GW Hoops / GW New Moniker Discussion

**Posted by fungerhall** 7/22/2020 12:31 pm

My vote is for Generals.

**Posted by GW69** 7/22/2020 1:46 pm

T.C.—Ronald Thompson and Vladimir Petrov were two of my favorite all time professors.
Petrov had the most amazing life!!Check out the write up on Wikipedia on “Professor Vladimir Petrov”.
Truly astonishing .Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

**Posted by GWRising** 7/22/2020 5:37 pm

Just an update. I have pretty good sources throughout the University who tell me there is growing push back at changing the Colonials moniker. My understanding is some pretty significant donors and influencers at GW have weighed in. To change the name, the cost could approach $2,000,000. This consists of uniform changes, trademarks, logo design, changes to athletics facilities, etc. Many are upset that their donations would go towards these costs and not supporting our student athletes, especially in this era of COVID-19 and huge budgetary pressures on Universities. We might have to cut sports to make this happen.

**Posted by The Ross-Man!** 7/22/2020 8:10 pm

I really have to laugh at the idea of naming our teams the Generals. Do people not remember the Washington Generals or something? And to be clear, I'm one more liberal person who strongly believes we should keep Colonials.

**Posted by keithgreene** 7/23/2020 9:58 am

If we were to change, I would prefer something more action-oriented, like the Pythons or Cobras.

**Posted by Gwmayhem** 7/23/2020 10:04 am

Leave it to the school to make the right decision (no change to the name) for the wrong reason (money). Given how the past 5 years have gone, I'd gladly take it.

Just wanted to also applaud Poog for finding the right words that i had trouble articulating. Earlier in the thread, I had mentioned that I was against changing the name of the school entirely even if I could better understand this. The reason I am against this is despite how horrific slavery was and how obvious it is today to condemn it, it was in fact acceptable in George Washington's day and part of the economy. It would be like chastising cigarette smokers back when nobody knew that smoking could be detrimental towards one's health.

**Posted by Hugh** 7/23/2020 10:29 am

Gwmayhem wrote:
It would be like chastising cigarette smokers back when nobody knew that smoking could be detrimental towards one's health.

This may be the worst take I've ever read.

**Posted by GWRising** 7/23/2020 10:46 am

Hugh wrote:
Gwmayhem wrote:
It would be like chastising cigarette smokers back when nobody knew that smoking could be detrimental towards one's health.
This may be the worst take I've ever read.

Agreed. Not a good analogy at all. Cigarette smoking was not intended to control or harm someone else.In fact, the harms of cigarette smoking were first thought to be personal only. It was only later that second hand smoke was determined to be harmful. Slavery was slavery and it was designed to solely benefit the slave owner at the sole expense of the slave. It never changed despite being legal. The two are not remotely close.

Last edited by GWRising (7/23/2020 11:02 am)

**Posted by fungerhall** 7/23/2020 11:05 am

GW Revolution sounds good too.

**Posted by Gwmayhem** 7/23/2020 2:23 pm

Lighten up boys. Do you really think my intent was to undermine the awful nature of slavery, or accept it today in any way? Or that cigarette smoking today is as serious a problem as slavery was in earlier times? The parallel is that at one point in time, a certain behavior was not only not condemned but was in fact accepted. I wasn't comparing the magnitude of the two offenses in the slightest.

**Posted by fungerhall** 7/23/2020 3:47 pm

Actually I'm with GW Cigars for men's teams and GW Cigarettes for all women's teams.

Last edited by fungerhall (7/23/2020 3:49 pm)

**Posted by Gwmayhem** 7/23/2020 4:47 pm

I'd go with Foggy Bottom Basketball Team.

**Posted by BC** 7/23/2020 5:17 pm

A slight modification of fungerhalls suggestion - Revolutionaries - hmmm too long. Is anyone actually being serious about these names?

Last edited by BC (7/23/2020 5:18 pm)

**Posted by Tennessee Colonial** 7/23/2020 9:19 pm

GW69. Didn't Petrov say he was an engineering student and a Commisar's daughter took an interest in him? But P said he was more interested in engineering. Somehow, this situation got him thrown into a Gulag. Vague memory of that. I also remember him telling us to watch two people at a form of international get together. Two foreign diplomats were wandering around the crowd. Petrov said to watch those guys. He said one was English and one was Italian. Social distancing in the old days. The Italian was trying to get close to the Englishman because Italians speak face to face. The Englishman wanted separation. Thus the waltz around the room. Hilarious!

**Posted by porter71** 7/23/2020 11:22 pm

Ask the folks in Cuba, China, and Russia and late 18th century France how cool Revolutionaries are. How dare we pick a new team name that explicitly celebrates the mass murder of millions of people. What kind of monster are you.

**Posted by AT Hiker** 7/24/2020 12:03 pm

I am comfortable with keeping the Colonials name or changing it. If we do go with a different name, how about the Presidents or the Revolution?

**Posted by BGF** 7/24/2020 4:01 pm

So, I've been giving some thought to this. With some sports teams, you think of the name of the team and not where they're from. Example. We don't root for Washington when we watch hockey. We root for the Caps. Same thing for the Nationals. We never yell, "Go Washington."

With GW, it's different. Think of our fight song. How many times is the word "Colonials" mentioned in the song? Not once. On our sports uniforms, it usually has "GW" or "George Washington" and Colonials is less often used. It's Gee-Dub or Raise High or something else. In all my years, I honestly don't ever remember yelling "Go Colonials!" It just doesn't roll of the tongue.

If the school is serious about its concerns about Colonials as a team mascot (which I personally have no problem with), then they can deemphasize the use of it and begin changing it over the course of time. One of the other posters on the board mentioned going to "Buffs" as a team name, and I actually get that. I kind of like it.

So, that's it. Go Buffs.

Or better yet, just leave the damned name alone.

**Posted by BC** 7/24/2020 4:06 pm

I remember a cheer where Colonials was spelled out. I have also yelled Go Colonials more than once.

**Posted by Geno** 7/24/2020 4:45 pm

I think any team name that is similar to Colonials (Generals, Revolutionaries, Colonels, etc.) fails for two reasons. First, it's going to feel like a knock-off version of Colonials. Second, you're just going to run into the same issues that you ran into with the Colonials, someone is going to find a reason why the name is offensive. (Also, Generals makes me think of that cheesy car insurance commercial).

My vote is to keep the Colonials. But, I totally agree with BGF's point that we are "Gee-dub" before we are the "Colonials". The idea I posted earlier for the Buffs was more just thinking out loud but its grown on me. Would add some punch to the first line of the fight song too.

**Posted by The Dude** 7/24/2020 5:24 pm

Threads like this have me convinced this board should be 5 months a year, then take a 7 month hiatus

#LFGM