From The Anniston Star
Animal-rights group moves to stop JSU from using 'Gamecocks' nickname By Ben Cunningham Star Staff Writer 08-13-2005 What do chickens and Chippewas have in common? Both have groups of people that want them kept out of college football stadiums and basketball arenas – more specifically, off the players’ jerseys and the school walls. For the second time in four years, the animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has asked the National Collegiate Athletic Association to stop Jacksonville State University and the University of South Carolina from using the nickname “Gamecocks” because it supposedly promotes the sport of cockfighting. The request, in the form of a letter mailed Wednesday to NCAA President Myles Brand, came hot on the heels of the NCAA’s decision last week to ban college teams from using “hostile or abusive” nicknames for their sports teams in postseason play. That ban was aimed squarely at schools whose teams use names based on American Indians, such as Central Michigan University’s Chippewas. The move has put many fans on the warpath. Now PETA has stepped into the ring. PETA campaign manager Dan Shannon said the decision on Indians spurred his organization to charge for the chicken change now. “The fact is that cockfighting is illegal in 48 states and is hideously cruel,” Shannon said. The sport, in which two specially bred roosters square off in a fight to the death, is illegal in both Alabama and South Carolina. Here, cockfighting or operating a “cock pit” is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $20-$50. Aside from being illegal, the sport is cruel, Shannon said, because it almost always ends with the death of at least one of the animals. The Gamecocks are having none of it. JSU president Bill Meehan said Friday the school doesn’t support cockfighting, but he has no plans to change the school’s nickname and doesn’t want to get into a debate with PETA over the matter. “It’s a non-issue,” Meehan said. “I wouldn’t want to see us change.” E.C. “Baldy’ Wilson doesn’t want to see it change either. He was a member of the Jacksonville State Teacher’s College football squad in 1946, and a veteran just back from the war in Europe. That was the year players voted to change the name to “Gamecocks” from “Eagle Owls” – a predatory bird found in Scandinavia and northern Asia. “We’d go places and … people would say, ‘What is an eagle owl?’” said Wilson, now 82 and still a supporter of the football program. In picking a replacement, the players went with something more familiar. “Back in the old days everybody had a yard full of chickens,” Wilson said. Nobody connected with the team actually fought birds at cockfights, as he remembers it, but the young men admired roosters. “They’re pretty and they’re proud,” Wilson said. “They have a lot of pride and they’ll fight to defend their turf.” Shannon says that PETA has no problem with teams naming themselves after other animals, such as tigers or bears. Those names honor the nobility and majesty of the animals he said. “Gamecocks is the only nickname that promotes cruelty,” Shannon said. For JSU to call its teams the “Gamecocks” is tantamount to calling them the “Wifebeaters” or the “Looters,” or other illegal activities, according to the PETA letter. In 2001, PETA asked both JSU and USC directly to change the names, and received “polite responses” from both schools declining to do so. Shannon said the organization still is waiting for a response from the NCAA on its latest request. In the meantime, JSU appears prepared to defend its turf. After all, the school this summer installed new artificial turf at its football stadium, emblazoned with a picture of a fighting rooster at midfield and the word “Gamecocks” in huge letters in each end zone. Meehan called PETA a “good” organization” that has chosen the “wrong focus” with the mascot issue. He expects that when classes begin Aug. 31 and the football team kicks off Sept. 1, most students on campus will rally behind the Gamecocks, much as they did in 2001. “If they did anything they did help solidify our identity then,” Meehan said. THE STATE OF ALABAMA IS CRIMSON!!!! ~ Paul Kennedy ____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs _______________________________________________ RollTideFan - The University of Alabama Athletics E-mail Discussion List Welcome to RollTideFan - Wear a Cup! To unsubscribe or make changes to your subscription, please visit http://rolltidefan.net/mailman/listinfo/rtf_rolltidefan.net