Dog in the Manger: Marquette & the Warrior Logo

During the heyday of the Marquette Warriors, the image above was the logo used to represent Marquette athletics.

Since the Warriors nickname was dropped as being politically incorrect, it has more or less disappeared. Not entirely, of course, but Marquette has ceased to use it, and is doing everything it can to stifle the image and the word “Warriors.”

We wondered whether Marquette still claims intellectual property rights over the logo. After all, if you don’t want to use something, the sensible thing is to released it to the public domain.

So we called Steve Cottingham, Interim Athletic Director and Jeff Kipfmueller, the university lawyer who handles such issues. Our voice mails got the following reply:

From: “Kipfmueller, Jeff”
To: “McAdams, John”
Cc: “Cottingham, Steven”

Dr. McAdams:

Your recent voicemail inquiry to Steve Cottingham about the “warrior head logo” was referred to my office for response. In short, Marquette University has always taken the position that it possesses intellectual property rights to that logo. Further, Marquette University has always taken steps to preserve those rights and reserves the right to do so in the future.

Jeff

The logo, like all things having to do with Warriors, must be a considerable embarrassment to Marquette.

After all Marquette, caving to the forces of political correctness, “admitted” that the name and the logo were racist, insensitive and offensive to “Native Americans” (as politically correct types refer to American Indians).

Of course, the average university President, Vice President, Provost or Dean will admit to having sex with barnyard animals if the politically correct crowd demands it.

The vast majority of Americans, including overwhelming majorities of students and alumni, don’t see it that way. They see it as a symbol of how Marquette lacks either the discernment or the courage to reject the claims of political correctness.

Either way, the campus bureaucrats don’t want any reminders of the name or the symbol.

We, on the other hand, think every opportunity to rub their noses in it should be eagerly seized.