Former University of Illinois mascot Chief Illiniwek

[As was published in the Columbia Daily Spectator on October 28, 2009]

What’s in a name?

In sports, a team’s nickname rarely merits a second thought. If you’re from the Bay Area, you might root for the Raiders and your best friend may support the 49ers. More than likely, you have an amiable rivalry.

But what if your team’s name might be considered offensive by some other party? What if you root for the Redskins or the Indians or the Braves or the Seminoles? Even team names like the Padres or the Yankees touch a nerve from time to time.

It’s a tricky situation and there is no easy answer. The great majority of a team’s fans doesn’t necessarily associate with its mascot or even pause to consider the name’s derivation. I root for the Chicago Blackhawks because they’re my team, not because they were named after Chief Black Hawk back in 1926.

In an age of increasing liberalism, there have been a number of modifications nationwide. In 1972, the University of Massachusetts changed its nickname from the Redmen to the Minutemen. In a nod to pacifism, the Washington Bullets became the Washington Wizards in 1997. The University of Illinois has come under multiple attacks for calling its team the Fighting Illini and for the antics of its mascot, Chief Illiniwek, which was essentially forced into retirement by the NCAA in 2007.

On the other side of the coin, the University of Wisconsin Badgers do not play against any school with a Native American team name, a policy adopted in 1993 after a basketball game against the Alcorn State Scalping Braves (Alcorn State has since dropped “Scalping” from its nickname). The Badgers do, however, make certain exceptions, consenting to play against teams such as the Fighting Illini, a traditional conference opponent. Are these changes and controversies a necessary step as our nation acknowledges its past, or are they a product of political correctness hijacked to the extreme?

Names can be hurtful, and in American sports it’s usually just one group that is targeted. Imagine if there were teams stereotyping other cultures with names as old-fashioned and derogatory as the Redskins. Would you be able to root for the New England WASPs? The Harlem Brothers? The Boston Irish?

But here’s an even more difficult question: would you be able to root against them? A very similar question flared to the forefront recently in Europe.

Midway through the 20th century, the Amsterdam football club Ajax had many Jewish fans, since the city was a thriving center for Jews at the time. In an age of growing anti-Semitism, fans of rival teams started calling Ajax and its supporters “Jews.” Rather than reject the nickname as insulting, Ajax fans embraced the association and it has remained intact ever since.

Even today, Ajax supporters—mostly blond-haired gentiles of Dutch descent—sing traditional Jewish folk songs at football matches in a bizarre show of fan loyalty. The Israeli flag has become a de facto team symbol. Even though ownership has attempted to discourage the association over the past 10 years, some fans cannot be persuaded easily to change their ways. When it comes to football, most Amsterdam locals are, temporarily, Jewish.

But Jews, in history, have had enemies everywhere, and fans of opposing clubs were quick to adopt chants like “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas” (Hamas and gas rhyme in Dutch). Such behavior has driven away some of the team’s real Jewish fans.

Extreme situations like this one have not been widespread in the United States, thankfully. Nevertheless, a general prevalence of Native American team names is both disturbing and dangerous. As a practice, it threatens to cheapen and marginalize an important (and shameful) part of our national history. There is no need to mock a people with caricature mascots and rituals such as the Tomahawk Chop years after driving them out of their land.

Still, American sports fans are infinitely more respectful than their European counterparts for one simple reason. We devote energy to supporting the home team, not attacking the opponent. So long as we’re able to stay positive—and, ideally, take some steps to deal with certain mascots, both collegiate and professional—American sports fans should be able to continue to support their teams diligently while still remaining morally in the clear—barely.

Jacob Levenfeld is a List College junior majoring in history and Talmud.