"The Boone image is one that many women, persons of color, international students, staff and faculty members found difficult to relate to as defining the pioneering spirit.""I am a faculty member and have never been asked about my opinion regarding Boone, Ruckus or any other mascot. The choice of words in the email appears designed to preempt any expression of support for Boone rather than let alumni voice their own opinions. Very disappointing and not something that alumni should let slide."- DU Faculty Member
Send Mascot Emails To DU
alumni@du.edu Attn: Christine Cecil
LINK: DU Sends "Mascot Email" To Alumni
LINK: DU Refuses To Explain Why Boone Is "Offensive"
LINK: Why Politically Correct Mascots Fail
LINK: Many College Mascots Similar To Boone
LINK: Westword: Boone Named Readers Choice Mascot
LINK: DU Edits Mascots Out Of Magness Murals
PHOTOS: Boone On Spring Break In Las Vegas
VIDEO: NBC SitCom Deals With PC Mascot Issue
63 comments:
Nothing builds traffic on Facebook for an embattled mascot than having the Chancellor of the University spending every waking hour hatching devious plans to destroy the mascot.
Yeah, that's not hyperbolic.
Maybe nothing builds Facebook traffic like an over-indulged paranoid and messianic alum obsessed with a cartoon of a bearded boy who has a few too many dollars to spend.
Awwww...look, someone's still upset about the 13 - 2 goal differential in last weekend's games. It's cute.
Have fun in the WCHA next year, Dunlop.
Didn't they discontinue the UAA "program" after 4 wins the whole season? Though I guess that is par for the course for that "program."
Come on Donald, sing it with us -
"What's a seawolf?"
"What's a seawolf?"
Just a friendly reminder: CC SUCKS!!!
(ironic that I had to type in 57 to post this comment?)
What a jammed packed (but fun) sports weekend this will be...CC hockey games on Friday and Saturday night and the Mile High Classic on Saturday evening. Big weekend for lacrosse and hockey.
It's funny how fast Dunlop disappears after dumping his "rhetoric". Especially when it comes to actually discussing hockey on a sports blog.
Sad that all he's known for is a bunch of "intellectual" bluster and thinking he's smarter than anyone else who has ever posted anything on the internet.
Almost as sad as a goalie making 46 saves... and still losing by 6.
I believe our friend Donald shutdown his blog site this year. Not much to "blog" about I suppose unless you consider 4 wins to be a major achievement.
One more thing:
CC SUCKS
DU SUCKS!
Can't even sell out their own arena during the playoffs versus their arch rival.
PATHETIC
-Go Tigers.
Question, where is CC going after the WCHA playoffs?
Answer, NOWHERE
Oh and by the way
CC SUCKS
Oh, come on miller, that's not true. They're going to run back to the litter box & hang this year's participation banner!
CC SUCKS!
I think it's probably about time we discuss the DU attendance issue. We rarely talk about it, since the other teams so rarely bring it up.
I'd rather have attendance issues than the problem of being 3 games under .500. And without the Gold Pan.
Fucking go away Donna! Your team is horrible and you ran away with your tail between your legs due to 'blogopalypse' - fucking horrible fan. You are a total piece of shit.
Glad to see the anon posting is back. Also nice to see that DG is busy eating "unborned babies" in Vegas rather than attending the games.
Good to see our favorite AIDS patient is back
It's spelled favourite bro...
Even my fellow DU fans gotta' tip your hat to CC's Howe. He more or less said "fukdat" to the notion of him losing his final college game with a DU sweep at Magness. He was outrageous. I thought for sure the'd play Thorimbert tonight. Howe has been a thorn in Denver's side for 4 years. Sunday, Sun-day, Sun-Dayyyyy
Lamian,
Get a fu@@ing life! You're a complete embarrassment to DU athletics. Self-serving ego-maniac a$$hole. You could care less about the student athletes that represent DU.
You're a fraud!!
In case anyone cares....your hockey team lost 2-1 last night.
DU student athletes receive tons of exposure from this blog. So not terribly worried about that comment.
First thing almost every DU parent I every meet for the first time says, "LetsGoDU is on my smart phone's favorite apps."
