... Lose a Few

The relentless pursuit to purge ethnic, particularly Indigeneous American, references from sports team logos has reached a new height of eye-goggling stupidity.

My wife, a W&M alum, received this letter several days ago:

Dear Fellow Members of the William & Mary Community:

I write concerning the National Collegiate Athletic Association's dispute with the College over our nickname and logo.

During the past several months, the NCAA has reviewed William & Mary's athletic insignia [scroll halfway down, but be sure no women, children, or horses are around] to determine whether they constitute a violation of Association standards. On the more important front, the Committee concluded that the College's use of the term "Tribe" reflects our community's sense of shared commitment and common purpose. Accordingly, it will remain our nickname. The presence of two feathers on the logo, though, was ruled potentially "hostile and abusive." We appealed that determination. The decision was sustained and has become final. We must now decide whether to institute legal action against the NCAA or begin the process of altering our logo.

William and Mary's response starts out bravely:

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. The Association has applied its mascot standards in ways so patently inconsistent and arbitrary as to demean [by which he must mean heaping stupidity upon idiocy] the entire undertaking. Beyond this, William & Mary is widely acknowledged to be a principal exemplar of the NCAA's purported, if unrealized, ideals.

[Insert laudatory W&M athletic program academic statistics here] Meanwhile, across the country, in the face of massive academic underperformance, embarrassing misbehaviors on and off the field, and grotesque commercialization of intercollegiate athletics, the NCAA has proven hapless, or worse. It is galling that a university with such a consistent and compelling record of doing things the right way is threatened with punishment by an organization whose house, simply put, is not in order.

Then, just as I was expecting to read of a stirring call to donations, the W&M president suddenly goes gallic:

Still, in consultation with our Board of Visitors, I have determined that I am unwilling to sue the NCAA to further press our claims. There are three reasons for my decision. I'll explain them in order.

First, failing to adhere to the NCAA logo ruling would raise the substantial possibility that William & Mary athletes would be foreclosed from competing at the level their attainments and preparations merit.

...

Second, given the well-known challenges that this and other universities face -- in assuring access to world-class education, in supporting the research and teaching efforts of our faculties, and in financing and constructing twenty-first-century laboratories and facilities -- I am loath to divert further energies and resources to an expensive and perhaps multi-faceted lawsuit over an athletic logo.

...

Third, the College of William & Mary is one of the most remarkable universities in the world. It was a national treasure even before there was a nation to treasure it. I am unwilling to allow it to become the symbol and lodestar for a prolonged struggle over Native American imagery that will likely be miscast and misunderstood -- to the detriment of the institution.

Far be it from W&M to uphold that great American symbol and tradition: prominently displaying the single-digit salute to those who richly deserve it.

I know this decision will disappoint some among us. I am confident, however, that it is the correct course for the College. We are required to hold fast to our values whether the NCAA does so or not.

Except where holding fast to those values might be inconvenient.

In the weeks ahead, we will begin an inclusive process to consider options for an altered university logo. I invite you to participate. And I am immensely grateful for your efforts and energies on behalf of the College.

No doubt the inclusive process will exclude those two feathers from which we must forever avert our gaze.

Go Tribe. Hark upon the gale.

Unless the gale becomes, you know, stormy and wavy and inconvienient and stuff. Then by all means trim sales, turn tail, and run.

Sincerely,


Gene R. Nichol
President
College of William & Mary

In almost all cases, sports team logos seek to earn by association some aspect -- typicall bravery, speed, or strength -- of the icon they display [The Mighty Ducks being the sole, glaring, perplexing, exception. No insult implied to our proprietor, so far as he knows.]. So except for the odd icon that serves more as caricature and may well deserve to be struck or altered, most sports icons are tributes to admirable qualities.

What, even with your eyes scrunched up real good, is hostile and abusive about a couple of feathers?