Siouxphan27
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Posts posted by Siouxphan27
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UND Albatrosses! Makes perfect sense!
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I completely agree with you. How is North Stars any more marketable than Sundogs, Spirit, Force, or Fighting Green? Its still better than those names but still belongs in the same category as them. Personally I think the best nicknames are people or animals.
The committee could have selected any animal that is associated with North Dakota instead they selected a hawk. I've seen more crows (or are they ravens?) in Grand Forks than anywhere else. We could have chosen some sort of lesser used name like a fish (northern pike), bird (mallards, crows/ravens, pheasant, meadowlarks, owls), deer or moose (mulies, bucks), predator (foxes, wolves, mountain lions, coyotes), rodent (flicker tail), or horse (nokota) that are native to the state. I know a lot of schools use wolves and South Dakota uses coyotes so those would have probably not been too great. I'm sure some school somewhere uses the other animals I listed but not many and definitely not as much as hawks. We could have came up with a good animal nickname but instead we chose the same animal every university chose along with an adjective that doesn't make sense for hawks all because some outside advisor told the committee that we should do the same thing as everyone else.
As far as the people based nicknames go, I could live with any of them. They are all associated with the state in some way (state nickname, Lewis and Clark expedition, military history, and Nodaks). They are all unique. They have potential for cool logos and easy marketing (Nodaks may be more difficult than the other but smarter people than me would figure it out). They all have their drawbacks, but I think people would grow to like any of them which is something I don't think you could say about the adjective hawks or WNBA names.
If the committee wanted to give us an inanimate object nickname, they could have selected one of many categories that are actually associated with North Dakota. They could have chosen agriculture (reapers, sodbusters, etc.), aviation (jets, aviators, etc.), or oil industry (oilers, roughnecks, etc.). They could have chosen something to do with the badlands or prairie. Arrows are on the state flag. I was always partial to that name but what can you do when some moron decides that only Natives used arrows. Instead they chose an inanimate associated completely with Minnesota or else associated with nowhere (Blaze and Sundogs).
As far as intangible nicknames go, those should be left to the WNBA. I've never met a person that could even stomach a name like pride, spirit, or force. And of course fighting green is two adjectives describing nothing resulting in what would definitely be considered the dumbest nickname of any team, anywhere, in the history of the known universe.
To summarize my rant, UND could have came up with a lot of decent nicknames that could have grown on people that have an open mind (so ignoring the Fighting Sioux forever cabal). Instead the committee did a terrible job and came up with no nickname (which I hated until I saw the list), 6 nicknames that everyone hates, 3 bland and nonsensical animal nicknames, and an inanimate nickname strongly associated with another state. This results in only 4 nicknames that could meet the requirement of being unique and realistically grow on people out of the plethora of possibilities. Going 4 for 15 isn't even good in baseball, let alone this. I am extremely disappointed in the committee and the university.
Nice post.
I am also disappointed in the job the committee with "expert" help did in narrowing the list. They could've just asked a flaming gay guy with a bird fetish and came up with this exact same top 15.
Disclaimer:
(Nothing against flaming, gays, guys, birds, or fetishes)
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Minnesota is called the North Star state.
We aren't.
But we are called thr Roughrider state.
I don't dislike the Noth Star idea on it's name alone, only because the context does not fit.
Interesting side note.... There are just many North Stars (just one), as there were Roughriders who were from North Dakota that went to battle with Teddy Roosevelt in Cuba. (Just one- Jesse Langdon)
If Roughriders is chosen, it would be a nice tribute to that "northern star" of the Roughriders Jesse Langdon, the son of the head veterinarian at ndsu in the 1890's.
Or maybe Cavalry makes more sense....
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Someone posted here earlier the "experts" advising the committee are pushing the three hawk choices.
So my wild guess is their top three will be one each from three different types of names...
_____Hawks
Abstract concept of choice
Roughriders, Cavalry, or Explorers
If North Dakota makes the cut, who knows......
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Looking at this site, about 20% of votes cast voted that option.
If 20% is a majority, I need to relearn the definition of 'majority'.
In this day and age of Minority Rules, it's all very confusing.
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I wonder if anywone on the commitee goes on to siouxsports.com and checks out what people are saying!!
