1983 Given this nation’s rich heritage, the alternatives are virtually limitless. So, why continue to risk offending 1,300,000 Americans with a name that never was suitable anyway?

      It was a Redskin crowd at the Rose Bowl, with Washington fans dominating the pregame festivities outside the stadium, as well as the in-house noise-making.

      Headdress and war paint were THE fashion of the day, and one was rarely out of earshot of the Redskins' fight song -- you know, "Braves on the warpath, fight for old D.C." 

1983 Feb 1, The San Bernardino County Sun

Who Can Name the College

That's Home of Warriors? 

1983 Feb 24, Hartford Courant

By A.R. Coleman

       Williamantic – When sports enthusiasts hear the name Huskies, they think of the University of Connecticut.

      But who can name the college the Warriors belong to?

      Some members of the community of Eastern Connecticut State College don’t believe people relate the name Warriors to the college, even though the name is nearly a 50-year-old tradition.

      To remedy this situation, college President Charles R. Webb has appointed a committee to study the school’s nickname and to come up with alternative names.

      The reason for the Warriors’ obscurity lies in a controversy almost 12 years old. Some people on campus and in the surrounding community, as well as some Indian groups began to object to the name, Webb said.

      Webb said the profile of an Indian wearing a war bonnet represented Plains Indians. “Some Indian representatives got after us and said, ‘Look, we don’t like our culture being thought of just in terms of war, and if you’re going to do that, get the image correct,” he said.

      Six years ago, the Indian insignia was deleted. Parking stickers that once had the Indian logo in their center had a hole in their middle instead. The Indian that once stared at spectators from center court of the gymnasium was scraped off the floorboards.

      Now the committee is searching for a solution, and even residents of communities surrounding the campus are being asked for suggestions. “We would certainly welcome any comments from the community on the subject,” Webb said.

      That solution may not necessarily be a new name.

      “I don’t know if we want to get rid of the name,” said Webb. “If people want to stay with what we have, we’ll stay with what we have.”

      Ultimately, Webb wants the issue to come to a vote. Once the committee agrees on some alternative names, he said, “I’ll put them all, including Warriors, to a referendum. “ In the meantime, the community is invited to send suggestions to Webb’s office for consideration. 

      Webb said the Warrior name has been a tradition at the college since before World War II. After the Willimantic Normal School was renamed Willimantic State Teachers College in 1937, sports activities picked up and the Warrior name was adopted.

      William Holowaty, the college’s director of athletics, associate professor of physical education and head baseball coach, said some students cannot identify with the name Warrior. “Sometimes a female doesn’t take it (the name) positively,” Holowaty said. Occasionally a female student complains that she is thought of as “a warriorette or a squaw,” he said. 

      Floretta Crabtree, the coach of the women’s varsity volleyball team, said the team is split on the Warrior name. She said one reason some players are in favor of maintaining the name is that it’s been a tradition for so long at the college. However, she said that if the committee could come up with a better nickname, the entire team would be in favor of a change. The name, she said, “doesn’t really relate to the women that much.”

      “It will be interesting to see the feedback we get. So far it’s in favor of the Warrior,” Hollowaty said. However, he added, “the silent ones haven’t spoken up.”

      Holowaty said he doesn’t believe the college should “make a change for the sake of change.” He said he hasn’t heard any alternative nicknames that are “outstanding” enough to consider.

      The committee, he said, has come up with about 40 names. Of those, he gave only two any consideration. One was Connecticut Yankees and the other Pioneers. The Pioneer name, however, is already being used at another institution, he said. 

      If someone were asked what the college teams were nicknamed, Holowaty said, “they’d probably say ‘Eastern.’ They wouldn’t say Warriors. We’re known as Eastern.”

      It’s time to have an identity  and have people say, “Hey, there goes such and such, and not Eastern,” he said. 

1983 Feb 24, Hartford Courant 

Redskins by any other name

1983 Feb 3, Press and Sun Bulletin 

      With Superbowl XVII now a football memory, the Washington Redskins by any other name would still be victorious. And that’s the point of this editorial.
      By now the sports analysts have picked clean the bones of offensive and defensive successes and failures. But, to our knowledge, only Tom Noyes, a regular commentator on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered evening news broadcast, was sharp enough to analyze the shortcomings of the Washington Redskins name.

      It is his belief (and ours as well) that Interior Secretary James G. Watt has done quite enough to insult the American Indian. For the nation’s capital to have a professional athletic team whose name is a derogatory term for Indian in unacceptable. That the offense is a longstanding one is immaterial; it’s time for a wrong to be righted.

      Redskin is every bit as derogatory as any other ethnic slur; so, thanks to the NPR commentary, we can offer the following possible alternatives.

      If Washington is hopelessly enamored of the color red, how about Red Baiters (especially fitting in the Reagan years)?  Invoking the Potomac is another origin and means something like place of tribute. Given our nation’s tax structure, that option seems entirely appropriate.

      There are other economics-oriented possibilities, too: Double Dippers or Deficit Spenders, for instance.

      Given this nation’s rich heritage, the alternatives are virtually limitless. So, why continue to risk offending 1,300,000 Americans with a name that never was suitable anyway? 

1983 Feb 3, Press and Sun Bulletin 

1983 Jan 30, Santa Cruz Sentinel