| Shakespeare could wax poetic about 'What's in a | | | | a pioneer for minority involvement in major sports as |
| Name?' because he didn't have to contend with sports | | | | the great Jackie Robinson was fifty years later.Yes, |
| mascots ...It's the politically-correct issue in America that | | | | the team uses a caricature of a Native American as |
| refuses to subside. I consider myself to be an | | | | its logo now. In fact, Chief Wahoo is perenially one of |
| enlightened cyberbeing, but I contend there are just | | | | the hottest-selling logos on sports merchandise. It far |
| some topics that blur the bigger picture of an ethically | | | | outsells the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets orginal logo, |
| responsible society, and complaining that mascots can | | | | which is honoring the valiant Ohio battalion that fought |
| be degrading is near the top of the list.A quick check | | | | so honorably in the Civil War. We haven't heard |
| of Webster's Twentieth Century Unabridged Dictionary | | | | historical societies from that great state howling with |
| defines 'mascot' as 'any person, animal or thing | | | | indignation that this is done by putting a green insect in |
| supposed to bring good luck by being present.' So, it | | | | a Union soldier's uniform. Instead, the odds are they're |
| would seem that a team mascot is an honorable title. | | | | pleased that more of the North American public has |
| Most mascots in American sports had their origins in | | | | become aware of the Blue Jacket history than ever |
| the early 1900s. Back then, teams fumbled around with | | | | before, just as the Cleveland Indians can keep alive the |
| quaint monickers until they gradually realized the | | | | memory of Sockalexis. |
| tremendous marketing value they carried. The New | | | | Some protestors say Chief Wahoo has 'shifty' eyes |
| York Highlanders became the more | | | | and that makes him even more demeaning. I, for one, |
| regionally-identifiable Yankees, for instance, and the | | | | never drew that connection, but if anyone else did, |
| Chicago Cubs took their nickname so newspaper | | | | why wouldn't they be laughing and demeaning the |
| editors could more easily fit it into headlines. | | | | Oklahoma University Sooners? After all, that term |
| Distinguished symbols like Tigers and Giants appeared. | | | | originally implied cheaters getting a jump on staking |
| Unique features like White Stockings and Red | | | | claims to land being opened for settlement.There are |
| Stockings evolved into the more headline-friendly and | | | | many more examples. I simply don't see Native |
| spelling-special White Sox and Red Sox.One of the | | | | Americans being unduly isolated in this context, and no |
| earliest attempts at humor in mascot-anointing was | | | | one else involved is feeling belittled.The Washington |
| made by the Brooklyn nine of baseball's National | | | | Redskins originated in Boston, home of baseball's Red |
| League. Urban legend wasn't a known phrase back | | | | Sox and Braves in the 1930s. They were also called |
| then, but it farily describes the allusion to fans who | | | | the Braves back then, because they played in that |
| 'dodged' trolley fares to get a free ride to Ebbetts Field | | | | team's stadium. However, when they wound up getting |
| and watch the game. Those 'bums' were called | | | | better terms to locate in Fenway Park, they didn't |
| Dodgers, and their favorite team became christened | | | | want to confuse the paying public by being Braves but |
| as such.Ironically, that drift toward the whimsical --- | | | | playing in the Red Sox stadium. Their solution made |
| probably intended to portray sports in its proper | | | | sense: they incorporated references to their origins |
| context as a divertissement of life --- may have been | | | | and their new game site by changing their name to |
| the root of indignation two generations later.The social | | | | Redskins. The logic apparently didn't register with |
| upheavals of the 1960s and early 1970s were certainly | | | | enough fans, though, and the team soon exited to the |
| justified, in my view. Civil rights needed to come to the | | | | nation's capital.The point here is that the Redskins |
| fore, and the resultant improvement in how all peoples | | | | name wasn't derived as a slur, but as a facilitation to |
| were perceived was a great step forward for | | | | distinguish the team's new --- albeit transitional --- |
| mankind. Still, there's a difference between significant | | | | home. Furthermore, to be fair, the Redskins |
| awareness and pedantic perception in any movement. | | | | organization has only used a noble image as a symbol |
| Thus, in my view, when certain Native Americans first | | | | of the name. Washington DC is one of the most liberal |
| raised the mascot controversy in headlines of the time, | | | | cities in North America, with its population's majority |
