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September 22, 2009
Purple Panthers
The University of Northern Iowa’s mascot is the Panther. When we were Iowa State Teachers’ College, we were known as the Teachers. However, I imagine that the “fighting teachers” didn’t sound right.
“The Panthers,” on the other hand, sounds as if it was pulled at random, out of a book called Inoffensive Team Names for Dummies. It is a very commonplace name. A Google search of panther+sports yields twenty million hits. Moreover, the panther has little to do with Iowa—and vice versa.
How about replacing it with something more novel? More local? Like the UNI Soybean Aphids? Now, those critters are fierce! Or the UNI Crop Dusters? Those daredevil pilots who defend us against—well—the aphids, I suppose. Or the one thing that Iowa is known for nationally? No, not gay marriage; I haven’t figure out a way to fit that into a sports franchise. I mean the Northern Iowa Caucusers.
I don’t expect any of my suggestions to get much traction. After all, they just spent money erecting a statue of a panther in front of the Student Union. The statue is meant to evoke action, but to me it looks like a cat peeing.
Posted by hockey at September 22, 2009 10:45 AM