"The Warriors nickname will always be part of our proud athletics tradition, and we will honor that tradition." Those words were uttered by University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild on May 11, 2005, just one day prior to the abandonment of the Marquette Gold nickname by the board of trustees.
Unfortunately, after attending this weekend's Marquette-Pittsburgh game, I am left to ask myself whether this still remains true. When the 1977 team was introduced at College GameDay and during the halftime ceremony at the game, it was introduced as the "1977 National Championship Team" or some derivative of that. The only reference to the 1977 team being the Warriors in the retrospective video narrated by Dick Enberg at the beginning of halftime was in the context of "Road Warriors."
Any time a "Let's Go Warriors" chant began at GameDay or at the game, either the Marquette band or cheerleaders immediately sprang into action to drown out the cheer with their instruments or start a new cheer.
Don't believe me? The videos are out there on YouTube for the world to see. Obviously, someone did not pass that memo onto Dan O'Connell, Digger Phelps, Bo Ellis, ESPN, the student section and anyone who wore their Warriors gear to the game that we were apparently not the Marquette Warriors in 1977.
Has the new litmus test at Marquette become any mention of the word Warriors even in the context of Marquette's athletic history must be whitewashed? Shame on us.
We may be the Golden Eagles now, but this team and an epoch of alumni graduated this institution as Warriors. Let's not be afraid to honor them by name as such. Now, let's win some games this March; I can't think of a better tribute to these Warriors than Marquette marching on to the Final Four in Atlanta 30 years after Al's last dance.
Baranowski is an 2005 alumnus of the College of Business Administration.
