It’s always welcome news when local officials manage to solve a problem, and University of Hawaii athletic director Ben Jay appears to have done so on the weighty matter of naming UH sports teams.
A week after Jay backed down on naming all Manoa men’s teams the Warriors, going instead with Rainbow Warriors, complaints seem few and it might actually be settled.
Traditionalists who hated abandoning the Rainbows moniker seem satisfied by the compromise, and the relatively recent Warriors name never hada fanatical constituency.
Whether Jay reversed course because of something a kid told him, as he’s said, or because he was pummeled by politicians, kudos to him for seeing that the needless distraction wouldn’t go away unless he swallowed pride.
Of course, he gets only half credit since he created the problem in the first place.
Jay, who arrived from Ohio State in January to clean up the mess in the athletic department left by the Wonder Blunder, was right that UH couldn’t go on with some men’s teams called Warriors, some called Rainbows and some called Rainbow Warriors.
A consistent brand matters in recruiting, advertising, sports merchandising and national recognition.
Where Jay went wrong was not taking a little longer to get the lay of the land on an issue that had more emotional impact with theUH fan base than he realized.
The name Rainbows has a nearly 100-year history and heavenly origins, and longtime fans are quite fond of it.
They weren’t thrilled when former UH head football coach Larry Price changed his squad’s name to Rainbow Warriors because he thought it more manly.
They were aghast when football coach June Jones changed it to just Warriors, apparently because he didn’t like the way the rainbow symbol had been embraced by liberals and gays.
It was predictable these fans would become infuriated when Jay resolved the inconsistency by requiring UH teams in other sports to drop the Rainbows name.
Old-time fans didn’t care about politics and symbolism; they cared about respecting an old and proud local tradition. The original name came from an actual rainbow over Manoa, not a political symbol.
The politics are interesting, however. The Rainbow name that was shunned barelya decade ago because of the diversity it symbolized is now being embraced by officialdom precisely because of the diversity it represents. Times and attitudes surely have changed.
The bottom line is that Rainbow Warriors makes the most sense, both as a nod to tradition and a perfect parallel to the name of UH women’s teams, who are Rainbow Wahine.
Come to think of it, Rainbow Warriors and Rainbow Wahine would also be cute names for the boys’ and girls’ restrooms at UH sports venues.
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Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.
