Category: UND Athletics

There has been a lot of discussion, letters to editors, and complaining about the choices, but it will soon end (except perhaps the complaining) as UND stakeholders choose one of the following as UND’s new nickname:

• Fighting Hawks
• Nodaks
• North Stars
• Roughriders
• Sun Dogs

In case you don’t want to spend your time wading through the discussion, the letters, or the angst, I’ve attempted to summarize the most discussed pros and cons of each nickname on the ballot.

Fighting Hawks

• Non-unique; ______-hawks is a frequent choice of NCAA schools that have changed names
• “Fighting” retains some “Fighting Sioux” heritage
• Tough, fierce animal
• Strong logo possibilities

Nodaks

• Variation on “just North Dakota”
• Has been used in the past
• Concerns about it in full name “University of North Dakota Nodaks”
• Phonetically awkward (“no ring to it”, “sounds a bit hick”, etc…)
• Doesn’t add a marketable brand

North Stars

• Tied to region
• Unique in NCAA
• Minnesota state motto
• Former Minnesota pro hockey team

Roughriders

• The state’s unofficial motto (Roughrider state, Roughrider award), though some question Roosevelt’s ties to ND
• Is a person/human
• Unique in NCAA, though used in other leagues
• In use by local (Grand Forks) high school
• Strong logo possibilities
• Sexual connotation/condom brand

SunDogs

• Unique in NCAA
• Weather phenomenon related to North Dakota’s unique climate
• Questions as to logo (will we make it a dog, or a weather phenomenon?)
• Originally proposed by anti-Sioux groups (BRIDGES) as a name sure to offend no one
• Not seen as tough/fierce

I hope this helps someone, and what did I miss?

UND’s nickname committee has submitted five finalists, from thousands of initial submissions, to President Kelley for consideration for UND’s new nickname.

The final five are:

• Fighting Hawks
• Nodaks
• North Stars
• Roughriders
• Sundogs

North Stars, Roughriders, and Sundogs have been fiercely debated around water coolers, in the forums, and across social media. Each stirs up strong passions, both for and against, and each were favorites to make the finals. Nodaks is in a class of its own–no one seems to love it, but it was often assumed to be likely to advance thanks to its strong regionality in playing on the state name (which was, itself, a contender until last night). Until last night’s cut, however, Fighting Hawks was a dark horse that was generally just discussed under the umbrella of “one of those hawk names”; no one seemed to have much to say for or against it, and there was certainly little passion around it.

It’s not hard to see how Fighting Hawks made the cut, with its nod to history with “Fighting” and a fierce and strong animal in Hawks. With the three controversial contenders (North Stars, Roughriders, and Sundogs) having been bruised in months of debate, Fighting Hawks and its lack of baggage suddenly seems to be the safe choice.

However, Fighting Hawks is also remarkably unoriginal.

A post on the SiouxSports Forum observed that 9 other schools have moved from Indian nicknames to some variation of Hawks, most in the last 15 years. Those are:

• Chowam Hawks – formerly Braves (2006)
• Dickinson State Blue Hawks – formerly Savages (1972)
• IUP Crimson Hawks – formerly Indians (2006)
• Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks – formerly Indians (2006)
• Miami RedHawks – formerly Redskins (1997)
• Ripon Red Hawks – formerly Redmen (1985)
• Southeast Missouri State Redhawks – formerly Indians and Otahkians (2005)
• Seattle Redhawks – formerly Chieftains (2000)
• Stonehill Skyhawks – formerly Chieftains (2005)

The post also noted that some variation on Hawks is used by 28 other 4-year schools, making it the 8th most popular sports team nickname.

Fighting Hawks might well ride its lack of controversy to being the chosen name (for many of the same reasons 9 other schools chose it when migrating from Indian nicknames). It would probably be palatable by about as many constituents as any of the other names, but without the vitriolic opposition the more controversial contenders have.

But, it would shift UND from having had an original, regional, and proud nickname that itself stirs emotions to a pretty generic nickname, chosen because it’s acceptable and teams need to have nicknames. It’s not particularly unique, and doesn’t particularly identify with the school or region. While it doesn’t stir up passionate opposition, it also lacks passionate support. Fans would throw their passionate support for UND behind the Fighting Hawks, but the nickname itself would raise little additional passion for UND.

Introducing The University of North Dakota Pilots. The Pilots. The UND Pilots.
.
In the interest of generating public support for one or more new nickname ideas, I offer for your consideration The Pilots.

Any new name must pass muster in a number of different areas to make a final list. The guidelines which follow come directly from the task force charged with finding a new nickname at Arkansas State University. I’m not suggesting that the University of North Dakota will work under the same exact framework, but at this stage guidelines such as these will inform and direct our discussion.

The name selected must not conflict with the school colors.

No conflict here. Any sort of Pilot logo could easily use green and/or pink as its primary colors, with black and white as secondary or alternate colors.

The name selected must be suitable for use with both men’s and women’s teams (non-gender specific).

Check.

The name selected should not be one that invites derision, humor or double meaning.

Aside from the fact that plane crashes inevitably occur from time to time, I couldn’t think of anything else to include here.