Too bad about the loss, too bad the refs were horrible, too bad we gave cc two odd man rushes in the second by pinching in too much, too bad Jussi couldnt bail us out, and too bad the game was decided on a fluke goal. That said, it was a decent effort, and cc can put up a banner in their arena for the win! We dropped in the pwr, don't understand why some du fans thought that DU was a lock for a bid, no matter what happened thus wknd. In any case, hopefully we will get that bid!!! Extra kudos to gwoz for his class in the post game interview. Such a great guy, so we need to lock him into a contract.
CC doing a victory skate at the end of the game, and those fans going berserk.....in the DU end nonetheless. The ultimate kick in the nuts as far as I'm concerned. North Dakota wouldn't even do something that brazen.
Denver should have stayed there at their blue line....I think we would of seen a brawl. Instead, DU walks off the ice dejected, and CC party's like it's 1999 in DU's home ice. That was quite bizarre. Rivalry renewed!
Let them celebrate. CC did a good job to win the series. However, DU celebrates national championships, CC celebrates a trip to the final five. DU has won like 13 wcha playoff championships, cc has won zero. It shows the difference between the two programs. CC seems thrilled to just get there, and DU actually wins the events.
Where were all the DU fans? Magness was our house tonight! It was clear to all that showed up, on and off the ice. The MC tried to drown us out but… to no avail… It started early and we continued for 60 minutes, call it a fan win? Young and old, our fans owned your fans.
We were loud and proud and even got extra attention from the Nazi like ushers. But.. they already knew that DU sucks so they let it slide.
And… guess what? We had a post game party in your arena, fans, townies, parents, diehards. Everyone was welcome. You guys just left that place like a ghost town.
Our player salute was deserved. Revenge sucks… I have two words for the Finn…
Put up a banner and wave your arms and cheer!!! You're going to the final five! You're going to the final five! Sounds like you had the time of your life!
Hey evermore,
Anyone that saw all three games in person and didn't have a great time... sucks at life. Clean the sand out of your vajayjay.
It was hard fought and fun and mostly clean.
Chambers seems to think we put you guys on the bubble but I kind of doubt it. So, yep, I take this small victory. It's all I have for now.
I have to say... I like the skiing banners in your arena. That seems more than appropriate???
What’s up with this Coombe guy anyway? Who does he think he is? Sure, sure, he‘s in charge of a successful 300 million dollar fundraising campaign but DG raised $5,000 to put a kid in a Styrofoam head. Who would you rather have in charge of the University?
You forgot to mention that Coombe is also a failed Blogger.
Coombe Launches The Chancellors Blog
An article shows the mascots for each of the 64 teams in the NCAA tournament. Using Coomb's diversity criteria ,about half of them are offensive. Many much more than our cartoon mascot.devorch136
Thanks for the heads up on the NCAA Tournament mascots.
I was able to put together a collection of photos and posted it above.
Im sure he has better things to.do than run a blog. Since DG has no life it is easy for him to run a blog.
Is this why Boone didn’t attend the WCHA playoff games against CC?
This Boone fiasco is very amusing. DG treats this like it's a covert CIA operation and he's the chosen secret operative that will undermind the Soviets during the cold war.
What makes college adminstrations act or listen to common sense is CASH....plain and simple.
Apparently, you don't have enough rich alums that have the ear of the a DU adminastration.
Running around sneaking Boone into NCAA events is going to somehow change anything, you're sadly mistaken.
Get some rich alumns, that truly care about this issue, to get together and make a serious donation and you might see some
some action.
If the DU mascot can’t seem to find his way to the hockey game, then it may be time to find a new mascot. Just sayin'
I'd agree that Denver Boone doesn't have the support of major donors. So in that respect it could be judged a failure.
The costume was intended for the "Unofficial Student Mascot." In that capacity it got the job done.
But again, the final chapter won't be written until the school comes up the official mascot.
At least I won't have to feel sorry for DG wandering aimlessly around the x this weekend.
Youll have more time to devote to top secret ops against the evil DU empire.
Just one tip, sticking your finger in the Chancelor's eye every chance you get is not helping your credibility on this Boone fiasco.
Can it be true? I just heard that Coach Scott supports the search for a new mascot.
Scott said the bird didn't work. I think as long as the new mascot resembles as (western)Pioneer, he'll be ok,
No coach at DU can go on record supporting Boone when the chancellor says Boone won't be the official mascot.
A DU faculty member was in Las Vegas over Spring Break and wanted to have her photo taken with Boone.
