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.

Marquette Can’t Stifle “Warriors”

Marquette, which ignored student and alumni opinion (and at least half of the faculty) to drop the “Warriors” sports nickname, can’t seem to shake the fact that “Warriors” continues to be vastly more popular than the tepid but politically correct “Golden Eagles.”

At the halftime ceremonies of the game Saturday night, the 1977 Warriors team was honored.

The public address announcer did contortions to avoid saying “1977 Warriors,” using terms like “1977 championship team.” But Bo Ellis blew the plan all to hell when he took the floor and said “We are true Warriors, and we are Warriors Forever.” The crowd went wild.

Cracked Sidewalks has the video.

And at the warm-up for the game, ESPN’s Digger Phelps (former coaching rival of Al McGuire) led a chant of “Let’s go, Warriors.”

And of course, we have blogged on the student who was ordered not to wear a headdress to the game, under the threat of having it confiscated and being thrown out of the Bradley Center.

Even the Marquette Tribune, which has a history of siding with the University when conservative students are shut up, objected, noting:

College of Arts & Sciences freshman Dan O’Connell was told by Jim McMahon, dean of Residence Life, he might be kicked out of the game if he wore his headdress. O’Connell said he wore the “Warrior” emblazoned headdress at each home men’s game this season.

Yet halftime’s commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the program’s 1977 national championship found Bo Ellis saying “Warriors forever” to raucous cheering and chanting. To our knowledge, Bo Ellis wasn’t asked to leave the Bradley Center. But then again, he’s not a student and has benefited the university over the years. Still, it’s an unfair double standard.

Bo Ellis: senior on the 1977 national championship team, team MVP, three-time All-American and former Marquette men’s basketball assistant coach for a total of 12 years. Dan O’Connell: paid $55 for Fanatic season tickets and pays tens of thousands of dollars to attend his parent’s alma mater.

No one hushed Ellis, and rightly so. He was celebrating the 30th anniversary of his team’s championship. And though too many at this university overhype the importance of what we call ourselves, Marquette is wrong to keep a student (legacy, no less) from wearing a homemade headdress to cheer on his team. What’s next Marquette? Making students remove their “Warriors Forever” T-shirts?

Given the arrogance of the administration, the answer is simple: yes, that’s probably next.

Jeff Wagner: Marquette Fails on Warrior Legacy

Marquette alumnus and local talk show host Jeff Wagner maintains an intense interest in things that happen at this university.

Needless to say, he was not pleased upon hearing that a Marquette bureaucrat, Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs James McMahon, told a Marquette student he could not wear an Indian headdress to this past Saturday’s game, and threatened the student with confiscation of the headdress and expulsion from the game if he wore it.

Wagner comments:

As an aside, I was very sorry that I didn’t have tickets to the game Saturday. While I’m a baseball hat guy myself, I would have been glad to have donned Mr. O’Connell’s headgear as a protest against small-minded bureaucrats. I’m not sure if I would have been tossed out but, trust me, I’m a little tougher to bully than an undergraduate student.

On the underlying issue though, let’s think the position of the University through. My question is a simple one: if the “headdress” was really so offensive, why did Marquette wait until the last game of the year to confront the student?

I think the real answer is, of course, that the “headdress” wasn’t offensive - but was instead potentially embarrassing to Marquette officials. Keep in mind, the last Saturday night’s game was nationally televised on ESPN. The ESPN GameDay broadcast originated from Milwaukee. The last thing that Marquette officials wanted was for the national announcers to revisit the whole “Warrior” flap on tv.

The ultimate irony of the story is that the 1977 Marquette NCAA championship team was honored Saurday night. That team was, of course, “the Warriors.”

Headdress Issue: Marquette Bureaucrat Exceeded His Authority

It’s now all over the Milwaukee media, how Assistant Vice President James McMahon summoned Marquette student Dan O’Connell into his office and ordered him not to wear an Indian headdress to tonight’s game at the Bradley Center, on pain of being tossed out of the place and having his headdress confiscated.

One naturally wonders: just what gives McMahon the authority to threaten a student with such an action?

We got McMahon on the phone earlier today, and he refused to discuss the issue at all, referring us to Brigid Miller. But Miller has failed to respond to either an e-mail of ours, or a voice mail we left her.

But she talked to WTMJ Radio. A story on that station’s web site quotes her.

University spokeswoman Brigid O’Brien-Miller says the University doesn’t specifically ban Indian clothing from games. But she says the school wants to make sure that everyone is educated about Native American imagery. “As a University we have a policy that says we will educate fans about our views about wearing that type of thing in the context of athletics. That’s exactly what this conversation was, educating and discussing and we regularly do that,” O’Brien-Miller said.

A bizarre statement.

McMahon didn’t try to “educate” O’Connell. He threatened the student.

And given the lack of any rule against what the student was doing, he was exceeding his authority.

Thus does political correctness on Marquette’s campus increasingly resemble fascism. It’s not just that arbitrary and unfair rules are being laid down. It’s that University bureaucrats don’t feel they need to bother with rules when they are enforcing the politically correct orthodoxy.

Headdress Issue: Student’s Mom Responds

From Patty O’Connell, the mom of Dan O’Connell, the student who was called in and threatened by Assistant Vice President James McMahon. McMahon told O’Connell that if he wore an Indian headdress to the Marquette game tonight, it would be confiscated and O’Connell would be ejected from the Bradley Center.

