The rising frequency of gun-related mass murders continues to be an alarming trend in the United States. And while political debaters will continue to bicker over when the right time to discuss gun laws may or may not be, Marist University was not going to wait any longer to remove the university from any remote association with gun violence, even if that is unintentional. Fans of Marist basketball will see their old familar mascot fox roaming the sidelines and mingling with the fans this season, but he’ll have a brand new name.
Marist changed the name of their mascot from Shooter to Frankie this season. The name change was not announced formally by the school and instead was done under the radar. The decision to change the name of the mascot had been floated around in the past to a small degree, but the mass shooting at a country music concert in Las Vegas in October got the wheels in motion to change the name once and for all.
“Unfortunately, in our culture today, there is a negative stigma to that term ‘shooter.’ And I just didn’t think it was appropriate for us at this time to perpetuate that term,” Marist Athletics Director Tim Murray said in a story published by The Poughkeepsie Journal.
“We had a couple people mention something to us over the years, but it really didn’t rise to the level now, where every other week you’re hearing about another unfortunate tragedy,” Murray said. “I think it kind of hit me personally and I said ‘It’s time.’”
Marist athletics staff began brainstorming new name ideas for the mascot and eventually landed on Frankie. This is not an unprecedented move related to gun violence of course. In 1997, the Washington Bullets of the NBA opted to change their name to remove themselves from a similar image issue in Washington D.C. and changed their name to the Wizards. Like Marist, the name change came as the level of discomfort became too much to deal with for Wizards owner Abe Pollin and neither name had to do with guns but about bullet passes or shooting a basketball. Unlike Marist, the Wizards opened the name changing effort to fans with a contest. Marist did this all in house to change the mascot’s name.
The reaction over the news has been as diverse as you might expect on a topic like this. There are those who have supported the name change and those who will say Marist is succumbing to the PC culture that rubs some people the wrong way.
Generally resist overreacting to PC culture as it is largely counterproductive. However, I stand proudly/firmly behind my alma mater's decision. Proactive/sensible, Kudos, @Marist.
Gun violence leads NY college to change mascot's name from 'Shooter' https://t.co/FoamYDEFwE
— Brandon Tierney (@BrandonTierney) November 15, 2017
Marist, our mascot's name is Shooter, and I will never call him Frankie. #ShooterTheFoxForever
— Charlie Grippaldi (@cvgripps) November 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/_mjd27/status/930466567489507328
Appropriate or too far? Marist College in NY dropped "Shooter" as it's Fox mascot nickname bc of mass shootings in the US. Its now called Frankie, for Franklin Roosevelt who was born nearby. & to be clear (bc we have to these days) Shooter referred to shooting hoops not guns pic.twitter.com/lm0qFekKQr
— Brian North WCTI (@BrianNorth4) November 14, 2017
Then there are some people who didn’t even know the mascot had a name in the first place.
https://twitter.com/VictoriaLyman/status/930640071262457857
[The Poughkeepsie Journal/Photo: @BrianNorth4]
