What was wrong with Billy?
Matt Meinheit
Issue date: 1/21/03 Section: Sports
The weekend proved successful for Eastern in Lantz Arena except for one thing.
The men's basketball team rallied in the second half on a come-from-behind victory over Tennessee-Martin 68-60 and the women's team led Tennessee-Martin wire-wire to break a nine-game losing streak.
The only disappointing event of the weekend was the unveiling of the new nickname for the Panther mascot.
Prowler. What kind of name is that? It sounds more like a Plymouth -- not a college mascot.
The athletic department wanted a name that was inoffensive and non-gender specific. Well I have no clue what gender the name "Prowler" would be associated with, so they did meet that goal. However, having a mascot named after an activity that is associated with criminal acts is a super idea.
Prowler would be a good nickname for someone that worked for the Nixon administration not Eastern's Panther.
I can see what the athletic department was going for. We're the Panthers and we're on the prowl, but the mascot is just supposed to entertain fans with incendiary antics.
You say the name "Prowler," and I think of someone dressed in black lurking in the dark staring at the windows of Andrews Hall trying to sneak a peak of a couple of Eastern's female coeds.
My question is, what was wrong with Billy in the first place?
Dave Kidwell, assistant athletic director of marketing and sports information, said Billy was just "a slang term" used to help the fund raising efforts to purchase a new costume last year.
Why couldn't the athletic department formally adopt Billy? Billy is inoffensive, already known by students and could be non-gender specific.
Many women have the name Billy. Billie Jean King and Billie Holiday come to mind. Sure the spellings are different, but that is only semantics.
The important thing is the name Billy had some history and tradition to it. Billy might not have been around when Eastern was founded in 1895, but it has been around longer than Prowler.
A name with some history and tradition would be appropriate for Eastern, a school that prides itself on those virtues. Eastern likes to sell the image of Old Main as a symbol of its 100-plus-year history. Why not sell Billy's image as part of that tradition?
Is it because the athletic department seems to want to separate itself from the university? Eastern wants to bring its history to the forefront, while the athletic department wants a newer, more modern image to represent itself.
But whining won't do Billy any good because Prowler will now be stalking the sidelines at Eastern athletic events.
The men's basketball team rallied in the second half on a come-from-behind victory over Tennessee-Martin 68-60 and the women's team led Tennessee-Martin wire-wire to break a nine-game losing streak.
The only disappointing event of the weekend was the unveiling of the new nickname for the Panther mascot.
Prowler. What kind of name is that? It sounds more like a Plymouth -- not a college mascot.
The athletic department wanted a name that was inoffensive and non-gender specific. Well I have no clue what gender the name "Prowler" would be associated with, so they did meet that goal. However, having a mascot named after an activity that is associated with criminal acts is a super idea.
Prowler would be a good nickname for someone that worked for the Nixon administration not Eastern's Panther.
I can see what the athletic department was going for. We're the Panthers and we're on the prowl, but the mascot is just supposed to entertain fans with incendiary antics.
You say the name "Prowler," and I think of someone dressed in black lurking in the dark staring at the windows of Andrews Hall trying to sneak a peak of a couple of Eastern's female coeds.
My question is, what was wrong with Billy in the first place?
Dave Kidwell, assistant athletic director of marketing and sports information, said Billy was just "a slang term" used to help the fund raising efforts to purchase a new costume last year.
Why couldn't the athletic department formally adopt Billy? Billy is inoffensive, already known by students and could be non-gender specific.
Many women have the name Billy. Billie Jean King and Billie Holiday come to mind. Sure the spellings are different, but that is only semantics.
The important thing is the name Billy had some history and tradition to it. Billy might not have been around when Eastern was founded in 1895, but it has been around longer than Prowler.
A name with some history and tradition would be appropriate for Eastern, a school that prides itself on those virtues. Eastern likes to sell the image of Old Main as a symbol of its 100-plus-year history. Why not sell Billy's image as part of that tradition?
Is it because the athletic department seems to want to separate itself from the university? Eastern wants to bring its history to the forefront, while the athletic department wants a newer, more modern image to represent itself.
But whining won't do Billy any good because Prowler will now be stalking the sidelines at Eastern athletic events.
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