LOCAL ANGLES: AS WARRIORS VANASH, CAN VANDALS BE FAR BEHIND?

Warriors are a vanishing breed on America's college campuses.

Spurred on by political correctness, colleges are changing their names -- abandoning time-honored nicknames that some now deem offensive.

Most of the attention has focused on Indian nicknames. In recent years, even professional sports teams like the Atlanta Braves and Washington Redskins have come under fire by those who think such names are an affront to Indians.

Even the word "Indian" is suspect. In today's society, Indians are Native Americans.

Perhaps Southeast Missouri State University should change its nickname to the SEMO Native Americans.

When I was growing up, there was no such thing as political correctness.

I remember playing cowboys and Indians. The game wasn't called Invading White Men Who Massacre Innocent Native Americans.

In my high school, the sports teams went by the nickname of Pioneers -- an obviously bad name by today's standards.

After all, the PC police would say the pioneers were responsible for kicking the Indians out of their Garden-of-Eden homelands.

To hear the PC folks tell it, Indians lived in an idyllic world of peace and harmony.

Not so, says the World Book Encyclopedia. "Warfare was usually the only way of settling disputes between tribes," it points out. The Federal Mediation Service wasn't around back then. Being a warrior was a big deal.

But not any longer. More and more colleges want to avoid colorful nicknames for fear they'll offend even one person.

Braves, Warriors and Redskins appear to be on the endangered list. But other nonIndian names could also be offensive.

Looking through The World Almanac the other day, I came across a number of colleges with nicknames that PC people might consider unacceptable.

A number of colleges quite literally have a devil of a nickname. There's the Duke Blue Devils and the Arizona State Sun Devils, whose names, it could be argued, suggest satanic worship.

The Connecticut College Camels would seemingly be promoting smoking, a practice highly offensive to many Americans.

Arabs might have problems with the Holy Cross Crusaders. Such a nickname, no doubt, glorifies overzealous Christians who plundered the Middle East.

The Stephen F. Austin State Lumberjacks would certainly be offensive to spotted owls.

The East Carolina Pirates seemingly glorify a bunch of violent, low-lifes who plundered and pillaged, and buried their treasure rather than put it in the bank.

Animal rights activists would certainly object to South Carolina's Fighting Gamecocks as condoning cock fighting and other barbaric acts to animals.

Southwestern Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns nickname suggests a derogatory attitude toward a particular segment of that state's residents who like spicy food.

Idaho's Vandals would be repugnant to Italians since the name refers to the hordes who sacked Rome in the 5th century. Even by more current standards, it's not a good name. It suggests the university supports vandalism.

With all this concern about nicknames, perhaps the best thing for colleges to do is abandon them entirely.

But don't worry, fans could still cheer, "Go Team."

~Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.