http://www.mlive.com/sports/aanews/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/112340949629096
0.xml&coll=2&thispage=1

Carty: Indian mascot schools should look in mirror
Sunday, August 7, 2005BY JIM CARTY
News Sports Columnist

The fan response was almost universal.

In a college sports world plagued by failing athletes, cheating coaches,
out-of-control boosters and runaway spending, why is the NCAA Executive
Committee legislating political correctness by banning American Indian
mascots and related imagery from NCAA championship events?

Don't they have something better to get worked up about?

Can't they see the obvious? The Chippewas, Seminoles, Fighting Illini and
Savages of college sports are all just honoring those tribes or their
area's Indian heritage.

Without Southeastern Oklahoma State athletics working to change its image,
what hope do the Savages have of being seen in a positive light? Everywhere
you look in the media, it's Savages attacking the wagon train or Savages
scalping settlers.

But when the Lady Savages ... hey, are you smirking? Has the media
convinced you Savages can't be ladies? See, that's what we're talking about
here, fighting those kind of preconceptions through sports.

When the Lady Savages finished 1-11 in Lone Star Conference basketball last
season, people everywhere could see that, rather than the war-like
pillagers they're portrayed as, Savages are actually meek, uncoordinated
and baffled by zone defense.

And it's not just the Savages.

When white kids wearing Indian costumes - often pointedly described as
authentic Indian costumes on school Web sites, because, you know, that's a
whole lot different from your average Halloween Tonto getup - well, when
those white kids dance at halftime of Illinois games or charge on to the
field on a horse before a Florida State football game, they're spreading
the message that ...

Well, there's a message in there, trust me.

And whatever it is, the Illini and Seminole tribes should be honored by
their association with the University of Illinois and Florida State
University.

OK, maybe not when all those "Seminole" football players keep getting
arrested, or if Illinois loses to Rutgers on national TV in new football
coach Ron Zook's debut.

But what about the Final Four last year? Are you going to tell me tons of
tribes wouldn't have traded places with the Illini? Or with the Seminoles
during all those years when Florida State was - and, OK, so it's definitely
past-tense now - a regular national title contender football?

Even if the NCAA is going to stick to its politically correct guns and
insist that "Savages" is insulting, and white kids dressing up as Indians
is inappropriate, how can they possibly object to the Chippewas? Central
Michigan has the backing of the Chippewa tribe to use the nickname.

"CMU continues to use the Chippewa nickname with only respect and dignity,"
a school statement read. "CMU understands that reasonable people may
disagree on this issue."

Yeah. The NCAA can make all the rules it wants, but that won't stop Central
Michigan and angry legions of over-whelmingly white fans from other schools
from continuing to call themselves Chippewas, Seminoles or, yes, even
Savages.

Don't they have something better get worked up about?

Can't they see the obvious?

You could hear the questions on talk radio and read them on Internet
message boards all day Friday and into Saturday.

Of course, it's not the NCAA who should be answering them.

Jim Carty can be reached at jcarty@... or

(734) 994-6815.