She asked the students not to publish the photo on Facebook because she was "afraid she might be fired."
If a photo of a faculty member posing with Boone would get her in trouble, why would you post Joe Scott’s photo with Boone on his office wall? Don’t you like him? You want to get him in trouble? You think he’s immune with his teams appearance in the NIT?
#1. Coombe's too busy figuring out how he's going to desecrate John Evans to worry about our basketball coach.
#2. Presumably Joe hung the photo on his office wall.
#3. Joe commented to the media [Brendon's Blog] about the mascot issue, so his views are not a secret.
#4. DU's big worry is going to be retaining Scott if the program continues its current trajectory.
#5. Some people at DU are more important to the school than Coombe. Joe Scott falls into that catagory.
a faculty member would not get fired for such a pic (not saying she wasn't worried)
your point number 5 shows you know nothing about DU
athletics runs a huge deficit as is,
Coombe/ the Trustee have much bigger issues than your stuffed toy
you seriously need to grow up and get a clue
About 95% of NCAA D-I athletic departments run defecits each year and that's just fine. They provide important opportunities for students and experiences for the university community.
University symphony orchestaras or theatre departments sell tickets for performances too, but do we expect them to make money? Of course not.
DU Hockey makes a seven figure profit each year, but in a $25 million athletic dept, it will never pat for everything else.
Why dosen't someone post a pic of the committee members, so the public and students can see who they are.
DU has yanked the mascot selection process from the Student Committee and handed it over to the university's Marketing & Communication Department.
As the War on Boone has progressed, I've been thinking about the three DU Chancellors I've known and worked with, wondering what their approach to this issue might have been.
Chester Alter, Maurice Mitchell and Dwight Smith shared a love of the University of Denver, respect for its traditions and willingness to reach out to students and alumni alike, searching for consensus. And in that respect, they seem to be far different from the current Chancellor.
The rush to eliminate Boone, crush the "unofficial" mascot and create a new one in its place could be described in many ways. High handed and disrespectful being the two that come to my mind. Denver Boone was not created by the "Disney studios." Denver Boone was created by Walt Disney personally after ski coach Willy Schaeffler asked him to come up with a mascot.+
+
DU has traditionally had a sports reputation based on low attendance and enthusiasm for our teams and lack of respect for our traditions. A hard charge to rebut, given that DU went nearly two decades without ever playing its fight song.
In recent years DU has made great progress in eliminating those stereotypes. New facilities. New sports. An enthusiastic pep band. We now have four programs getting national attention, instead of the traditional two. But we've still fallen short of student involvement and enthusiasm. But we've had an unprecedented coalition of students and alumni come together in a sincere effort to generate some excitement around our sporting events. And it seems to have been a great success. White outs. The giant Boone. DUGS. And, of course, the Boone figure.
And the response of the Chancellor? Opposition bordering on hostility. An unwillingness to discuss the matter. A reliance on back door tactics. A legalistic approach which is at variance with the previously mentioned Chancellors' willingness to at least discuss an issue. Entirely subjective criteria are cited as the reason why the concept of Boone, not to mention the most recent incarnation have to go. Replaced, we are told, by mascots which don't appear to have any logical connection with "Pioneers" at all. Ruckus II, in other words. We are told that "some" people in certain groups don't like Boone. But we aren't told how those opinions were gathered. Or how many people feel that way. Their mere existence is sufficient. I'm not aware of any official effort to gauge student feelings here. But two unofficial polls have shown overwhelming support for Boone on campus. And I'm not aware of any effort to arrive at some consensus here. To reach out to the parties. Instead we have e-mails to alumni announcing what decisions have been made and will be made, with an insincere request for "opinions."
I have some questions. First: what is the rush? Why has the traditional consensus building process been replaced by a series of pronouncements? Why are obviously flawed and insufficient criteria being used as the basis for these decisions? Why is there no apparent interest in what students and alumni think? Why is the current Chancellor seemingly so hostile to an unprecedented student/alumni coalition that has brought excitement to our sporting events? And is it just Boone who's in the crosshairs here, or is it "Pioneers," too? Where are the Trustees on this matter? Is this really what they want?
