By Brad Hubbard | @bradhubbard
What is in a name? It can be a rallying cry, a term to define a group or a point of division. The University of North Dakota now has a new nickname, the Fighting Hawks. It replaces the Fighting Sioux which was dropped in 2012 however it wasn’t the only choice and in the end not the one the North Dakota faithful wanted.
There was a long legal battle which resulted in North Dakota dropping the nickname Fighting Sioux in 2012. There was then a state mandated ‘cooling off’ period until 2015. Then the suggestion box was wide open and as CBS Sports Chris Peters pointed out, there were some real dandy’s.
The final list came down to five options: Fighting Hawks, Roughriders, Nodaks, North Stars and Sundogs. The nickname that most wanted wasn’t even an option and that was to not have one at all. The University of North Dakota suited those folks just fine.
Fighting Hawks was chosen regardless. Now we just have to wait for the Fighting Hawks logo to be unveiled.
This does bring back some memories to when Ole Miss changed their mascot. They didn’t change the nickname, Rebels, but the old southern gentleman mascot, Colonel Reb, was pushed out back in 2003. In 2010 their was a grassroots campaign to use Admiral Akbar from Star Wars. Lucas Film crushed that idea and OIe Miss settled on a Black Bear of all things. We’re still disappointed in their decision but it gives us a reason to post this ESPN promo.
Sideline Signals 