No more Red Raiders

[joecct]

USCHO reports that the Colgate administration has dropped the "Red" from the nickname. Henceforth the Colgate teams will be known as the Raiders.

School president Al Davis had no comment at this time. :)

[scottcomstock]

I'm not sure what to make of this. Was this due to any outside pressure? (The USCHO article doesn't say, and Colgate isn't talking) I don't recall Colgate ever having had an Indian mascot...

[Stemmer]

Frankly, I don't much care...but does this foreshadow a change in their colors?

That would be fine with me...there's entirely too much RED in ECAC hockey!

whoops!! I just red the announcement on USCHO.com and indeed their is reference made to the sensitivity to native American stereotyping...though thats not what "Red RAiders" actually meant.

[Todd '86]

This is just speculation, but their proximity to the Oneida Nation might have something to do with it. I guess they did have an Indian mascot back in the 60's and 70's.

[redraider13]

It's got nothing to do with the Oneida nation, the pressure came from within Colgate, mostly the faculty, and the SSJ (Students for social justice). They argued on the basis of what the name sounded like, and the fact that the students created a native american mascot in the 60s and 70s. The University decided it would be simpler to drop the name, than to worry about educating people on the true meaning of where it came from. However, they did not bother to consult the alumni, or the students, and the decision was made behind closed doors, and more or less out of the blue so that people would not have a chance to make up their own opinion, or to actual establish their position and try to influence the decision. This might not sit well with the students, if only on the ground that we were not involved in the decision at all, and now we are probally going to have to listen to the SSJ even more. Picture the Causeheads from PCU, thats them. The name Red Raider's has a great tradition, going back to 1932, when our football uniforms came in a much different style than we usually had. They were jokingly called the Red Raiders due to the brightness of the uniform. Then when the team won every game that season, by shutout, the name stuck. But it seems as thought tradition has taken a backseat to political correctness.

[Stripes55]

Well, that takes all the fun out of "Better Dead Than Red" weekend! (the two game set against Colgate/Cornell). :(

[Todd '86]

Wow, first the facutly establishes a position to eliminate greek life, then influences the decision to change the athletic teams' nickname. They even expressed their opinion earlier this year that they wish Colgate wasn't D-I. All this high-mindedness could make 'Gate a really boring place.

[redraider13]

Yes, but they just announced that the library will be open even later...

Party in the stacks!!

Oye Vey....

[Clarkson_Bandie]

Every year, the CU Pep Band goes to Cornell and Colgate for a road trip. Last year, something quite interesting happened. One the way to Colgate's Arena, we took a wrong turn (thanks to the direction giving ability of our Band president) and the bus slid of the road. Low and behold, guess whose house we were in front of; you guessed it, Al Davis', Colgate's president. Well, Colgate's Campus Security showed up, as did a tow truck. We chanted some chants in the freezing cold, huddled in the president's garage, peed on his lawn, meet the President's son (he's a real dick) and his son's girlfriend (she's a real bitch). Finally, the bus was dragged back onto the road and we ended up arriving to the arena just in time for the game. It was a nice change to the loss we had just sustained to Cornell the previous night, and we did beat Colgate, so I guess everything worked out just fine.

For the full story:

http://www.clarkson.edu/~cupband/colcornell/stories.html

For pictures (including one of a Bandie humping the Colgate President's Lexus):

http://www.clarkson.edu/~cupband/colcornell/pictures.html

[redraider13]

