The precursor to sports’ biggest name change and the path to Washington Football Team
For the first time in nearly 90 seasons, one of professional football’s oldest franchises will take the field Sunday without their decades-old nickname and logo on their helmets.
After the 1932 season the Boston Braves changed their name to one we in the Metroplex raise our kids to despise as much as Eagles or Giants. The team moved to D.C. in 1937, and the franchise became an anchor of the National Football League, until the name itself morphed into an albatross.
I am, of course, speaking of the Washington Football Team, formerly known as the Washington ________.
Long before owner Dan Snyder was strong armed by sponsors into changing the name of his precious football club, there were other teams named ________ that had to do the same thing.
“This is a very contentious issue,” said Eric Hyman, the former athletic director of Texas A&M, South Carolina, TCU and Miami of Ohio. “I would not wish this on anyone.”
Changing from ________
In 1997, Hyman was a young AD in Oxford, Ohio, when Miami of Ohio was contemplating changing its nickname, the ________.
“The name is ingrained in the culture of a school. We had the tomahawk chop and everything you’d think that would be associated with it,” he said.
Much like the Washington ________ NFL team, Miami of Ohio had the support of a native American tribe. In 1972, the university requested the permission from the Miami Tribe for its support to use ________ as its athletic logo.
And it was fine, until 1996 when the Miami Tribe sent a formal notice to the university to discontinue the use of the ________ logo; that it could no longer support the school if it continued with any “Indian related names.”
The university, which plays in the Mid-American Conference and has an enrollment of 19,000, had a relationship with the tribe, in that it received some funding from the school. Once the tribe learned the funding would not be threatened if it asked for a name change, it pressed the issue.
“I had just got there and our university president went around to the faculty and the No. 1 question he had was whether we should change the name from [________],” Hyman said. “I really did not want to be caught in that cross fire. He thought it was that important.”
Like most universities, the faculty at Miami of Ohio is comprised of mostly liberal thinkers. The vote was to change the name.
Board members of Miami of Ohio, along with Hyman, met at the home of university president, Dr. James Garland, to decide the issue. Some members were adamant they keep the name and logo.
Among the members of the board present was former Miami of Ohio basketball player Wayne Embry, who played in the NBA for 11 seasons with the Cincinnati Royals, Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks.
He became the first Black man to serve as a GM and team president in NBA history.
Embry stood 6-foot-8, and was not exactly a slim man. Both in the room that night, and at Miami of Ohio, Embry was a giant.
As the debate continued, Embry stood up and said, “I was born a _______. I will die a _______, but that name is offensive. And we need to change it.”
“That was the end of the discussion,” Hyman said.
From ________to Washington Football Team
Not long there after, the Miami ________ were no more. They have been the Miami RedHawks since then. The logo of a Native American male with two feathers above his head was replaced by a fierce looking red bird.
Snyder and his Washington Football Team had no Wayne Embry to end the discussion, unless you count corporate sponsors.
“I really thought they could ride it out. I think their preference would have been to ride out it, but that’s the difference between professional and college,” Hyman said. “The pressure to do it was the advertising and nothing else.”
A name change is not cheap, or easy.
There is the matter of signage throughout the stadium, and the community, and the entire league. That all has to be removed, and repainted. Everything else has to go, down to business cards and envelopes.
“For us, the cost of it really wasn’t that bad, but it’s nothing compared to what an NFL team would have,” Hyman said.
There is the matter of considerable inventory on shelves, and stores. A customer can still find Washington ________ gear on Amazon, but all of that merchandise available in the store are now marked down as clearance items.
The goal now is not profit but just to dump it.
“You can’t sell all of that inventory,” Hyman said. “You don’t put it in the market place.”
Most likely the majority of those hats, sweatshirts and other items that include the name “________” or its logo will be shipped to a third-world country as a donation.
There will be a new name, you’d think, and the immediate reaction will be divided.
Washington ________ gear will soon enough become a novelty. Then it will become a collector’s item. Then you won’t see it any more.
Much like the Miami of Ohio ________, the Washington ________ had their day and had to change, too.
Pro football existed in the United States before the ________, and for the first time in almost 90 years it will go on without them.
