11-08-2011, 11:57 AM
1963 will mean someone born in the early 1940s was on campus at the time. That would make them 70ish today. There are A LOT of people in their 70s and 80s at our games. Logically then there might be quite a few ticket holders that may recall AND prefer Marching Bands and Indian mascots. Powerful, wealthy people apparently with mascot memories that younger types cannot understand.
I remember when I was a student (now too long ago) there were all kinds of people that wore those "Always an Indian" pins and Stanford Indian sweaters to Big Game. In time those pins and sweaters have started become less common, but it was always clear the transition away from those items would take a few generations.
Thankfully, Stanford was ahead of the curve on the name change because it is clear Stanford would have had to change its name a few years ago when the NCAA banned schools with offensive mascots from hosting NCAA tournament events. If Stanford still had the Indians, the name would have been dropped at that time for sure. But it would have always appeared that the school only made the change because the NCAA forced the change. Far better to do the right thing on our terms IMHO. I am not sure the tree was the best option, but making the change away from Indians was wise. And now "Indian" pride/love does not really matter because the team could never return to the Indians AND be able to recruit the best student-athletes in the land. Since the best athletes would never want to go to a place that would require all of their tournament games to be played on the road.
LSJUMB's tree is the Stanford Mascot to most in the country, so I will support the mascot. Thankfully there is nothing offensive about trees. ;) And the idea of the tree has some meaning to the university, so it is cool with me.
As far as the band goes, Stanford could not possibly have 300 or 400 students out there for a game. So since Stanford can't possibly match the best bands in the land, I don't mind the LSJUMB approach. Though with this approach LSJUMB will never have the outstanding musicality one could find in the SWAC, for example.
I remember when I was a student (now too long ago) there were all kinds of people that wore those "Always an Indian" pins and Stanford Indian sweaters to Big Game. In time those pins and sweaters have started become less common, but it was always clear the transition away from those items would take a few generations.
Thankfully, Stanford was ahead of the curve on the name change because it is clear Stanford would have had to change its name a few years ago when the NCAA banned schools with offensive mascots from hosting NCAA tournament events. If Stanford still had the Indians, the name would have been dropped at that time for sure. But it would have always appeared that the school only made the change because the NCAA forced the change. Far better to do the right thing on our terms IMHO. I am not sure the tree was the best option, but making the change away from Indians was wise. And now "Indian" pride/love does not really matter because the team could never return to the Indians AND be able to recruit the best student-athletes in the land. Since the best athletes would never want to go to a place that would require all of their tournament games to be played on the road.
LSJUMB's tree is the Stanford Mascot to most in the country, so I will support the mascot. Thankfully there is nothing offensive about trees. ;) And the idea of the tree has some meaning to the university, so it is cool with me.
As far as the band goes, Stanford could not possibly have 300 or 400 students out there for a game. So since Stanford can't possibly match the best bands in the land, I don't mind the LSJUMB approach. Though with this approach LSJUMB will never have the outstanding musicality one could find in the SWAC, for example.