The Badger Herald: News: NCAA shoots down mascot appeals

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NCAA shoots down mascot appeals

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Wednesday, May 3, 2006 12:00 a.m.

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The National Collegiate Athletic Association denied final appeals from three universities seeking to continue using American Indian mascots and team nicknames regarded as "hostile and abusive" Friday.

Based on the NCAA's Executive Committee's ruling, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of North Dakota will not be allowed to host NCAA postseason games unless they drop their American Indian mascots and nicknames.

"Native American references used by each university create hostile or abusive environments inconsistent with the NCAA constitution and inconsistent with the NCAA commitment to diversity, respect and sportsmanship," the NCAA held in a release.

Though there were 18 universities on the list in August, over the past eight months, four institutions have been removed from the list of schools subject to restrictions — including Central Michigan University, Florida State University and the University of Utah — after providing written endorsements from American Indian "namesake" tribes in their states.

Additionally, six schools have remained on the list, with one appeal pending; five institutions have changed or are in the process of changing their nicknames; three are pending NCAA review; and one has now been put on a watch list.

Bradley University was placed on the five-year watch list after it was removed from the NCAA's list Friday.

BU has used the "Braves" moniker since 1937, and on appeal, the university showed that the name was not in reference to American Indians but to "encourage in our student body the qualities of honor, courage, tenacity, loyalty, and endurance associated with the Braves name."

"In general, there was concern with schools having Native American mascots," Kathy Fuller, assistant vice president of university relations at BU, said. "Bradley has not had a mascot in years and got rid of all Native American logos years ago."

Other schools with American Indian monikers did not fare as well in their appeals.

Though UI prevailed in its first appeal to keep the names "Illini" and "Fighting Illini" as being references to the state of Illinois, Friday's ruling leaves limited options.

"This decision is final," Tom Hardy, executive director of university relations at Illinois, said. "We've exhausted all of our appeals within the NCAA administrative appeals process."

Hardy added that the only options for UI include: litigation, which only the Board of Trustees can authorize; to come into compliance, which means changing the Chief Illiniwek mascot tradition; or to continue to be in noncompliance.

And the ruling could have an immediate impact on Illinois' athletics program, as its fifth-ranked men's tennis team was expected to host the early rounds of the NCAA tournament this month.

"[Our mascot] Chief Illiniwek does not go to those events," Hardy said. "We don't have [American Indian] logos on the uniforms or anything like that. The main issue is hosting."

The University of Wisconsin has a policy similar to the NCAA in that the university restricts athletic competitions with teams that have American Indian mascots or logos.

"Basically, the university Athletic Board created the policy back in '93 for scheduling non-conference games," Justin Doherty, UW director of athletic communications, said. "In games over which we have no control with scheduling, like the NCAA tournament or a bowl game, the policy is not in effect."

UW will continue athletic relationships with UI and UND — which lost an appeal to keep the "Fighting Sioux" nickname after a Sioux leader said his tribe opposed the university's use of its name last week — as they share conferences with UW in the Big Ten and Western Collegiate Hockey Association, respectively.

6 Comments | Leave a comment

Anonymous | May 3, 2006 12:34 PM | Reply

I think its utterly ridiculous that we can’t use Indian names. Its beyong stupid. Using a name is not inreference to it being bad, but should be looked at as something good. Recognizing that the schools want to be like that and show the history of the land. The people who complain about the names are nothign short of dumb ignorant people who have nothing better to do then look at college schools names and get mad.

Anonymous | May 3, 2006 1:53 PM | Reply

what a load of typical bs from the ncaa. "Native American references used by each university create hostile or abusive environments inconsistent with the NCAA constitution and inconsistent with the NCAA commitment to diversity, respect and sportsmanship," the NCAA held in a release. But a white guy in war paint, riding a horse up and down the sideline and planting a flaming spear at midfield is OK…can you say hypocrite? And UW won’t play them unless money is at stake (bowl game) and then they will…that’s moral$ for you

Anonymous | May 3, 2006 2:00 PM | Reply

Why is it possible for a few nay sayers to cause such controversy in our nation? What is the actual percentage of adults who believe that mascot imagery regarding native Americans is “abusive” or demeaning?

Anonymous | May 3, 2006 3:41 PM | Reply

“The people who complain about the names are nothign short of dumb ignorant people who have nothing better to do then look at college schools names and get mad.”

So you’d be ok with a team in Montgomery, AL, being renamed “the Negroes” with a mascot being a white guy in blackface?

Anonymous | May 4, 2006 2:03 PM | Reply

Why aren’t the Fighting Irish included on the banned list? Oh yeah, because that’s a negative stereotype about a white ethnicity. No one cares about that.

Sue Lepper | May 10, 2006 2:06 AM | Reply

After almost two years of working with a Michigan high school called the Braves with a Native American head as it’s logo, the school board was going to vote to remove them. Then due to the NCAA decision to let Bradley keep the name of Braves, they just voted out the logo and kept the name. It is clear Bradley started out with a Native logo and mascot, but for some unknown reason , dropped them. Well, it does not help us as all the schools this school has contact with will continue to think of them in terms of Native Americans and we will still see signs “scalp those Braves”. Do you have any idea what that does to Native American students? Could you tell the NCAA thanks a lot from us? The NCAA should not have any problems with names, logos and mascots. If the school is not on a reservation, they have no right to take our culture and misuse it.