MUScoop Wiki
Starting Points
NCAA Division I Sports
Discontinued Sports
Club Sports
Athletic Department
Nicknames
Traditions
Official Links
MUScoop Wiki
Starting Points
NCAA Division I Sports
Discontinued Sports
Club Sports
Athletic Department
Nicknames
Traditions
Official Links
This is an old revision of the document!
From 1954 to 1994 Marquette athletics nickname was officially the Warriors for all sports. Prior to that period, athletic teams were known as the Blue & Gold unofficially, then the Hilltoppers officially, but then eventually the Golden Avalanche was used for the Men's Football team only.
In 1993-1994 Father DiUlio, who was the president of the university at the time, made a decision for Marquette to be on the forefront of political correctness in doing away with the Warriors nickname and the American Indian logo that went along with it.
At commencement in 2004 things got stirred up a bit. Wayne Sanders who was the vice chair of Marquette's board of trustees offered $2 million – $1 MM from himself and another $1 MM from an anonymous trustee – if Marquette would change it's nickname back to Warriors before joining the Big East Conference. The monetary gift was immediately declined, but Father Wild, the new president of the university, was courageous enough to consider the proposal.
The debate went on for a year from May 2004 to May 2005, during which time the board of trustees passed a resolution stating that “Marquette will prohibit the use of Native American references, symbolism or imagery in its athletics logo, nickname, or mascot ”. A survey was offered up to the entire Marquette community – the results of which indicated that “even 10 years after its introduction, the Golden Eagles nickname, logo and mascot have not generated with the Marquette community a strong sense of pride or identity”. However, instead of using this data to select either Warriors or Golden Eagles, they concluded that the new nickname should be Gold.
Gold? This took the entire Marquette community by surprise, and the university experienced a backlash they never could have imagined. In less than a week, the Marquette Board of Trustees held an emergency meeting and decided that Gold would not be the nickname, but rather a vote would be held to determine the new nickname. However, Warriors would not be accepted as a vote so the incumbent Golden Eagles were primarily pitted up against old nicknames of Hilltoppers and Golden Avalanche.
In late June 2005 the board of trustees proudly proclaimed that Marquette community “decisively opted for Golden Eagles in a voting process carried out during the past five weeks”.