What the?

This might have been one of the weirdest days in my life. I knew that the announcement was coming sometime today, so I listened to the radio all afternoon. I had a practical at 6, so I took my Walkman with me to listen to the press conference. It started at about the exact time that my practial was supposed to start. I heard the first announcement, "We won't be going back to Warriors." Figures. Second announcement, "We are changing the name to the Marquette Gold." My reaction: Whhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? There were a bunch of people in the hallway with me who wanted to know what was going on and they couldn't believe it either. So now we will be known as the Marquette Gold. Whatever.

The only real problem I have with the change is that there was no student input. If you think about, they gave out the survey, and it didn't really do anything. 81% of the students wanted "Warriors." I guess you could say that the Golden Eagles Mascot could go because 50% of the students found it boring. But if even if you conclude that, you still have to let the students/alumni in on whatever the new nickname will be. This was a decision made by 38 people, kind of like 1994 all over again. I'm sure the Board did not want that fiasco again, which is why this decision dumbfounds me.

For me, I will still support the basketball program and everything else associated with this university. The Golden Eagle mascot was never associated with hanging out at Murphy's or if you think about it going to basketball games. MU means much more to me than some silly mascot, and it should for everybody.