Journal-Sentinel Sportswriters on the Nickname Fiasco

Via the GOP3.COM blog:

Two scathing columns by Journal-Sentinel sportswriters on the nickname fiasco:

This issue has highlighted the culture war within the staff of the paper. The politically correct editorial board has reflexively opposed “Warriors,” but the sportswriters have supported it.

First, Bob Wolfley:

So the Marquette Board of Trustees decides on its own that Golden Eagles isn’t snazzy enough as a nickname and decides to change it to Gold.

Ten thousand angry e-mails, blogs, protests and editorials later, the Board decides to hold not a clean one-phase, but a damaging two-phase election so it can pretend that it is sensitive to the concerns of its students, alumni and faculty.

Instead of the bad publicity for the school and the buffoonery of the Board ending after just one vote, those items are held up for the public to consider for an even longer period of time.

That’s just what a public relations sore needs, more time to fester.

And Michael Hunt:

Sometimes, coming full circle is a good thing; that Gen. Patton comeback, for example, was OK while it lasted. But to go from a boring, weak and common nickname like the Golden Eagles to an uninteresting, bland and unoriginal nickname like Golden Eagles while enduring weeks of absolutely unnecessary ridicule is . . .

Again, could someone please explain such silly behavior?

Look, I know what some of you are thinking: Settle down, it’s just a stupid nickname. Exactly. But that’s not the point. Marquette could call itself the Blue Meanies and no one would care as long as it actually succeeds in the Big East Conference. The issue is why the few should be able to embarrass the many with such a pointless exercise.

Hunt, who has consistently supported “Warriors,” ends by suggesting that many Marquette fans feel themselves the victim of identity theft.

And all this because the Administration didn’t want to alienate a few politically correct yahoos.