I don't really have a particular name in mind for a new nickname for William & Mary's athletic teams. From one of my favorite trivia questions, I will offer a few criteria:
*Not an animal.
*Not a color.
*Doesn't end in "S."
Know how many teams qualify under those criteria? In 1-A football, three: Navy (Midshipmen); Notre Dame (Fighting Irish); Illinois (Fighting Illini).
Expanding that to Division 1 basketball, William & Mary "Tribe" was one of the few others that qualified.
W&M has always had a place with me because they were part of that answer.
And so I think that the uniqueness of their nickname is the rarity of the animal/color/"s" trifecta -- THAT is the legacy they should maintain.
-- D.S.
Update: Yes, UMass MINUTEMEN makes the list. Wasn't a dis. I just didn't list all of the DI hoops schools that qualified. And, no, Alabama CRIMSON TIDE does NOT qualify -- the whole "crimson" thing, obviously.
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5 comments:
Does the "Golden" in Golden Hurricane disallow Tulsa (bowl-subdivision)?
No love for UMass, Shanoff? Somewhere, Marcus Camby is pissed.
Dan - you neglected my beloved Alabama Crimson Tide. It's not a color - although a color modifies it. And, it's singular something the Irish and the Illini can't say.
Dan-
The Stanford Cardinal - a tree, not an animal. Also - and this one's nitpicky - the Marshall Thundering Herd. Obviously it's mascot is intended to be an animal, but the team name itself doesn't directly mention anything specific.
Thundering Herd: Animal. Might be willing to consider on a technicality, but it violates the spirit.
As for Cardinal, I had the same question back when this first was posed to me as a bar-room trivia question.
Cardinal actually is the color, directly violating a rule.
The tree is the mascot, unrelated to the nickname. The nickname is entirely about the color, not unlike Harvard Crimson, North Texas Mean Green or Cornell Big Red.
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