OT: NU & Illinois Renaming the Rivalry
In a conference that can't have enough trophies, Northwestern and Illinois are trying what to call their trophy. If any of you can forward this to NU alum Colbert, please do. If not, I've got to say that Popcorn Bowl is hard to top.
Vote HERE if you wish.
Your options:
- The Land of Lincoln Trophy - A replica of Lincoln's stove pipe hat mounted on a piece of White Oak (Illinois' state tree).
- President's Trophy - Recognizing the four presidents associated with the state of Illinois - Lincoln, Grant, Reagan and Obama.
- The Popcorn Bowl - Named after the Illinois state snack.
- Graham-Grange Fire Bell - The original series trophy started in 1941 was a fire bell named after two of the greatest players at each school - Otto Graham of Northwestern and Red Grange of Illinois.
- Suggest a name for the trophy
How about "The Big Purple and Orange Jug"
The only President's Trophy that will matter is the one that is awarded to the NHL team with the most points accumulated during the regular season.
And even that trophy barely matters. There's only one NHL team trophy that's worth a damn.
And even that trophy barely matters. There's only one NHL team that's worth a damn.
There...I fixed it for you.
Come on, everyone knows the most valued trophies are the Selke Trophy and the Lady Byng Trophy.
Ron Zook from Illinoize + NU from Cook County = Zook-Cook Jug.
How about the Fake New Tradition Cup? Posers Mug? The Damn We Wish Our Intrastate Rivalry Was Half As Interesting As Michigan's Or Even New Mexico's Trophy?
To be fair, this isn't really a fake trophy thing, it's because someone decided that the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk isn't ok anymore and it is being replaced. The old trophy had been around since the 40's.
I did not know about this. I have three thoughts in response:
1, I can name most Big Ten rivalry trophies off the top of my head as well as the teams involved. Not that me not knowing it makes it irrelevant, but it certainly speaks, in my mind, to the total lack of notoriety.
2, the NCAA political correctness regarding Indian imagery is fucking shitty.
3, the state of Illinois still has one of the least interesting and least relevant intrastate rivalries between the two primary same-division football teams in all of college football.
...yet somehow Fighting Illini is still ok.
Not that I really care. Just makes ya go "hmmmm...."
One or two professors and some others threw a fit about the mascot, and then the NCAA eventually made their "hostile and abusive" rule and so Illinois no longer has its mascot nor any other Indian imagery. Apparently without the imagery the NCAA thinks the name is OK, which is odd.
You'll still see "Save the Chief" stuff there and people wearing the old stuff to the games.
They also stopped doing their incredibly and amazingly offensive halftime show, where the "Chief" would do all sorts of cliched dances and stereotypes. I remember seeing it once and I'd heard it was bad and even then I was kind of blown away that they still did that.
Of course, Cal and Stanford still play for the Axe and one of Cal's 43 different fight songs is about how "We're gonna scalp some blockheads", so I guess it shouldn't be too surprising.
Ya know, there have obviously been many controversies over teams using Native American imagery, resulting in making changes... the closest-to-home being when the EMU Hurons changed to the EMU Eagles. IIRC, an A2 News article quoted the Huron tribal chief as saying he didn't really care.
I've always wondered why, then, the Washington Redskins are still so named. So I googled "Redskin" (no S on the end), and the Wikipedia article that resulted was most telling. It seems that the only ones they legally have to answer to is all the other NFL teams. With no such opposition present (and despite several legal challenges from individuals in the past), the decision is based on sales of shirts, jerseys, hats, etc. Since the stuff still sells, they keep the Redskins name. This, according to Wikipedia anyway...
There are differing levels of offensiveness. Native American groups tend not to be too bothered by teams named after specific tribes (such as the CMU Chippewas and FSU Seminoles, who were both granted tribal permission to keep their names). In some cases, tribal leaders have actually argued in favor of keeping these names.
At the other end of the spectrum are names like "Redskins," or the Cleveland Indians' logo, which are clearly not intended to be flattering. Only at the professional level, with big bucks at stake, can teams still get away with using these names.
In between are names like "Chiefs" or "Braves," which seem to not cause a big stir either way despite their origins.
1. The John Wayne Gacy Clown Shoe
2. The Blagojevich Bleeping Valuable Thing
3. The Alphonse Hercules Bundy Shoe
4. The Alphonse Capone Machine Gun
on #2 there.
I don't know, I'm fond of #1.
I submitted: The Who Cares Trophy. I guess that was really just mean and not very funny... I'm just having a bad day
The Flarncake Haberdashery Cup Snacktacular
How about NW drops from the Big10 and we become the Big10 again?
Northwestern is a charter member. Why should they leave? Kick Sparty or PSU out first.
what they should call it,
but I will take this chance to say that Toledo and Bowling Green hook up every year to play for the Peace Pipe.
Now thats a freaking trpohy, people!
One day, I hope to drink from the Little Brown Jug and then take a toke from the Peace Pipe.
Then maybe NYU and Columbia could play for the Manhattan Island Seringe, or something like that. USC and UCLA would play for a razor blade and mirror.
How about the shitter in Chicago/Champaigne? Nobody cares.