Summer sneak attack: NCAA's PC war on Indian mascots

Perfect timing for the NCAA to tighten the screws on the remaining member universities that have American Indian nicknames: In the dead of summer when most schools are void of students. Even summer school isn't in session in early August. Yes, it's a sneak-attack.

Cowards.

There are 18 colleges left that have team nicknames that in some way have ties to Native Americans.

Most are small schools, only two of them are perennial national powers in a major sport, the University of Illinois (basketball) and Florida State University (football). Illinois is known as the Fighting Illini, FSU's sports team are called the Seminoles.

Full disclosure: I'm an alumnus of Illinois. That's Chief Illiniwek on the left, the mascot for U of I teams since 1926.

Over the decades, many schools have been bullied into changing their Indian nicknames into something else deemed more acceptable. The St. John's Redmen are now the Red Storm. Dartmouth and Stanford both had "Indians" as their nickname, that moniker has been replaced by, respectively, these lame replacements: Big Green and Cardinal.

The Executive Committee of the NCAA admitted that they don't have the authority to issue a ban on Indian nicknames.

But at NCAA tournaments, such as the highly popular NCAA basketball "March Madness" tourney, this is what that executive committee won't allow:

• Schools with Indian nicknames hosting NCAA postseason events
• Indian mascots, such as Chief Illiniwek, to appear at any NCAA tournaments
• Logos with Indian images, even on team uniforms, to be visible at these same events

It's my firm opinion that among rank-and-file American Indians, Indian nicknames and mascots are not a big issue. But for the "movement" type Native American leaders, the Jesse Jackson-esque loudmouths within the Native American populations, this is a hot button issue, mainly because they know complaining about Indian nicknames catches the attention of guilty-white-liberals and the leftist mainstream media.

UPDATE 8/8/05 9:54 CDT: Guards of Magog sent me this 2002 National Review Online article which confirms my suspicions that Native Americans aren't bothered by the use of Indian nicknames.

An interesting passage:

The Peter Harris Research Group polled 352 Native Americans (217 living on reservations and 134 living off) and 743 sports fans; the results are published in SI's March 4 issue.

Here's the most important finding: "Asked if high school and college teams should stop using Indian nicknames, 81 percent of Native American respondents said no. As for pro sports, 83 percent of Native American respondents said teams should not stop using Indian nicknames, mascots, characters, and symbols."

The poll also found that 75 percent of Native Americans don't think the use of these team names and mascots "contributes to discrimination." Opinion is divided about the tomahawk chop displayed at Atlanta Braves games: 48 percent "don't care" about it; 51 percent do care, but more than half of them "like it." The name "Redskins" isn't especially controversial either; 69 percent of Native Americans don't object to it. As a general rule, Indians on reservations were more sensitive about team names and mascots, but not to the point where a majority of them ever sided with the activists on these questions.

Sports Illustrated writer S. L. Price reaches the obvious conclusion: "Although Native American activists are virtually united in opposition to the use of Indian nicknames and mascots, the Native American population sees the issue far differently."