I wish people would take ten minutes to learn about who the Rough Riders were, and where they were from.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rough_Riders
Thanks. Now, what is it that draws people to this name? Is it the dysentery? The Malaria? The Yellow Fever?
Maybe it's the tragic comedy of errors their trip to Cuba involved, namely the part about leaving their horses and a 1/4 of their men at home?
Is it perhaps the closeness we as North Dakotans feel to volunteer cavalry men from Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas?
ND Tourism has done a fine job rewriting history and making people believe the Rough Riders actually had something to do with North Dakota. They didn't. They had a Colonel, from New York, who later became President, who had a cattle ranch here, and made comments about how much he loved North Dakota. That's it. That's the only albeit loose, connection.
I would prefer we stay with no nickname. But if a new name is chosen that attempts to represent North Dakota, I would hope it would at least be factual and an accurate representation of our history.