They'll probably use the info here, and the online polls to push their own agenda... For example if a few of them want North Stars, they could look at the polls and try to keep a popular name like Roughriders out of the top 3. Or vice versa.
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They will say Riders - Lady Riders when referring to them on the radio, etc. Riders isn't a gender like orangeMEN.
Riders??? So our mascot will be a front butt chick wearing Lee brand Mom Jeans she bought at Penney's? Great.
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How about no nickname, and the people that are whining that bad things will happen if we don't get a new nickname, just bury their heads in the sand?
LOL. UND Ostriches for the compromise?
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Lets go Expos?
Not a bad idea. It definitely would help make the name less of a mouthful.
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I know there's been a lot of discussion, pro and con, in the other nickname threads, but I thought it would be interesting to gather a list of drawbacks for each potential name in one place. Though every name has some drawbacks that lead some people not to like it, it seems some are much a bigger deal than others (e.g. I don't think Red River High using RoughRiders is nearly as big a deal as North Stars being associated with Minnesota).
It would be great if we could keep the discussion in this thread to a minimum (I'm hoping to just gather a list of the negatives), and I suppose we have to let profanity slide a bit.
What's the biggest negative you can think of about the name(s) you don't like?
Blaze
Cavalry
Explorers
Fighting Green
Fighting Hawks
Force
Green Hawks
Nodaks
North Dakota
North Stars
Pride
Roughriders
Spirit
Sundogs
Thunderhawks
Ok, i'll give the negatives idea a try....
Blaze- UND Blaze? Blaze of what? what is a blaze? just dumb...
Cavalry - no negatives here- there were Cavalry in ND, so it is historically relevant.
Explorers - not a bad choice given the crappy list- but not real catchy. Explorers Yeah Yeah! Yeah Explorers Explorers!
?Fighting Green- not a thing is it's biggest negative. can't believe it made the list
Fighting Hawks- not the worst since there's so few good ones. But i'm not a fan of all these dumb Big Bird type mascots.
Force -what is this, Star Wars?
Green Hawks - again not a fan of Big Bird mascots
Nodaks - nothing wrong with this choice. it's been used before.
North Dakota - Perfect. As the saying goes, if you can't say something that isn't lame, don't say anything at all.
North Stars - Maybe we could hire Oliver North to be the P.A. announcer while we're at it.
Pride - When's the parade?
Roughriders - not historically accurate as T.R.'s Roughriders were not from ND. But historical significance left this exercise 63 names ago. So not the worst
Spirit - brought to you by Happy Harry's
Sundogs -the mamby pamby rainbow connotation does not evoke any sense of power or competitiveness.
Thunderhawks- How many Ornithologists are on this committee anyway?
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How we wish it would be vs. how it will likely be:
"The University of North Dakota is the home of the Pride/Spirit/Sundogs. UND chose the name Pride/Spirit/Sundogs in 2015 to honor the diversity of our community. It epitomizes openness, tolerance, acceptance, inclusiveness, peace, and harmony. Please use good sportspersonship tonight as you cheer our team on in friendly competition, which hopefully results in a tie so no one's feelings get hurt and we can share a big group hug with our opponents' fans after the event concludes. Thank you."
Very, very well done.... and quite possibly sad but true. augh
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Interesting on the forum poll. I also notice Sundogs is really high which leads me to believe bison fans are voting for some of those unpopular names. They also don't show the total number of votes which makes it tough to get a read. The committee needs to realize because this vote is open to everyone (big mistake) the dumbest name will be voted on by NDSU fans and others. That means they should probably get a good pulse on what UND fans actually want so there are no bad choices on the final vote.
I will go out on a limb and say this will not be open to everyone. Yes, it is being called a public vote. But I believe just saying "public" is becoming a little confusing.... being a public vote does not always mean everyone is eligible to vote. Just like a general election is a public vote, you still need to meet certain criteria to vote in your precinct for the people running in your district. The nickname vote will hopefully be handled similarly with a set of criteria that must be met to be eligible to vote.
An email requesting a reply to the list of nickname finalists, sent to all current students and alumni would suffice in my opinion. If for some reason the university does not have someone's email address, that person is responsible for contacting the university, proving who they are, and registering their vote.
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It's sure interesting reading all the differing opinions....
