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Sports

Nickname change may be in the cards

by Laren Rusin

Oberlin sports need more bang for the buck. So say good-bye to the Yeomen and Yeowomen. Hello, Crimson Thunder.

Oberlin sports need an overhaul. With a new sports staff, almost entirely different from the team of five years ago, the Athletic Department is trying to give Oberlin sports a new start. They're hoping both athletes and non-athletes will benefit from the change.

"It's all about attitudes," said Pete Peterson, football head coach and one of the primary players in the name-change game. His team adopted the new name last spring and is rolling with it. No other team has officially declared the Crimson Thunder as their nickname.

"It has to jump through a couple of hoops," said Hunsinger of the name process. The new nickname has to be formally approved by the Student Athletic Committee, the Athletic Department and then the Administration before it becomes definite.

Peterson noted how, since Dye became president in 1994, she's pressed for a more diverse campus. "That doesn't mean having different colors of people," said Peterson. "It means having athletes, conservatives, liberals." There's been discrimination against athletes on campus, and Peterson feels that isn't right in a school that is touted as so liberal and accepting. He hopes that with so many new faces in the administration on campus, and a new nickname for the varsity teams, that there will be "a renewed enthusiasm for sports and a renewed enthusiasm on campus. So I said, `yeah, let's go for [the name change]."

George Bent, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, was a former Yeoman. He thinks that if the Athletic Department "is trying to stimulate more interest in athletics, they should make a bigger to-do" about changing the name. He suggested having a competition to come up with a new name.

"Changing the name isn't going to change the performance of players on the field," said Bent. "I can tell you it wouldn't make a difference what named I played for but I wouldn't feel betrayed if they changed the name. If Oberlin had been producing lots of successful teams, people might have a problem with it, but the athletic department hasn't covered themselves with distinction in the last 10 to 15 years."

Senior Mikylah Myers, a captain of the women's soccer team, agrees that the method of change could be a little more democratic. "If there was going to be a name change, it would be nice to solicit ideas from the whole campus," said Myers.

Back in days of old, the Oberlin sports teams were all men, and called Ye "O" Men, short for Ye Oberlin Men. The Ye "O" Men were supposed to be varsity letter holders, which wasn't always true. Through time the name was shortened into the Yeomen, but once the college introduced female sports teams, the name didn't apply anymore. Before the Yeomen came to be, one possible name was the Oberlin Savages, after the first athletic director Charles Savage, namesake of the football stadium. But the Yeomen won out.

Former soccer coach Fred Schults first suggested the Crimson theme about five years ago, but people associated it with The Crimson, Harvard's nickname. Color seemed to be a safe bet for a team name as it is genderless and doesn't have as much potential to offend different groups of people. And there are many possibilities as far as new logos are concerned. Schults also suggested the Condors, after the doors in the Conservatory. That wasn't a popular idea.

"When you consider all the variables," said Peterson, "you want something that will demonstrate a certain amount of power. The Crimson Snails. That doesn't work."

"Thunder's always been powerful. Every little kid's afraid of thunder," he said.

The football team has adopted the new name, but it's not officially the new college nickname. It has to be approved first by the Student Athletic Committee, then proposed by the Athletic Department to the College. If that goes through, then the name sticks.

"We've had fun with the Yeoman name," said Myers. "We've called ourselves the Yeomamas, and now our cheer is "Yo!" It's not a particularly inspiring mascot, but it's part of Oberlin."

"It's a pretty excellent mascot," said Myers of the Crimson Thunder. "But it'd be hard to have someone dressed up as a thunder running around."

Schults is aware of the possible name change and thinks it's about time. And he agrees that the athletics at Oberlin aren't at their strongest, and that it's partially the fault of the school.

Schults noted how the Sept. 6, 1995 issue of the Review had a story about how the Conservatory didn't have enough cellists because of recruiting problems. He thinks there's a parallel to the athletics department.

"Anywhere else, you'd have a story on how we didn't have a quarterback." said Schults.


Oberlin

Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 2; September 13, 1996

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