Marquette Warrior: Ironies About Gold

Monday, May 09, 2005

Ironies About Gold

Coming to us from an e-mail correspondent:
Two of the greatest ironies about the “Gold” nickname selection:

1) Many opposed Warriors because of its military connotation, yet the element gold was an essential cause of countless wars throughout history.

2) Many others opposed Warriors because some Native Americans found its connection to past Marquette mascots and logos offensive, yet the pursuit of gold was arguably responsible for the deaths of more natives in the Americans than anything else.

In thinking about this, I decided to look up definitions of “gold” online. The Word Reference.com dictionary, includes in its definition of gold the following definition and supporting quotation:

Great wealth; “Whilst that for which all virtue now is sold, and almost every vice -- almighty gold” -- Ben Jonson

This quotation is from Jonson’s “Epistle to Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland.”

If this were not enough, it reminded me that another Ben Johnson (different spelling) was stripped of his gold medal in the 1988 Olympics after testing positive for steroids. And Father Wild continues to wonder how we could possibly not “come around in time” to this nickname choice.

Yes, I am still bitter...

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