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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The Rainbow Warriors

Prior to 2000 all the men's sports teams at the University of Hawaii were referred to as the Rainbow Warriors.

The logo was a rainbow.  I liked that a lot since Hawaii does seem to have a rainbow floating around the sky almost everyday, especially in the rainy months.  Besides, I love colorful flags!

Then the UH decided to change its logo to the stylized H and each team was able pick their own name. The baseball team chose The Rainbows.  The basketball, swim and tennis teams are the Rainbow Warriors and the football, golf and volleyball are the Warriors.

Now it's been announced that as of June, 2013 all the Men's teams will be The Warriors and the Women's teams will be the Rainbow Wahine (Wahine means woman).

Why all this controversy?  Apparently the name change in 2000 happened because the UH athletic department felt the rainbow logo looked too much like the flag of the gay community.

I think it's all about as silly as you can get.  We should go back to the days when I was a college student and call everybody the Rainbow Warriors (Men and Women).  And here's the flag I propose.

Then again, I've never been a dedicated sports fan so I suppose nobody will listen to me.  Ah well...
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15 comments:

  1. This world is just too full of goof balls.

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  2. Yeah, I've heard that some people get all upset at rainbow flags and such because they might be thought to be gay. I love rainbows, too, and I wouldn't mind being gay, either. :-)

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  3. and the important issues-peace and love get overlooked...

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  4. Around here some are having the perennial argument about the name Redskins and the logo for the local sports team. I personally have no opinion in the matter. Nevertheless, the argument occurs every few years and then goes away mysteriously as it arrived. The team argues they surveyed American Indian leaders...WHO DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE NAME, but some "do-gooders" persist in their declaration that the name is offensive. I suppose no matter what one does someone will object. As for me, I am no sports enthusiast, so it doesn't matter.

    BTW I left a reply to your comment on my post from yesterday. Yes, Anna Parker was quite distraught at being reunited with her white family. She had to leave two sons behind to make her "escape" and never saw them again. I am not through the book yet, but the Washington Post review says that Quanah Parker (her son) worked to bring peace between the whites and the Comanches. Dianne

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    1. Actually, we were really opposed to the use of the dancing Chief Illiniwek mascot of the University of Illinois. And yes, there were native Americans who were opposed to seeing a dancing chief prancing on the football field, but the alumni wanted to keep him. Actually, I think opinion kept swinging all kinds of ways on that one. However, the Chief was finally retired in 2007.

      I'm sure this is a different situation though since I hardly think gays are opposed to the use of the rainbow flag. Besides, I'm sure the University had it first.

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  5. Send that design off to the university. Great idea. You might comment that the values in the rainbow colors are not the least like the gay pride flags.

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  6. Aloha Kay -- I'd only seen the green and black letter "H" graphic and didn't know the history. The "H" graphic reminds folks of the fights in the past amongst the islands' strong men, and the fight to keep their Hawaiian native identity. Yep, rainbows are for everyone, but some scared conservatives are now getting scared of rainbows! I think the women should be called Warrior Wahines just like the boys, but I like your combined idea. DrumMajor

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    1. Whoa, DrumMajor... I just heard in the news about the horrendous snow storm heading your way. My daughter in Illinois should be getting hit also. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't cause too much damage or headache.

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  7. It is just amazing how folks get so worked up over the craziest things. I'm sure this controversy will work out eventually.

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  8. I fired off a letter to the Star-Advertiser yesterday on this very subject. They called me back to make sure I wrote it "in case" they print it. I think it's a somewhat important issue as Coach June Jones said he couldn't recruit football players because of the gay rainbow. So, the change to Warriors was directly anti-gay. I have a member of my family who is gay and it took me all of three minutes, at the most, to get used to it. Most people are like me on that, unless they are haters. I'll bet any amount of money I am not alone among your readers on that score.

    In actual fact, our UH athletes are NOT warriors at all, for the simple reason that they are on sports teams while their peers are in the service.

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    1. I'll be looking forward to seeing your letter, Hank!

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  10. Kind of a drastic switch between logos

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  11. Kay, check out my latest post; your information really came in handy tonight!

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    1. Too too wonderful!!! I loved it! I hope your team won.

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