Dispute highlights North Dakota’s tough sell of new nickname
FARGO, N.D. — It’s been two years since the University of North Dakota unveiled its new Fighting Hawks logo that put it in good standing with the NCAA, but a familiar cheer at its hockey games shows what many students and alumni still think of the switch: “Let’s go Sioux!”
Administrators knew it would be a tough sell getting fans to let go of the Fighting Sioux nickname deemed offensive by the NCAA and a local American Indian tribe. But emails between the university’s president and one of its biggest benefactors show just how difficult it continues to be.
The emails between school President Mark Kennedy and Engelstad Family Foundation trustee Kris Engelstad McGarry, whose late father donated money for a $110 million hockey arena, reveal Kennedy’s frustration over the foundation’s resistance to a plan to feature the green and white Fighting Hawks logo at center court in the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center, where UND’s basketball and volleyball teams play. The foundation would prefer just the words “North Dakota” instead.
McGarry told the Associated Press that the foundation only opposes featuring the Fighting Hawks emblem at center court because it believes there are longtime fans and supporters who “do not identify with Fighting Hawks as the Hawks’ presence has been” since the logo was unveiled.
“So as to not alienate that side, we elected to put Fighting Hawks on the side of the court and to put the University of North Dakota logo on the center court,” McGarry said. “We believe that the community should make their own decisions and that the change should happen more organically, over time, rather than have it pushed.”
The issue burst into public view earlier this month when McGarry told the Grand Forks Herald editorial board that Kennedy had been “very passive aggressive” and “quite hostile at times” in discussions about the university’s operating agreement with the foundation and said it could lead to fewer donations. McGarry recently backed out of a $14 million pledge to the University of Nevada-Las Vegas medical school over a leadership change.