University of North Dakota's new nickname

[ST_Lawson]

UND has picked a new nickname....finally. The controversy over their old nickname (Sioux) was a big part in why they did not get an invite to the MVFC/Summit League when the other Dakota schools migrated over.

Announced this morning, they will be the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks.
When they started the process, they wanted something that was unique and represented North Dakota....they ended up with one of the most overused nicknames out there.

http://www.inforum.com/news/3885425-und ... ting-hawks

[sealhall74]

Shoot, I was anxiously awaiting the first-ever "Condom Bowl", the one between the RoughRiders and the Trojans.

[wiu712]

The 3rd most popular name was "Nodaks".

[ST_Lawson]

The whole process was kinda a big messed up situation.
They started by taking suggestions from people, then narrowed it down to 5 options that people liked.

They were: Fighting Hawks, Nodaks, North Stars, Roughriders, and Sundogs.

The plan was to have one vote to narrow it down to the top three, then another vote from those three to pick the winner.
During the process, they "adjusted" the rules, apparently in an effort to swing the vote towards Fighting Hawks (that's what the administration was wanting).
First vote eliminated North Stars and Sundogs.
Second vote eliminated Nodaks (which was essentially the option that the people that wanted to stay "Sioux" were going with...it was kinda an anti-nickname).
The vote was so close between Hawks and Roughriders that they conducted a third vote, which went 57.24% to Fighting Hawks and 42.76% to Roughriders.

There's a lot of people that wanted something a bit more unique than some version of "Hawks", but also apparently there's a high school in or near Grand Forks that also uses the Roughriders nickname, so some local people didn't want the same name as a local HS, even though a lot of places do that (Iowa City HS is the Hawks...for example) and Roughriders is a much more unique nickname nationally than the variations of "Hawks".

[sealhall74]

Today's not-too-related trivia question: Who can remember ALL nicknames of the now (since 1973) defunct Macomb Western High School?

[rocki]

Today's not-too-related trivia question: Who can remember ALL nicknames of the now (since 1973) defunct Macomb Western High School?

I just remember them as the Cardinals.

[sealhall74]

Today's not-too-related trivia question: Who can remember ALL nicknames of the now (since 1973) defunct Macomb Western High School?

I just remember them as the Cardinals.

They were called the Acads and Purple Preps thru 1945 when the school was known as Macomb Western Academy.

http://www.illinoishsglorydays.com/id374.html

There is mention on that page of swimmer Chuck Hutinger among many others. I took at least once class from his father, Paul Hutinger. I think it was Anatomy and Physiology 101 or something like that. Paul just passed away last year.

http://www.wiu.edu/news/newsrelease.php ... e_id=11780

[wiu712]

The University of North Dakota is staying with an animal team name just like the other universities in the Dakotas:
North Dakota State Bison
South Dakota State Jackrabbits
University of South Dakota Coyotes

[wiu712]

Will there be any push to get UND into the Summit and MVFC ???

They would be the 10th team in the Summit and the 11th in the MVFC.

[ST_Lawson]

Will there be any push to get UND into the Summit and MVFC ???

They would be the 10th team in the Summit and the 11th in the MVFC.

The nickname issue was the primary sticking point when it was time to bring in the Dakota schools a few years back, however, with the Summit League stable at 9 schools currently, and the MVFC at 10 (and likely not wanting any more), I don't think we're likely to see UND getting invited unless someone else leaves. Every so often rumors will pop up of a school like Youngstown State taking football to the CAA or something (a lot of CAA schools are closer to YSU than nearly any MVFC school), but nothing you'd ever really put any stock into. I could maybe see the Summit taking them on, but I don't think they'd want to go that route but still have to keep football in the Big Sky. There were also rumors a year or so ago of UMKC coming back to the Summit, but nothing has been mentioned on that front for quite a while.

I think at this point, things are relatively stable and we won't see much movement until the P5 FBS schools decide they want to break off and form their own "division" separate from the G5 FBS schools, at which point there will be a ton of scrambling and jockeying for positions in whatever conferences and divisions come out of the chaos.