What's goofy about the Badgers? The Buckeye - that's one I don't get!
Posted on 11/13/2006 2:26:23 PM PST by rhema
Imagine being a fan of a football team known as the Flickertails -- named for a small, wide-eyed ground squirrel. That's what the University of North Dakota sports teams were called back in the 1920s. "It must have been hard to rally people around the Flickertails," says Peter Johnson, UND's associate director of university relations. UND's archrival was the North Dakota State University Bison. A bison, of course, is a hulking creature that can squash a ground squirrel in one step. In 1930, UND adopted a more formidable name -- the Sioux -- and its teams later became the Fighting Sioux. In 1968, says Johnson, the Grand Forks Herald reported that a delegation from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation traveled to UND to "adopt" its president into the tribe and to give UND the right to use the name for its athletic teams.
In 2005, however, the NCAA banned schools from using nicknames and images it deems "hostile and abusive" in postseason play. UND was on the list. Last week, the school sought a temporary injunction, which was granted Saturday night, ahead of the upcoming Division II football playoffs. Without it, the UND team wouldn't be able to host playoff games or use the nickname or logo on uniforms or in associated athletic program activities.
Never mind that a well-known Indian artist designed the UND logo of a proud Sioux warrior. Never mind that this image resembles the stately Indian on U.S. "buffalo" nickels, and on North Dakota's highway patrol cars and highway signs. Never mind that sports teams choose names that symbolize what they honor -- courage on the battlefield -- not what they mock or despise. The forces of political correctness have embraced this latest victim-creating issue and won't let it go.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
The Dickenson, ND high school team name is the Midgets (at least, it used to be).
An the NCAA does not appear to care that a chief of the Sioux nation was on hand and endorsed the use of the nickname when it was chosen.
"It must have been hard to rally people around the Flickertails,"
I don't know about that.
Fans don't seem to have a hard time rallying around the Badgers or the Tarheels, or any number of other goofy names.
Heck, the University of Texas named itself after an animal that we eat!
That's what the PC police have been saying all along. Never mind the facts. Facts be damned. Sure, those facts are true, but they really don't matter. The morally-superior, deep-thinking PC police know what's best for everyone.
Those who disagree with the PC police are just a bunch of imbeciles missing the big picture.
And what the heck is a "Hawkeye" anyway?
We can never truly respect the Indians until we have eliminated any reference to or memory of them. < /sarcasm which goes to 11>
To these people if only one person complains they feel they have a duty to force ND to stop using the name.
They're still trying to create a world where nobody who leaves their home gets offended.
A hawkeye is someone/something which can see like a hawk. Very good eyesight. That's my guess.
I just checked...it still is! I wonder what the story is behind the name.
A couple of my favorites are the "Screaming Squid" and the "Dirtbags."
And the silence regarding the anti-Hellenism of USC and Michigan State is deafening.
I'm sure the NCAA approves of the Franklin and Marshall Diplomats.
The "Tarheels" is nick name that goes back to the Civil War when a group of NC Confederate soldiers held their position so tenaciously that one observer commented that they were solidly emplaced that they had “tar on their heels” and couldn’t move.
Far from a goofy nickname it is a name won in honor on the battlefield.
The same is true of the Tennessee Volunteers although the origin of that nick name is even older---going all the way back to the Creek Indian War and Andrew Jackson.
You might want to do a little research before you call a nick name “goofy.”
I've often wondered also. BTW, I misspelled Dickinson.
Lando 
Great pic! When I was in school at Wisconsin, a group of students had looked at getting a real live badger for the football sidelines. (Along the lines of the Georgia Bulldog, etc.) But apparently, after talking to a number of animal experts, they discovered that the badger does not take well to human handling...
More like humans do not take well to Badger thrashings!
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