Marquette's New Nickname: The Gold
The Badger Blog Alliance is covering the latest Wisconsin sports scandal: Marquette University's new nickname. For those of you who don't know, Marquette was originally known as the "Warriors", but that name was abandoned in the 1990s for the more PC "Golden Eagles". Well, yesterday the University announced that they were changing the name again. I, like most people, assumed they had come to their senses and would go back to being the Warriors again. Nope. Instead the University has decided they would like to be known as the "Marquette Gold". Seriously. "The Gold". They've chosen what is arguably the worst nickname in the history of sports.
People are speculating that, given the reaction to the nickname, the University may change its mind. However, I think there's still a way to salvage things. Marquette just needs to do the following:
- Make the logo a simple "AU". I guarantee they'll sell hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise. Hell, I'll buy a t-shirt.
- Change the team jerseys to a solid gold with gold sparkly sneakers and gold lamé warmup suits - that should help with recruiting, dontcha think?
- Model the cheerleaders after the Solid Gold Dancers
- Change the mascot to "Midas". Greek mascots are all the rage these days.
- At home games, introduce the team to the strains of Shirley Bassey singing "Goldfinger"
Poor Marquette, they got rid of the "Warriors" because they were worried that some people would be offended by it. And now, they've managed to find a name that offends virtually everyone merely because it's so dumb. Political correctness is one hell of a slippery slope.
Posted by at May 5, 2005 11:24 PM
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Comments
| # May 6th, 2005 1:19 AM james |
| they did a study on changing the name
Conclusion: The majority of respondents were aware that at Commencement in May 2004, Marquette was offered a $2 million donation to consider changing the athletics nickname back to Warriors. However, three-fourths of all respondents feel that the issue of changing the athletics nickname back to the Warriors has nothing to do with money. From the executive summary: In particular, the opinions and feedback provided by alumni confirm that most alumni who responded think favorably of the Marquette Warriors as an athletics nickname. For example, 92% of alumni say they identify with the Marquette Warriors. they were stupid to change their name in the first place. they were stupid now not to change it back. |
| # May 6th, 2005 8:18 AM drew |
| Everytime they hit a three, they should play that clip of Kenny Banya: "That's GOLD, Jerry!" |
| # May 6th, 2005 8:20 AM kris |
| Heh. That's awesome. Hmmm, I'm starting to think that maybe the Gold isn't such a bad name after all. |
| # May 6th, 2005 11:22 AM PackerFan63 |
| From the Arquette Stakeholder Survey linked in James' post above:
The responses of stakeholder groups vary greatly on the question of whether the Warriors nickname is consistent with Marquette’s mission and values. Significantly less than half of the faculty and staff believe the nickname to be consistent with Marquette’s mission and values. A majority of alumni (76%) answered that the Marquette Warriors athletics nickname is consistent with what they believe to be Marquette’s mission and values. Only 39% of faculty and 38% of staff believe Marquette Warriors to be consistent with Marquette’s mission and values. Student opinion was more closely divided, with 54% indicating they believe the Warriors nickname is consistent with Marquette’s mission and values. Translation: From: MU faculty and staff To: Those who pay the bills Subject: Au. F.U. |
| # May 6th, 2005 11:44 AM kris |
| Heh. It looks like someone is already running with the t-shirt idea:
For Sale on Ebay:  |
| # May 11th, 2005 9:49 AM tdetter |
| Never been to your site before, ran into by accident. But I love college sports and the Marquette story caught my eye:
1. The ideas for the "Gold" mascot are some of the funniest I have seen - great stuff 2. Interesting that the faculty and staff have so much influence with respect to the sports mascot. 3. How is a warrior demeaning to anyone - do people in the Northeast find the "Yankees" offensive? 4. I graduated from a school (Stanford) who did the same thing and went to and abstract noun as a mascot and it is the dumbest thing I can think of for a mascot. Schools should have colors and a mascot, not one. |