Name-a-Day Calendar, April 21: Miami (OH) RedHawks

Page 166 of 365

Chosen in: 1997 (origins in 1992)

Chosen by: Associate professor of management William Snavely

---

Miami University began playing football in 1888. In its infancy, the team was unofficially called either the Big Red or the Red and White. This continued until 1928, when a student at a football game called the team the Big Red-Skinned Warriors. The university itself was named after the Miami Tribe that once resided in the area,¹ so this nickname stuck and was quickly shortened to the well known slur that used to be the name of the Washington NFL team. This slur became the school’s official athletics nickname in 1931.

The school’s usage of this nickname was unsanctioned until 1972 when, amid rising opposition, the Miami Tribe itself officially gave the school their blessing for it.² But not everybody was pleased and the outcries continued. By the early ‘90s, a nickname change seemed inevitable. On February 23, 1992, William Snavely, an associate professor of management, wrote a letter to the editor of the Miami Student:

I suggest we move the discussion to what the change will be rather than if we should change. To begin that discussion, consider changing to the “Redhawks”.

Snavely suggested “Redhawks” because the school already used a red hawk as a mascot on account of their abundance in Southeast Ohio.

Over the next year and change, the university began discussions with the Miami Tribe on how best to proceed on this issue. In December 1993, the two sides reached an agreement: the slur nickname could remain in use, but the school should also adopt the nickname “Miami Tribe” on a secondary basis.

Then, in 1996, the tribe did an about face and removed their support from the slur nickname entirely. The university mulled things over for a few months before deciding a nickname change was the right course of action out of respect to the tribe. On April 28, 1997, the Board of Trustees unanimously resolved to change the nickname to RedHawks (yes, CamelCase and all), effective the following academic year.

As you might expect, this wasn’t a smooth transition. Several donors pulled their funding and an alumni group³ unsuccessfully sued the university to try to stop the switch. But the most important thing is that the switch happened as scheduled: they’ve been the RedHawks ever since. They even got a new mascot: Swoop.

Previous page: Miami (FL) Hurricanes

Next page: Michigan Wolverines

Find every page at the Name-a-Day Calendar hub!

1. The tribe was removed and relocated to Oklahoma in the mid-1800s, which…yeah.

2. This is a rather odd choice in hindsight given no member of the Miami Tribe had ever enrolled at Miami University until 1991. The university has always been very white and very rich.

3. This group actually comprised nine alumni and four other people who weren’t alumni. Why’d they care? Who knows?