Indian Logos and Team Name

Today I would like to discuss a controversial topic that has been put on the back burner lately in society and that is sports teams that use Indian tribes and symbols as their logo or team name. We discussed this last week in class and it brought up quite a few arguments for and against. Now I'm not here to say whether I am for or against it, but I do see both sides. If anything I am undecided on the matter. First to have a team name such as the Washington Redskins can be offensive, especially to the Native American population. Some Indians refer to the term redskin as the equivalent to using the "N" word. Personally i believe if that is the case, I think something should be done about the team name. I know the common argument is that the team does not want to lose money over it, but there were plenty of colleges team such Miami, OH who changed their names to the Redhawks and they did not see a decrease in revenue. Last week on Around the Horn Bill Palaschke won face time and during it he spoke of a hearing coming up against the Redskins. There was a group fighting for them to change their names. I thought it was kinda cool because we had just talked about the subject in class and here it was in the news the next day.

There are other teams out there like the Cleveland Indians who are under fire to change their name as well. I don't see what is so offensive in using the work Indian in a sports name. I do not think it is derogatory in anyway. The only thing that looks bad is the chief wahoo pictured on most of their merchandise. All these teams are under scrutiny to change their team names when that has created a lot of tradition and history in the ball club and its fans. If the Cleveland Indians were to change their name, Does that mean all the history before they changed their name is gone? or is converted into the new name? I think a good example is the Indians recently changed their stadium name from Jacobs field to Progressive field. In my mind, since i grew up watching the Indians in the 90's, it will forever be the Jake to me and other Tribe fans i have talked to. It almost feels like your taking a part of the history away. It would have been different, had they built a new stadium and named it Progressive field.

To conclude, I don't really see a clear cut solution anytime soon. Both sides have great arguments of why they do or do not think the team should change their name. It will eventually come down to the legal process and the leagues themselves to take action. Until that happens it is going to be a debate.

Introduction

Hey everyone! My name is Marcus Hoke and I am a Sport Marketing student here at Bowling Green State University. I am currently a senior/junior because I switched majors before my sophomore year from business to sport management. I chose to go the sports management route because I enjoy watching and being apart of sports. So far this has been an exciting major and I am ready to find more opportunities to get experience in my specified field.

I would say football and basketball are my favorite sports to watch. It is hard to pinpoint exactly why they are my two favorite sports to watch. I would say its because I played both in high school, but my school didn't have football so I really dont know what its like to play football unless you count playing out the yard with some friends lol. Football is just football, its hard hitting and constant action that gets a persons adrenaline going. I love the atmosphere the fans bring into the stadium with their tradition and pride. Basketball is my favorite sport to play, but I also love watching it as well. I would have to say the whole team concept of the sport draws me into it. There are so many elements that come into play with basketball and alot of them require you to trust your teammates.

As far as what specific moment in sports history that I would like to have seen. I would have to When da Bears won the Super Bowl, ha ha Saturday Night Live moment. Anyway back to the real question, it would have to when the Dream Team was assembled and they won the gold medal. The combination of all the greatest NBA players at the time period playing together for one cause is amazing. Jordan, Magic, Shaq, Robinson, and that is only a few of the great players on that team. It takes a lot to find the right combo of star players to play together, I mean look at the past olympic teams after the dream teams. Sure they had some great players, but some players were unable to accept the fact they were playing for something bigger than themselves and as a result lost. It was not until the Re-Deam Team as the captains Lebron, Kobe, Wade, and Melo put it, to win another gold medal because they all came together for one goal.

I look forward to being in this class and have already enjoyed discussions with everyone in and out of class. I plan on learning more as a continue to get used to the whole blogging thing.

Until next time as they say in BG Roll Along!