The name selected should be one that will stand the test of time.

Given the strong connection with UND’s Aerospace program and the continued presence of the Air Force Base in the Grand Forks community, I’m confident that Pilots can last forever.

The name selected should be one that suggests pride, courage and a strong competitive spirit and one that inspires the creation of effective imagery and logos for use in promotion and marketing efforts.

A pilot signifies pride, courage, and a competitive (and adventuresome) spirit. Some of the more famous pilots – Neil Armstrong, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, and Chuck Yeager – are considered national heroes.

In terms of effective imagery and logos, I feel it passes the test with flying colors. “Pilots” can be effectively combined with the existing crossed “ND” logo or on its own as a primary or secondary logo .

The marketing possibilities are nearly endless. The club sections could be hangars, the booster organization could become the Pilots Club (with varying degrees of membership: aviators, bombardiers, co-pilots, etc.), and I’m sure Honda would love to jump on board since its Honda Pilot looks great in green.

The name selected will be distinctive and, if possible, unique to our conference, region and nation.

Distinctive, yes. Unique, almost.

Two former teams have been called the Pilots: major league baseball’s Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers in 1970, while the ECHL’s Pensacola Ice Pilots reorganized and dropped to the Southern Professional Hockey League in 2008, becoming the Ice Flyers.

The University of Portland (Oregon) and LSU-Shreveport (Louisiana) athletic teams are both called the Pilots, while the Bethel College (Indiana) Pilots use a nautical theme for their logo. As far as I know, no other team competing at the collegiate level or higher is known as the Pilots or any derivative thereof. I have no problem with North Dakota being the fourth team in the nation (and first in our region) to be called the Pilots, given that the name fares so strongly in every other area.

There is an instant connection between the UND Pilots and the city of Grand Forks, the University of North Dakota (specifically its Aerospace program), and the Grand Forks Air Force Base. The Pilots is a team name that is ready for flight.

I recognize that no one name will resonate with all interested parties, and I expect that this idea will be no different. Please feel free to comment, dissect, offer alternatives, or avoid the discussion altogether. It’s up to you.

Draw your own conclusions about what this means about the likelihood of an imminent accepted invitation to Big Sky Conference…

Swing by the forum for the latest discussion

Update… and, according to WDAZ:

Coincidentally, the Big Sky Conference will be making an announcement on Monday and it is “very likely” they will be announcing “additions” to the D-I (FCS) conference, according to Big Sky Media Relations Director Jon Kasper.

I’m sure you’ve seen the news elsewhere, but given all the coverage this topic has received here over the years, this needs mention…

Court, board decide to retire nickname

The court ruled Thursday that the board had the authority to dump the nickname at any time. The court rejected an appeal that sought to delay action.

A motion later Thursday at the board’s regularly scheduled meeting in Mayville to reconsider its vote in May to retire the nickname died after nobody seconded it.

The Grand Forks Herald report:

The university athletic teams will continue to be called the Sioux through the 2010-2011 school year while the school considers alternatives.

There have been a lot of criticisms of the settlement of N.D.’s Sioux nickname lawsuit against the NCAA (from questions about what UND got for $1m to theories about a football cabal conspiring to pressure UND to sacrifice the nickname for a chance to play Big Ten teams). The bottom-line, as many noted at the time, was that UND was suing the NCAA on procedural grounds — UND was asserting that the NCAA executive committee didn’t have the authority to issue the nickname rule — so all the NCAA needed to do to render the lawsuit moot was pass the same rule using proper procedures.

What the State of N.D. knew when it settled, and a lot of fans speculated, is that the NCAA was about to change their rules to formally grant the executive committee such authority.

From Increased Authority (Grand Forks Herald)

“In my estimation, we were going to win the lawsuit,” Stenehjem said, “but this amendment would have mooted that. We would have won the lawsuit in December 2007, and this was enacted January 12, 2008. So, it would have been a short-lived victory.”

Fan predictions that the NCAA membership wouldn’t grant its executive committee such authority, due to fear of their own oxes being next to be gored, proved unfortunately wildly wrong.

Stenehjem said he’d been told the amendment vote passed with about 99.6 percent of people voting in support.

UND faculty NCAA representative Sue Jeno attended the Nashville conference and said she was one of only a handful of representatives to vote against the amendment.

A 2007 NCAA student-athlete handbook lists the number of the association’s member institutions at slightly more than 1,000 spread between the three divisions. If the percentage vote quoted to Stenehjem is correct, that would mean Jeno was one of only about five members to vote against the amendment.

Continuing the lawsuit, given this, would have been throwing good money after bad. Given the inevitable outcome, it’s hard to argue that N.D. should have done anything other than precisely what it did. They put an immediate halt to the rising court expenses and won the valuable settlement concessions of being removed from the hostile and abusive list and being granted additional time, not subject to sanctions, to resolve the issue.

As The Sicatoka said in the “Negotiated Settlement” thread:

The AG, Mr. Stenehjem, did what he could with (what little) he had and based on this he deserves some credit:

At least he got us (temporarily) off the list and some time to look for middle ground.