I heard you already talked to Dan. Just a bit of a background. Our family are lifelong MU fans. My kids have been brought up since infancy loving MU hoops. Contrary to some opinions on the message board he didn’t do it to get on the jumbotron or to get attention for himself.

He believes we should be Warriors. He meant no disrespect to Native Americans. We even researched some head dresses to make it. I made it for him.

He won’t wear it to the game Saturday because he doesn’t want to create a scene or make a statement. He has worn it since the Rutgers game and no one ever said anything until the national spotlight was coming to MU.

McMahon told me it wasn’t a Warriors thing it was disrespectful to Native Americans.

I am an alum as is my husband.

Alas, it doesn’t appear that Marquette bureaucrats in places like the Office of Student Development have any respect for alumni -- nor students for that matter. They worship the Great God Political Correctness.

Indian Headdresses at Tomorrow’s Marquette Game

We blogged just this afternoon about how a Marquette bureaucrat, Assistant Vice President James McMahon, called a Marquette student into his office and threatened that if he wore an Indian headdress to tomorrow’s game at the Bradley Center, the headdress would be confiscated and the student ejected from the game.

Unfortunately the student, Dan O’Connell (who left us voice mail a few minutes ago), has decided he will not wear the Indian garb, since he does “not want to make a scene.”

In reality, it’s doubtful that even Marquette bureaucrats would challenge his headdress, since doing so during a game would indeed create a massive scene, with a huge chorus of boos from the crowd. And a video (or three) of the confrontation would be seen by the whole wide world on YouTube.

But there is good news.

A Facebook group has been started LETS WEAR HEADDRESSES!!! has been started.

(To access the Facebook page, you will have to create an account if you don’t already have one.)

The founder of the group, John Johannes, explains:

In response to the banning of Dan O’Connell’s headdress, lets all wear Indian Headdresses to the PITT Game. They can’t kick us all out, and if they try they will make the university look like an ass! Hell I don’t even know Dan but im on his side! So get all your friends and wear a headdress! Get some construction paper contruction paper and some safety scissors and make your own!

13 people have joined the group.

The project is also promoted on the MARQUETTE VS PITT Facebook page. The group has 35 confirmed guests, but it’s not clear they are committed to wear headdresses, as opposed to merely coming to the game.

On any college campuse, one of the problems with conservative students is that they are . . . well . . . conservative. Respectful of authority. Wanting to live their own lives and not meddle in other people’s business.

But unfortunately, the politically correct administrators at Marquette don’t deserve the respect that a (say) old-style priest or one’s parents deserve.

They deserve to be confronted on their abuse of power, and their intolerance of free expression.

Marquette Student Wearing Warrior Headdress Threatened By University Staffer

Via GOP3.COM, the fact that a Marquette student who has worn an Indian headdress to Marquette games was called into the office of Assistant Vice President James McMahon and threatened with having the headress confiscated and being ejected from the game if he wears it again.

The student in question, freshman Dan O’Connell, was notified about noon today by the Resident Assistant in his dorm that McMahon wanted to see him. O’Connell, of course, had no idea what the issue was.

Meeting with McMahon, he was told that he should not wear an Indian headdress that he has regularly worn to Marquette games to the game tomorrow. If he does, he was told, it might be confiscated and he might be ejected from the game.

McMahon told O’Connell that somebody in the Athletics Department had noticed the headdress in video tapes of games and brought it to the attention of Student Development bureaucrats.

McMahon used the usual politically correct line that Marquette “needs to be sensitive to Native Americans.” He told O’Connell that he hopes he will “make the right decision” and “not make a scene.”

O’Connell, whose parents went to Marquette, feels that he is honoring the Marquette athletic tradition by wearing the headdress.

Reached just minutes ago, O’Connell said he is “thinking about it,” and “leaning toward” wearing the headdress. Of course, if he does so he is likely to be surrounded with numerous people with video cameras (or video cell phones), so any attempt to eject him will cause a huge scene.

Neither Marquette public relations person Brigid Miller nor Matt Devine in Athletics has returned our calls asking for comment. McMahon, reached at home, was unavailable for comment.

Update: Here

“Marquette Warriors:” Down the Memory Hole

In the novel 1984, protagonist Winston Smith had the job of revising history.

Facts that were inconvenient for the Party were scrubbed out of the historical record.

It wasn’t just that there were “reinterpreted” to serve the interests of the party. They were entirely wiped out, just as though they never happened. They were discarded down a literal “memory hole.”

It seems that in this age of political correctness, 1984 is with us. From the web page “Final Four 2007,” the following historical blurb:

The 2007 NCAA Tournament will mark the 30th anniversary of Atlanta’s first NCAA Men’s Final Four in 1977. Atlanta has a rich tradition is hosting great sports events and we are thrilled to welcome the NCAA, its fan, players and coaches back to Atlanta and to the great Georgia Dome.

A great deal has changed since 1977, when Al McGuire led the Marquette Golden Eagles to their first National Championship against North Carolina in the old Omni.

Of course (for readers who are very young) it was not the “Marquette Golden Eagles.” It was the Marquette Warriors.

This, of course, may well be the result of ignorance on the part of the person who wrote the copy, and not of political correctness. But it never would have happened had Marquette not decided to abandon a proud history as Warriors because of the political correctness of the administration.