It is September and that means time for sports fans to talk
college football, new coaches, returning starters, injury reports,
defensive schemes and the chances of making a bowl game. Not so
fast, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the
institution that oversees college sports, has more pressing issues
on its mind, like eliminating Native American nicknames or imagery
from nation’s college campuses. Three years ago there were 80
colleges with Native American related names, now there are 18, the
goal is zero — and this from a national organization headquartered
in INDIANanpolis, INDIANa. As Charlie Brown would say,
“AAARRRRGGHHH!”
Don’t confuse the NCAA for a democratic, majority-ruled
organization. Despite its heritage and great mission, the NCAA is
now saddled with the heavy burden of political correctness. It is
rife with small agenda specific factions, schooled in the language
of guilt, victim-hood and sensitivity seeking to impose their
agenda on the many. Some have called it the “tyranny of the few.”
Government and academic institutions seem especially susceptible to
the whims of such P.C. groups.
The policy statement issued August 5th prohibits “NCAA colleges
and universities from displaying hostile and abusive
racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery at any
of the 88 NCAA championships.” Now no reasonable person will argue
in favor of inflammatory words like hostile and abusive but after
using such terms the document makes no effort to further define
abusive or hostile or offer any evidence that the 18 listed
colleges have ever displayed such behavior. The document goes on
the say, “Model institutions include the University of Iowa and
University of Wisconsin, who have practices of not scheduling
athletic competitions with schools who use Native American
nicknames, imagery or mascots.”
The target list of 18 includes tribe and chief specific names
such as Seminoles, Choctaws, and Chief Illiniwek, and it goes on to
include generic names such as Braves. By what tortured logic is
Braves an abusive or hostile name? Has there been a more noble
figure and role model to stride across the field as a Brave than
Alcorn University’s Steve McNair? Perhaps Hank Aaron or Warren
Spahn. Abusive? Hostile? Only in the eyes of their opponents.
College mascots came on the scene a century ago as football
began its ascendancy to the top of the college sports scene. Many
mascots were selected because of traits needed to succeed in such a
tough and combative sport. Other noteworthy Type A mascots include:
“Fighting Irish,” “Fighting Methodists,” “Fighting Parsons,”
“Fighting Koalas,” “Fighting Blue Hens,” “Fighting Pickles,”
“Battling Bishops,” “Battlin Bears,” and of course the greatly
feared “Fighting Okra.”
The NCAA Executive Committee would do well to consider the more
reasonable and rational course of action taken by the U.S. Army, an
institution whose shared history with Native Americans covers the
full spectrum from hostility, to abuses, to peaceful, to mutual
respect, to fellow combatants in arms. It is a remarkable journey
from Little Big Horn to Pima tribe member Ira Hayes raising the
American flag on Iwo Jima.
When the helicopter came on the scene in the 1960s the Army
began naming new helicopter models after Indian tribes. That
tradition was formalized into policy in 1969 with AR (Army
Regulation) 70-28.
The naming process begins with the commanding general of U.S.
Army Aviation Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville,
Alabama. He has a list of candidate names cleared by the Bureau of
Indian Affairs. The criteria are straightforward: the name should
relate to the mission of the aircraft, appeal to the imagination,
not sacrifice dignity, suggest an aggressive spirit and engender
confidence in the capability of the aircraft. They also had to
suggest mobility, firepower and endurance. Qualities not dissimilar
to those you wish your team on the athletic field. Anyone who has
followed the U.S. military over the past 40 years knows that combat
chopper pilots are some of the bravest folks you will ever come
across.
Because of this great tradition names such as Black Hawk,
Chinook, Iroquois, Kiowa and Comanche are part of the everyday
lexicon of America’s military. To today’s G.I. they conjure up
images of vigilance, support, readiness and lastly, during times of
great peril, the life saving hope of rescue.
Mascots are a small slice of Americana but they are important
reminders and bonds to our history, our culture and to the
institutions we hold dear. To pitch them aside in the quest for a
perfection of sensitivity and un-offense is take a treacherous step
towards a bland and timid culture ill suited for the land of the
free and the home of the BRAVE.