| the attention afforded was only due to its being | | | | consisting of minorities. The connotation of that |
| sucked into the backdraft of searing human rights | | | | nickname being demeaning, as in the Cleveland Indians |
| campaigns.Personally, I've always thought the issue | | | | case, just doesn't emerge from its context.My |
| had as much relevance to their legitimate concerns as | | | | impression, then, remains that the mascot controversy |
| bra-burning did for women's rights.Think about it. Native | | | | has its sole value in the publicity it gives those |
| Americans aren't alone in being designated as | | | | organizations who are raising it. Pro and college sports |
| mascots. In accordance with Webster's Dictionary | | | | are more visible than ever in the USA, and what better |
| definition, other persons given the distinction include the | | | | way is there to affix one's organization to higher 'page |
| Irish (University of Notre Dame) and Scandinavians | | | | rankings' than making headlines in the Sports section of |
| (Minnesota Vikings). Both of these ethnic groups | | | | newspapers and broadcasts?The matter isn't going |
| endured their moments of discrimination in the annals | | | | away anytime soon. Now the NCAA --- college sports' |
| of American history, too. So far, neither has mounted a | | | | governing body --- has decreed that any university |
| protest about being characterized as a good luck | | | | with a Native American mascot can neither host a |
| symbol for a sporting organization.Don't even try to | | | | championship event nor use their mascot in any |
| broach the 'caricature' argument as a reason why the | | | | championship event. Some schools have successfully |
| Native American situation is different. Perhaps Notre | | | | been granted exceptions, which makes even less |
| Dame uses a leprechaun logo now, but the term | | | | sense to me. Does this mean that Florida State's |
| 'Fighting Irish' was a clear reference to barroom | | | | Seminoles, for example, are less demeaning to Native |
| brawlers, a stereotypical low-life trait at which | | | | Americans than North Dakota's Fighting Sioux (a |
| immigrants from the Emerald Isle were perceived to | | | | traditional college hockey power)? How hypocritical is |
| be quite proficient. As to the Scandinavians, there is no | | | | that? If they're contending that degrees of |
| evidence that even one Viking was ever so dim as to | | | | discrimination exist due to local circumstances, then |
| go into battle with a set of heavy horns on his helmet; | | | | they're admitting to a targeted sensitivity beyond |
| why would any warrior charge into a kill-or-be-killed | | | | society's pale, which is discriminatory in itself. How can |
| scenario wearing anything that could directly impede | | | | such a position be rationalized with a clear |
| his ability to win? (The image of horns came from | | | | conscience?Mascots, no matter how commercialized, |
| priests' drawings of Viking attacks, attempting to | | | | are still nothing more than whimsical symbols. Society |
| equate them to the Devil incarnate, and it was Wagner | | | | as a whole understands that, just as it realizes the |
| who popularized this image when he staged his epic | | | | stylized violence in Grimm's Fairy Tales leaves no |
| Ring of the Niebelung.)Cleveland's baseball team sorted | | | | lasting scars on the psyches of children who innocently |
| through a number of mascots in their early days. | | | | absorb them. Those who claim to the contrary only |
| 'Spiders' just didn't have that 'je ne sais crois' of | | | | risk trivializing themselves and the credibility of their |
| marketing sizzle. They were the 'Naps' for a while, in | | | | greater cause.Nowhere in the country do such topics |
| honor of their star player-manager, Napoleon Lajoie. | | | | remain in a lighthearted perspective more than in |
| So, when they finally settled on 'Indians' in correlation to | | | | Orofino, Idaho. That's the site of the state's mental |
| one of their first star players --- Louis Sockalexis, a | | | | hospital. The local high school's teams are called the |
| Native American --- the monicker may not have begun | | | | Maniacs.No one protests, unless the teams don't play |
| as a tribute to him, but it has since memorialized his | | | | hard.J Square Humboldt is the featured columnist at |
| legacy. The evidence indicates the term was | | | | the Longer Life website, which is dedicated to |
| derogatorily applied to all members of the Cleveland | | | | providing information, strategies, analysis and |
| team in the 1890s because it dared to have the | | | | commentary devoted to improving the quality of living. |
| fortitude to allow an Indian to play for them. Since then, | | | | His page can be found at and his observations are |
| Sockalexis has been recognized as being as much of | | | | published three times per week. |