A Sea Of Red

Sly Fox wrote:Pretty soon they'll be making us change our name because flames can kill people.

William & Mary responds to NCAA pressure, changes logo

Oct. 10, 2006
CBS SportsLine.com wire reports


RICHMOND, Va. -- The feathers are flying at the College of William & Mary, right off the school's athletic logo.


In response to a ruling by the NCAA that called the imagery offensive to Native Americans, the school said Tuesday that it plans to phase out the use of two Indian feathers.

In a letter to the Williamsburg school's community, college president Gene R. Nichol lashed out about the NCAA's sanctions that ultimately forced the school to stop using the green and gold logo it has had since the late 1970s.

"I am compelled to say, at the outset, how powerfully ironic it is for the College of William & Mary to face sanction for athletic transgression at the hands of the NCAA," Nichol wrote. "The Association has applied its mascot standards in ways so patently inconsistent and arbitrary as to demean the entire undertaking."

In August, the NCAA denied William & Mary's appeal of a ruling that prohibits it from using the logo at NCAA championship events or from hosting NCAA Tournament games where the logo would be displayed. The school was allowed to continue using its Tribe nickname.

The ruling was part of an ongoing process by the NCAA to review the mascots, nicknames and logos used by more than 30 schools to see if they could be considered "hostile and abusive" to Native Americans.

"We're encouraged that they have made a move to discontinue use of the logo," NCAA spokesman Bob Williams said. "From the beginning, the NCAA instituted this policy not as punishment but to ensure that our own NCAA championships are free from Native American imagery."

Nichol said the school decided not to sue the NCAA after losing its appeal, declining to "divert further energies" to defending the logo. He said further action likely would have cost the school's athletes opportunities to compete.

"I will not make our athletes pay for our broader disagreements with a governing association," Nichol said, calling the decision the correct course of action, despite disappointing some in the community. "We are required to hold fast to our values whether the NCAA does so or not."

The school plans to replace the logo for the start of the fall 2007 semester through input from a committee of faculty and staff, students and alumni.

Athletic director Terry Driscoll said the school would not have gone through the appeals process if it didn't think it was doing the right thing.

"Our feathers are not hostile and abusive and we've tried to articulate that," Driscoll said. "We're going to lose that brand ... We won't lose our identity."

Driscoll said the department will begin to inventory where the logo appears, including scoreboards, equipment and facilities, to see what it will cost to replace them.

Several universities changed or agreed to change their nicknames or logos after the NCAA policy discouraging use of these names was announced in 2005. Other schools have filed appeals, seeking permission from the NCAA to continue use of the nicknames or logos. The University of North Dakota is the only school that has filed a lawsuit after its appeal was rejected.

Teams that have continued using Indian nicknames with the NCAA's blessing include the Florida State University Seminoles, Central Michigan University Chippewas and the University of Utah Utes.

AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service

Copyright 2005-2006, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved

In many stories Robin's nemesis is the despotic Sheriff of Nottingham [NCAA]. The sheriff gravely abuses his position, appropriating land [Nicknames], levying intolerable taxation, and unfairly persecuting the [logos of] the poor [D1AA suckers].