Any admissions or development official at any university can tell you the impact of successful athletics on their efforts. That being the case, perhaps this process can be slowed down a bit. To allow the stakeholders an opportunity to be heard. To see if some common ground can be found. Otherwise, it appears that the current administration is determined to give us castor oil, because "it's good for you" I respectfully disagree.
By the time Smith stepped down, DU was almost done for, literally - the place was in shambles in the 80's both academically and financially - great tradition!
The one you don't mention that is the one who banned Boone was Ritchie, his move was entirely unilateral. He also happens to be the person that not only saved DU but brought it to new heights
I didn't mention Ritchie because he didn't fit my criteria. But now that you irrelevantly bring it up, he was wrong to create Ruckus and in wanting to replace the "D-Rah." And I have said so many times, here and elsewhere. It's a bit unfair, and also irrelevant, to blame Dwight Smith for the financial difficulties we faced. DU was fortunate that a Vice President of Group W and DU grad was able to facilitate getting Ritchie on the Board of Trustees, later to become Chancellor. His considerable accomplishments at DU make him no worse than the second most important person in university history. Second only to John Evans.
Even figures as important as Ritchie aren't always right however. But then, he isn't Chancellor now, is he? So apart from showing your ass, what was your point?
Dan Ritchie is a legend. Clearly his record speaks for itself.
The Boone Debate in 2013 is far different than the decision and situation Ritchie faced in 1998.
In fifteen short years, the D1 athletics landscape has gone through cataclysmic changes, as has the world of branding and corporate identity.
The alums, students, fans & DU staffers that support Boone believe that DU should embrace the school's location, identity and heritage with all its might.
Why?
Because that's what virtually every successful D1 institution has done in one form or another. Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Bama, Michigan, USC, Oklahoma and dozens & dozens of other schools.
The Denver Boone mascot isn't racist and neither are his many supporters. If we cede the Boone issue, its only a matter of time before people object to country/western music being played in Magness, the "Pioneer" name comes under attack, Evans Chapel gets a new name and people object to the school being named "Denver" because James Denver was a soldier and did God knows what to whom during his political, military and professional career.
History can't be changed. Things happened in the past and we should learn from past mistakes. But rewriting history and imposing 21st morals on past events is ridiculous.
If you want to have the support of fans and alumni, it might be a good idea for the pep band and Boone to actually show up at hockey games. DU has cheerleaders, who knew?
You know there is a problem when the mascot stays home to watch the games on television. Especially the home games.
Boone showed up for 80% of the games this year. The only ones he did not show up for were those over school breaks.
The Pep Band was only allowed to come to 11 hockey games this season by the school for cost and manpower reasons. They also must play all home men's and women's hoops games, with a reduced band on school breaks.
Both did a great job this year.
9:14, 10:41 and 9:05 were making good arguments, don't let facts get in the way.
This is awesome.
Comments trying to discredit Boone's attendance and participation around campus, while at the same time advocating for a new mascot, because Boone's too prevalent around campus.
Let's face it. If Boone sucked, or wasn't winning the hearts & minds of PioNation, DU wouldn't be falling all over itself trying to ram a new mascot down our throats.
Boone's many successes has pissed off the whiners and complainers and finally the Chancellor caved in.
And if you want to see more of the band and the cheerleaders, you could do as I do and send them a donation every year, write a letter or email to the AD telling her how much you like the band & cheerleaders and/or ask Chancellor Coombe not to cut the Athletics budget next year. Its even tax deductible.
If 10 people just donated $250 to the band, the money would go a long way.
To Donate: www.denverpioneers.com
Because lets face it, what are some of the first things that are going to be cut when the Athletic budget gets slashed? Marketing, promotion, staff & spirit funding.
Sorry but $250 won't buy you naming rights for the new mascot.
The DU website indicates that the cheerleading squad only performs at basketball games. The girls you saw at several of the hockey games were from the Denver Dance Team. The kid wearing the Boone outfit is crushing on one of the cheerleaders so he attends basketball rather hockey.
I'll donate $350 if they name it "Coombetang"
Your statement doesn’t make any sense. Not saying that he does … but if Boone sucked wouldn’t it be a good idea to look for a new mascot?
Boone named by Westword's readers as the "Best Mascot in Denver."
http://www.westword.com/bestof/2013/award/best-mascot-2345822/
So Boone doesn't suck, it's just that the current kid in the styrofoam head can't seem to find his way out of his dorm room.
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