Battle | Forced to drop mascot, D-III Texas school goes nameless
By Jared Diamond
Posted: 11/28/06, 10:30 PM EST Section: Sports
Of all the people involved with NCAA basketball this season, McMurry University play-by-play announcer Kit Kimbrall may have the most challenging job of all.
Kimbrall has been calling games for McMurry, a small Division III school in Abilene, Texas, for 10 seasons, and has always been able to refer to the team as the Indians. He will have to break that old habit this year because the Indians are no more.
Trying to purge the association of offensive nicknames, the NCAA called out McMurry and almost 20 other schools for possible sanctions. After more than a year of protesting and two separate appeals to the NCAA, the McMurry University Board of Trustees decided to drop the school's mascot for all its athletic teams.
Unlike other schools, however, McMurry refused to pick up a new nickname, and will play this season with no mascot at all. The team will be referred to as McMurray University Men's Basketball. While the entire situation may sound trivial, this is a shocking development for the McMurry community.
"I am greatly disappointed with the agenda the NCAA has chosen," Kimbrall said. "I think under the circumstances the school was put under, having no mascot was the best decision because changing the nickname would go against everything our school stands for."
This decision does keep McMurry in good standing with the NCAA, but is probably not what the NCAA had in mind. McMurry is the only school on the NCAA's watch list to drop a nickname altogether.
The announcement to continue with no mascot came around the same time Carthage (Wis.) College elected to change its nickname from Redmen to the apparently politically correct Red Men. While McMurry, without a mascot, is technically in compliance with the NCAA regulations, the decision shows the school is not going down without a fight.
"Everybody cares about this situation tremendously," said head men's basketball coach Ron Holmes. "We are talking about 83 years of tradition."
Kimbrall has been calling games for McMurry, a small Division III school in Abilene, Texas, for 10 seasons, and has always been able to refer to the team as the Indians. He will have to break that old habit this year because the Indians are no more.
Trying to purge the association of offensive nicknames, the NCAA called out McMurry and almost 20 other schools for possible sanctions. After more than a year of protesting and two separate appeals to the NCAA, the McMurry University Board of Trustees decided to drop the school's mascot for all its athletic teams.
Unlike other schools, however, McMurry refused to pick up a new nickname, and will play this season with no mascot at all. The team will be referred to as McMurray University Men's Basketball. While the entire situation may sound trivial, this is a shocking development for the McMurry community.
"I am greatly disappointed with the agenda the NCAA has chosen," Kimbrall said. "I think under the circumstances the school was put under, having no mascot was the best decision because changing the nickname would go against everything our school stands for."
This decision does keep McMurry in good standing with the NCAA, but is probably not what the NCAA had in mind. McMurry is the only school on the NCAA's watch list to drop a nickname altogether.
The announcement to continue with no mascot came around the same time Carthage (Wis.) College elected to change its nickname from Redmen to the apparently politically correct Red Men. While McMurry, without a mascot, is technically in compliance with the NCAA regulations, the decision shows the school is not going down without a fight.
"Everybody cares about this situation tremendously," said head men's basketball coach Ron Holmes. "We are talking about 83 years of tradition."
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