Simviation Forums

It is my understanding that the NCAA (the governing board of collegiate athletics in the USA) has just issued a ban on the use of "Native American" names and mascots for collegiate sports teams.

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Accordingly, Simviation,although having nothing to do with sports, will go on with this ruling and therefore require WebbPA to immediately change his (now) non-conforming avatar to something acceptable....
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Of course, this means that teams with long traditions like the Florida State Seminoles will have to change their names/mascots in order to comply..

What's next?  Banning animal/endangered species names? (There go the Florida Gators);

Obviously we can't have the Redskins, Braves, ad nauseam..

All I can say is-  ::)

GRAR!  People are too damned sensitive about all this stuff!

What pisses me off is that the teams who have a local tribe's permission to use a Native American name STILL have to change their team name!

I wonder what the Native Americans themselves think about all this?  Are THEY truly concerned?  Or do they care at all?

Not my cup of indian native american tea.

It's American football people! Who cares!

* Omag ducks and hides behind Bj

My question is, who complained enough about it in the first place. Many teams are going to suffer because of this.

Football is one thing. Imagine the effect if this philosphy is applied to American place names. Many towns & cities would immediately lose their identity. I was never comfortable with labelling different sections of the community with names like Native American. Like DJ_Zephyr, I wonder what the Native Americans themselves think about it or if anyone thought to ask them. It's being seriously suggested that this system is introduced into Britain. I feel that this will solve nothing & can only divide the nation further than it is now.

It's American football people! Who cares!

It's not simply American football - it's all collegiate sports/athletic  teams....  golf, rugby, (FIFA) football, baseball, track & field, swimming, heck even tiddlywinks!

[quote]It's not simply American football - it's all collegiate sports/athletic

Being an ignorant Brit I can't help wondering how this tradition started.

Team names, I guess, develop over the years, depending on the locality, etc.  Native American, heck American Indian names come out as "warrior" names, evoking a sense of power and energy.

I can't imagine a team called "The Penn State Turkeys"  (reference to Benjamin Franklin's wanting to have the turkey as the national bird), or the "Atlanta Peaches" for which the US state of Georgia is known...

no way, the Univ. of Ilinois Illini wouldnt stand for it. just no way... i could see my band teacher getting into a fit.

side note: any of ou see th Illinin Marching band. notice how the sousa's but their sousaphones on? y band teacher developed that.

anyway, i could see people are going o protest this for a wle.

Ramos

PS: go Illni!

...heck even tiddlywinks!

There are tiddlywinking teams? O_o

This reminds me of something that happened not long ago. Right near here is a state park called Squaw Creek, and it is famouse for its resident Bald Eagles. Well, someone felt that the name was offensive (they weren't Native American), and tried to get it changed. Well, they ended up leaving the name the same because no one was offended except for a small group of people, and the name was already widely known. Oh, BTW, for those who don't know, "squaw" is a word refering to a Native American woman. I don't know where it came from, but I didn't thik it was considered offensive.

Team names, I guess, develop over the years, depending on the locality, etc.  Native American, heck American Indian names come out as "warrior" names, evoking a sense of power and energy.

That would seem logical. I was trying to think of some local examples but not being a university educated sporty type I'm at a disadvantage. A lot of British tradition is depicted in heraldry. The heraldic symbol of my home county of Sussex is the Martlet (aka Martinet or House Martin) which is an inoffensive small bird. I assume the Sussex University teams are called the Martlets. We have pro football (soccer) teams named after birds, like the Magpies (Newcastle United) & Canaries (Norwich City). This indicates the colour of their team strips & not their temperament or aggressiveness. The Oxford & Cambridge University teams are named Dark & Light Blues respectively. Again, this indicates the colour of their team jackets.

PS. From a childhood addiction to Westerns (Cowboys & Indians) I always thought that squaw meant wife or woman in the Native American language. I realised even then that tribes very often had their own language so this might only apply to certain tribes.