On one hand, if you prefer to go forward with no nickname, you are accused of holding UND back, as purported millions of nickname merchandise revenue will be left on the table, as people from all corners of the globe who had previously never heard of UND will suddenly purchase shirts that say UND Sundogs on them.
Not to mention the loss of revenue from rich folks with no UND affiliation who might channel surf one evening and stumble upon a Traditional Circle of Sticks and see that Sundog logo and say to themselves, that nickname is cool! I gotta donate copious amounts of money to that school!
And last but not least, when large research grants are being doled out to Universities, the deciding factor of who gets the grant and who doesn't, will inevitably come down to how cool the nicknames are of the top three finalist Universities.
Yet some of the people accusing the no nickname crowd of holding UND back, are readily admitting they won't buy "Shiite" that "just says UND" on it.
Interesting indeed.
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My god, stop saying this!
The reason sales have been down since the nickname stuff ran out is because no one wants to buy something that is changing soon again! I'm NOT in marketing and yet I'm smart enough to know this!
Exactly. And also, people bought lifetime supplies of Sioux gear near the end, so it's understandable sales would be down.
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I'm thinking using the Slippery Rock model, "The Rock", won't work for UND.
I just don't see the NCAA being good with "The Dakota".
If it were used to like that, it would be in reference to the state of North Dakota. Not the Dakota tribe.
UNDs use of "we are North Dakota", irks some of the NDSU people. If we also said" we are Dakota", that would help tick off the South Dakota schools. It's a win-win for UND in both of the Dakotas
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Seems reasonably well maintained.
What I noticed:
Of the "no nickname" schools (and the "I don't know if they have one" schools) there's only one playing NCAA Division I athletics without a nickname.
You only get one guess as to whom it is.
Don't have time to look, but I believe Slippery Rock uses Rock, and doesn't have another nickname.
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If we choose Thunderhawks, can we use this image as inspiration? Thunder Hawk was a member of the Hunkpapa Indians and a companion of Sitting Bull.
I would've been ok with the UND Hunkpapas. Darnit, too late!
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Actually, having sat through a lot of these committee meetings, I would say that McDonald is one of the least vocal and influential in the room (actually, he's seldom in the room.... he attends via teleconference). It would be a close race between him and the staff representative on the panel. Lowell Schweigert always seems to be the most vocal and engaged... him and Bridewell.
I guess I was just referencing his ability to play the race card and trump everyone else. He could just say staying without a nickname will be racist because people will then still use fighting Sioux.
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Time for someone on the committee to step up and take North Dakota off the list. Shouldn't be an option. This committee needs to think about the long term effects that has on UND. Don't care what the hockey only fans or the hockey only writers think, would be a big mistake for the school. Roughriders or Cavalry will do just fine. Time to move on.
You will need to talk to McDonald if you would like one person on the commitee to single handedly eliminate a choice; he's the only member who wields that much power.
I think your assumption that people who want North Dakota are hockey only fans, is extremely inaccurate.
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Until BRIDGES finds a Native American appalled by the use of the sacred word "Spirit" and we hop on the nickname merry-go-round all over again.
Very true. I would not be surprised if a similar problem with BRIDGES occurs for either Cavalry or Roughriders.
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The first six I would like to see hacked from the list in no particular order:
1. Blaze a horse with a white blaze, or what is this describing exactly?
2. Fighting Green salad shooters?
3. Force what is a force?
4. North Stars Minnesota for one reason, and NORTH Dakota NORTH Stars is another
5. Pride all I got here is WTF
6. Spirit we got spirit, yes we do.... but we are not actually the spirits themselves. abstract concepts are poor choices for a name.
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I'm stunned that those folks who think "Arrows" and a phony "breed" of horses are too associated with Native American imagery or SOUND like Native American imagery seem to think "Spirit" is a good idea.
That's because it's really not about what is truly "offensive". Rather, it's about having more control of the process by being able to pick and choose which names related to NA culture they like (not offensive), and which names they don't like (offensive).
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They spelled Blais wrong.
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I agree I thought the list would be down to like 10 by now.
They're waiting for McDonald to tell them what the top ten are.
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UND Nickname Primary
in UND Nickname
Posted
They'll probably come up with something clever involving studded condoms instead.