Consider the plight of the poor athletic officials at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as they try to satisfy everyone. For many years, Marquette sports teams had been known as The Warriors.
However, in the early 1990's, the board of trustees dropped the politically incorrect nickname and replace it with The Golden Eagles. Somewhat suddenly this month, the board acted again and dropped that nickname. They replaced it with, simply, The Gold. That got things going.
According to The Associated Press, Marquette University President Robert Wild got more than 4000 e-mails and lots of phone calls from fans and alumni who were, let's say, less than impressed with "The Gold."
At graduation a year ago, two alums each offered the school a million dollars to change back to Warriors.
Wild said that he talked with Native American tribes and was convinced that using the term was offensive to them and that the ugly connotations won't go away.
So, to satisfy those who wanted to change to something, anything but Golden Eagles, teams at the Jesuit school would be referred to as The Gold. That seems to have gone over like a lead balloon, with no alchemist to be found to turn it into gold.
After the new nickname, Gold was announced at a rally, one student held up a sign that read, "Exodus 15:3 'The Lord is a warrior.'"
Wild said that The Gold seemed like a good idea at the time. He noted that Syracuse changed its name from Orangemen to Orange without a lot of trouble. He didn't expect any, either.
To figure out what will work, the university is setting up a contest to take suggestions from students, faculty and alumni. They will be given a list of ten names to vote to choose a new nickname. The list will be posted on the Internet for voting. The list of 10 suggested names has not been completely frozen.
Wild said that write-in votes will be counted … unless they read, "Warriors." he list is said to include Golden Eagles, Golden Avalanche, Hilltoppers and Blue and Gold.
The top two favorites will have a runoff next month and the choice will be announced July 1st.
It'll be interesting to seem what they come up with.