one to defend. But some of the banned ones have come to have a different meaning because of their association with big-time college sports."
• Richard Justice: BCS above banning of nicknames (The Houston Chronicle 8/9)

'SIOUX' MUST GO
"When the initial anger dissipates, fans of the University of North Dakota�s Fighting Sioux moniker and logo likely will have to settle for resignation. The resignation surely will be tinged with indignation, but in this matter the NCAA is holding aces. Again, it�s possible litigation will stall imposition of the NCAA rule. But the stall will be temporary. The fight is really over. Eventually, whether Sioux fans like it or not, UND will be looking for a new team mascot."
• Forum editorial: NCAA puts end to UND logo debate (The Fargo Forum 8/9)
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NEW 'SIOUX' NICKNAMES
"So, if UND continues to be the Fighting Sioux this school year, it will need something else for the playoffs. I, as always, am here to help in determining a post-season nickname. Following are some suggestions. 1. Bison. 2. Demons or Devils. 3. Ralphs. 4. The Flickertails. 5. Trojans."
• Ryan Bakken: Nickname question needn't slow UND (The Grand Forks Herald 8/9)
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GOING TOO FAR
"Last week's edict from the NCAA that it will no longer allow the use of of 'hostile or abusive' symbols or mascots in NCAA postseason sports events is an abuse of its power. And when it comes to Florida State University's Seminole mascot, the NCAA is clearly hostile to self-determination by the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Though nationally, American Indians and others are of mixed views on the use of symbols reflecting native tribes, in Florida the Seminoles deserve the last word - and have had it."
• Editorial: 'Nole power (The Tallahassee Democrat 8/9)
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PRO/CON LETTERS
Michael Allan Leach: "The recent NCAA decision to ban the use of American Indian names will finally bring this politically correct debate to a close. The backlash will be thunderous, and for this, I am happy."
Donna Marrie Nudd: "Every year, each of these institutions seeks a financial contribution from me. Because I remain deeply disturbed by the racial, cultural and spiritual stereotyping of American Indians, every year I contribute only to the institution, Texas, that does not have an Indian mascot."
• Letters: NCAA poicy (The Tallahassee Democrat 8/9)
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PC GONE HAYWIRE
"Here's the problem: The NCAA ruling actually lacks sensitivity -- and common sense. It fails to differentiate between the Southeastern Oklahoma State Savages and FSU Seminoles. Savages? An ugly-sounding stereotype, downright offensive to an entire race. Seminoles? It's a lesson in Florida history. The Seminole Tribe was unconquered, never losing a war, never signing a treaty. Seminoles? Not a derogatory term. It's the actual name of the tribe."
• Joey Johnston: Nickname Ruling Lacks Common Sense (The Tampa Tribune 8/9)

WHY STOP WITH INDIANS?
"What about Notre Dame's use of 'Fighting Irish,' which feeds the stereotype that all Irishmen are drunken brawlers? What about Louisana-Lafayette's use of 'Ragin' Cajuns,' which gives the impression that all Cajuns run around the bayou in a rage, with a jar of moonshine in one hand and a shotgun in the other? Heck, what about those of us on Florida's Treasure Coast, which was pummeled by a pair of hurricanes last summer?"
• Ray McNulty: NCAA big on selective sensitivity (The Stuart News 8/9)
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KGB COMES TO SPORTS
"When exactly did common sense hand the baton off to political correctness and then let it run amok? Did we all blink and miss something here? When exactly did Florida State's nickname -- the Seminoles -- become 'hostile and abusive,' as the NCAA now charges? And, more importantly, where will it end? Is this the PC police here, or the KGB?"
• Peter Kerasotis: Mascots hubbub just silly (Florida Today 8/9)

NCAA IGNORES LOCALS
"The NCAA has laid down a politically-correct, scorched-earth edict that effectively pries the issue away from local entities. Certainly, the schools -- and we're talking about only 18 or so in this case, including the University of North Dakota's Fighting Sioux and, much more conspicuously, the Florida State Seminoles -- may choose to keep their mascots if they wish and make reference to them on their uniforms. But if they do, they have a price to pay (unless you are the San Diego State University, which has been excused from the sanction for using Aztecs because they hail from Mexico and, thus, aren't strictly American Indian. Who knew the line between acceptable and 'hostile or abusive' was geographic?)"
• Our Opinion: NCAA Uses A Hammer On Nickname Issue (The Yankton Press and Dakotan 8/9)

NCAA'S LATEST GOOF
"When you think of a governing body that always puts the interests of fair play and sensitivity first, the NCAA naturally comes to mind. It also comes to mind when you think about things like double standards and hypocrisy, or in this case taking a stand on an issue 20 years too late. 'Better late than never' seems to be their credo when it comes to taking action, like giving the University of Kentucky�s basketball program the 'death penalty' in 1989 after it had reportedly been buying athletes for years."
• SAM JACKSON: Mascot ban is NCAA's latest goof (The Anderson Herald Bulletin 8/9)

NCAA JUST PLAIN WRONG:
"While it's important that colleges and universities pay attention to cultural sensitivities in the nicknames and mascots that they use for their sports teams, the NCAA has stepped out of bounds in banning schools that employ Native American names and images from using them when competing in national championships. The NCAA's action could have the effect of forcing the mascots for the Florida State University Seminoles, the University of Illinois Fighting Illini and dozens of other well-known school mascots to stay home from most championship competition unless the schools capitulate to the NCAA politically correct crowd."
• Editorial: Penalize NCAA for encroachment (The Atlanta Journal Constitution 8/9)
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NCAA MAKES RIGHT MOVE
"ast week the presidents and chancellors who serve on the NCAA Executive Committee adopted a new policy to prohibit NCAA colleges and universities from displaying hostile or abusive racial and ethnic mascots, nicknames and imagery at any of the 88 NCAA championships. Reaction has been strong � some view it as going too far and others have said it does not go far enough. I think it would be helpful for everyone to take a deep breath, step back, and try to look at this issue objectively."
• Charlotte Westerhaus: NCAA action isn't popular, but it's correct (The Atlanta Journal Constitution 8/9)
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NCAA Announcement:
NCAA Executive Committee Issues Guidelines for Use of Native American Mascots at Championship Events (August 5, 2005)

Relevant Links:
NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee - http://www1.ncaa.org/eprise/main/
membership/governance/assoc-wide/moic/index.html
National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media - http://www.aimovement.org/ncrsm