Yeah, our old president was a real pompus ass. And his son is even worse, if he wasn't the presidents son, he would have been kicked out 20 times over. I'm just surprised that campus safety did something useful. We're hoping all our University's bad luck came from President Kalerlis, and that by firing him, the University would get back on the right track. He was fired about 2 months ago. And he was generally disregarded by the faculty as well as the students, so who knows what role he played in this name change. As far as our knucklehead fans go (I read the story), I've often debated making up posters that say, "The game is that way" with an arrow pointing to the rink for the more intoxicated. And giving these posters to the visiting band. But I know you guys do enjoy a good taunt war, unlike Cornell, whose fans can be loud and obnoxious, but when you try to taunt them back or get ****ed, they seem geniunly surprised that you don't like them, or would even think of trying to make fun of them with a taunt. It's my experience that the Clarkson people can dish it out as good as anyone, but they have a sense of humor about it when it comes back their way. I'm just glad campus safety actually did something about those fans if they were acting innapropriatly. A Clarkson fan came up to me halfway through the game (I was the guy with the facepaint and the school flag..), and told me some Clarkson fans were getting abused, and when they told campus safety, they laughed in a "oh those guys" kinda way. Yet earlier in the year, they went through a 6 year olds lunch box at a sunday afternoon soccer game, looking for booze, and the kid was the coaches son! So, that tells you about SOME of the campus safety officers. I would say if you have a real complaint at a future game, take is straight to Mark Murphy, our athletic director, or one of the assistant directors. Since that's usually the best way to make sure something gets done, and they would be glad to help you out. We did get a few complaints about you guys though that you were heckling random fans who were just walking by in front of your section. Even like families and stuff... Anywho, I must be off, I'm actually driving back to school today for pep band because we have a few practice days before schools starts so we can get to know our new members and get ready for the start of football season!

[joecct]

That just reminded me....

Does AD Mark Murphy have to repudiate his tenure as a safety for the Washington Redskins???

[Bill]

Cheez -- my wife's cousin is a knight (yes a real one) -- is it therefore politically correct for us to remain the CCT (CU) Knights??? What stupidity, eh???

[Pete]

Yeah, my old high school is the red raiders (Massena) Eventhough many NAtive Americans have played for the teams and do not have a problem with the name, the vocal minority looks like it will win there too. They are already looking at altternative names. The world is getting way to PC. You know, I'm Irish and the Boston Celtics name offends me, maybe I could do something about it.

[Earl_Leatherland]

I am also from Massena. I have heard of a few people being offended but not to the magnitude of ever wanting to alter the name.

[Pete]

The vocal minority are winning Earl. There have already been meetings where the intent to change the name was as much as stated.

[JR]

The NYS governing body that oversees HS sports has recommended that all NYS Public Schools look at changing ethnically insensitive nicknames. The ones getting the most press are the Native American names like Redskins, Red Raiders, and the like. I went to Jamestown HS and our nickname is the Red Raiders as well. We even have a Native American Mascot. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some pressure to at least change the mascot. I live in Rochester now, and Fairport HS teams are the Red Raiders, but their logo is a copy of Oakland Raiders logo in red, so they are probably safe. I hope that JHS keeps the name and changes the logo to a pirate type "raider" because I'm just so used to the name.

[scottcomstock]

The pressure comes from even higher than that. NYS education commissioner Richard Mills has, for all intents and purposes, ordered New York public schools to drop Indian nicknames & mascots -- and has not ruled out state intervention in the matter if local school boards do not act.

http://www.nyssba.org/adnews/albany/albany042301_1.htm

I graduated from Cooperstown High School in 1996. At that time, their sports teams were called the "Redskins" and used an Indian with a hunting dog as a logo (a copy of a statue located elsewhere in C'town). I have not heard any news from back east as yet as to how Cooperstown is handling this, outside of replacing old uniforms with ones that make no mention of "Redskins" (or the logo).

Drop the puck!

[redraider13]

Sometimes I guess it doesn't pay to have an athletic director who lives in a pink house.... But the dude has like 6 kids and 2 superbowl rings, he did have back surgury last year though, you make the connection there. He was also a half step away from going to Harvard as their new AD over the summer. His quote in the campus newspaper was something to the effect of "Well, no one else seemed to care one way or another, and the change made the SSJ happy, and makes the university look better..." The decision was made over the summer with no one knowing it was coming. It's not like alums are just gonna randomly write, "you know, I really like our nickname, not just the raider part, the red part too..." perhaps we should have.