What if...NCAA bans indian names?

[pcgd]

This would be a huge tragedy in Utah. I say if the universities have the tribe's permission then they should be able to use their names. I think "Savages" and "Redmen" is going a little too far though.

My school was the redmen, and honestly, I agree. I wouldn't mind them changing, even though the original meaning had nothing to do with native americans, but over the years it developed into that meaning. I don't know what they would go to, but I almost support the same thing as I support Illinois doing if they do anything.

No nickname. Let the crowds chant what they want. Illinois (other than the one thing STL mentioned) does not use Illini on any uniforms. They could "offically" retire the name "Illini" and the chief, and let the crowds continue to chant "ILL-INI." When I first said this, I didn't think much of it. But the more I think about it, just saying ILLINOIS would be much better than any alternative I can think of. I'd rather them have no nickname than something like "Ghosts" (In honor of Red Grange) or "Farmers" (In honor of the farming industry in Illinois)

The same goes with Carthage. I worked in the graphic design/marketing department, and they have been slowly dropping the "College" out of the name. Just using CARTHAGE. (the president says "Harvard isn't called Harvard College, they are called "Harvard"...I guess if you think Carthage is like Harvard...) Anyway, They want to market that as much as they can. As a D-3 college, marketing sports merchendice isn't something they depend on for money. So to put money into focus groups and a new athletic logo, would be just silly. I say just go by Carthage and come up with a good athletic identity depicting that. I definatly don't want them to adapt "RedHawks" anymore (somethig I previously wanted) because all the former "Redmen" teams are that, and a college right down the road, Ripon, recently changed to that. Although with the logo they have now (Utahs with a C instead of a U) they could continue to use that, saying the feathers are "redhawk" feathers instead of headdress feathers.

BTW, I found the PDF of Illinois answering the questions to the NCAA. Kinda interesting. They really just repeat themselves over and over saying that the Illini name was something that the student body started calling themselves, and then it was officially adapted by the college. They talk about the history of the Chief and that a native american (a souix I believe) taught someone the dance in 1926. It was long, but interesting to see one college's response to the survey. I'd like to find Carthage's if I could.

[dfwabel]

I received my Masters from Illinois in 2000 and yes, "The Chief" was then and still a topic of the student body. White students was no issues, but many students of color thought it should go. The same would go for the alumni of the various races (i hate to use that term "race"). The university knew the heat was on when the changed the football helmets from "Illini" to "Illinois" in the mid-1980's, lost the chief logo soon after and went to the orange Block "I" for athletic purposes, and and stylised "I" with a half Roman colum and half Times font for official university purposes.

The biggest issue with at illinois includes the dancing of "Chief Illiniwek" at football and basketball halftimes. The school never addressed this directly, just puts our finsings on nickname hearings. Traditionally, it was a non-Native American, which riled up an Native American student I knew at the time. The schools website has plenty of information about the debate, if you care to look.

I think that the Illini could keep it since it short of Illinois. FSU could just shorten it to the "'Noles", but teams like Arkansas State "Indians", which was not mentioned initially would have to change.