Florida State's President Demands NCAA Drop New PC Policy
by Jim Brown
August 11, 2005
(AgapePress) - Florida State University is vowing to fight a decision by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to prohibit the use of American Indian mascots by sports teams during postseason tournaments. NCAA Executive Committee chairman Walter Harrison announced last week, effective February 1, any school with a nickname or logo deemed "hostile" or "abusive" by the NCAA will be prohibited from using those names or images in postseason events. He also noted that, starting in 2008, mascots will not be allowed to perform at NCAA tournament games, and band members and cheerleaders will not be allowed to use American Indians logos on their uniforms.
Among the 18 schools affected by these new policies is Florida State University, with its "Seminoles" team nickname and its "Chief Osceola" mascot. FSU president T.K. Wetherell calls the NCAA policy "ridiculous" and "unfair," insisting that it is insulting for the athletic organization to label the school's close bond with the Seminole people as somehow culturally abusive or hostile.
Furthermore, Wetherell says, "We really don't think the NCAA has any place in these matters; they're institutional matters. We've had a relationship with the Seminole tribe since 1947. They support what we do, have just recently passed a resolution supporting it."
Wetherell adds that he and the FSU administration "strenuously disagree with the NCAA and, quite frankly, wish they'd deal with other issues that are more important, rather than these bellwether political issues." He says if the NCAA does not rescind its mascot ban and apologize to the Seminole Tribe, the university will take legal action.
The FSU president says the school does not only feel that the NCAA owes the Seminole Tribe of Florida an apology, but that it owes most of the Native American population throughout the United States an apology. "To suggest that you could wear those symbols during the course of a season but then would have to cover them up in a post-season event is really pretty discriminatory," he asserts, "and I think it's about as rude as you could get."
Wetherell says he is prepared to go to court to defend the school's longtime nickname and mascot, if necessary. Meanwhile, he says he wonders whether the NCAA will soon be deciding that nicknames like Notre Dame's "Fighting Irish" or Georgia Tech's "Rambling Wreck" are also to be considered "hostile or abusive."
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
