College Mascots and Changing Mores

During my high school and college days, hundreds of schools chose to change the name of their sports teams away from such Native American epithets as Chiefs, Braves, Warriors and Indians.  Most of the schools found a new mascot and never looked back.  All schools have to be concerned that their icons don't offend some political group.  Long suffering Ole Miss is back in the news with its fight to find a mascot to replace Colonel Reb.

In some schools, the students considered the older generations' stand on political correctness to be folly.  They insisted that no one cared about a college team named the Reds, and perhaps they were right.  When an intramural team named themselves the Fightin' Whities and uses a sterotypical white man as a mascot, no one blinked.  Sales of that merchandise fund major scholarships at at least two colleges today.

So, on one hand you have political correctness, and on the other hand you have student backlash.

When the student body was faced with voting on a mascot replacement for their Not Politically Correct one, the students of the University of California at Santa Cruz rebelled.  But in a good way.  They voted in their beloved mascot, the Banana Slug.  Go Slugs!  Students the world over have shown an ability to get behind the wrong things when school administration would wish otherwise.  Men have been voted homecoming queen, whole football programs have been voted down by students at commuter schools, and banana slugs have been introduced as college mascots.  And embraced by the students who go to that school.

My sons both cheered in college.  Whenever we could make a game, we went to see their schools play football.  On the sidelines I've seen a "fightin' zucchini" a "fightin' artichoke" and a very angry ear of corn.  There's a shock of wheat and even a boilermaker.  I don't know if the students voted in those mascots, but somewhere there are alumni spinning in their graves.

Not all sports teams can be wildcats, bearcats, lumberjacks or aggies.  Some are hoyas, oranges and horned frogs.  The important thing is not what the mascot is, it's what he represents.  School spirit.  School pride.  Sports excellence and student involvement.  When the older generation tries to politicize the icons, the resultant mess just makes the schools laughable.  Just what is a Cardinal?  That is not a bird.

--Sandee Wagner