Team color names [WAS: Card sharp versus card shark]

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 02/25/2003 6:35:45 AM Eastern Standard Time,
salovex at WPO.CSO.NIU.EDU writes:

> Please don't forget the "Monsters of the Midway", the University of Chicago
>  Maroons.  Their days of glory came when they led the original Big Ten,
>  under the leadership of the Grand Old Man, Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg. <snip>
>  Maroon football died when U of C President Robert Maynard Hutchins decreed
>  an end to athletic scholarships as such

Not only did the University of Chicago drop out of Big Ten football (their
place as the Tenth being taken by my alma mater, Michigan State University),
they converted their football stadium (yes, Amos Alonzo Stagg Field) to a
nuclear reactor!

In Washington DC the football team of the Sidwell Friends School is called
(unofficially, I believe) "The Fighting Quakers".

One of the University of California campi (I think Santa Cruz) uses the team
name "Banana Slugs".  This fits in with the tradition (am I correct?) that
all UC teams must have names beginning with the letter "B", e.g. Bears,
Bruins, Badgers.

If the Washington Redskins give in to political correctness, they have a
widely-used nickname they can officially adopt: "the Hogs".

Oink.  I hope they don't.

My high school (Louisville KY) was named "Seneca" (after a nearby municipal
park which I am told was designed by and perhaps named by Frederick Law
Olmstead---all parks in Louisville have names of Indian tribes except for
"Central" and "Shelby". ) The team name was (and maybe still is) "the
Redskins", and the school got permission from Al Capp to use a picture of
Lonesome Polecat (running and holding an upraised tomahawk) as the school
logo.  Talk about politically incorrect...

Seneca was highly unusual for a suburban school in those days because it was
10-15% African-American (there was a large all-black community out in the
country within Seneca's district) so of course our "Redskin" basketball team
(two state championships in the first 5 years) actually had black skins.
Wesley Unseld was our most famous basketball player---I remember the day
Wesley tried to pass himself off as Chinese.

We had an assistant principal named Brucherri who was promoted to principal
of the brand-new Westport High School.  We told him Westport should adopt the
team colors of black and blue and call its teams "the Bruisers".

                            - Jim Landau