How Did the ORANGE get their name

[momzer]

"There was the Army mule, Navy goat, Georgia bulldog and Syracuse Indian," said Oren Lyons, an Onondaga faithkeeper who played lacrosse under the Saltine Warrior emblem. "We were subhumans in sports." Syracuse consigned its 45-year-old symbol to the archives in 1975. In its place they chose to honor a fruit and school color, the Orange.

Got this from a parent of an Orange. Replied that now they have advanced to being "subhuman in life as well".

[bmartin]

The Pink and Blue

archives.syr.edu/history/orange.html

Egnaro the Troll

archives.syr.edu/history/mascots.html

In 1978 members of a Native American student organization headed a protest against using the Saltine Warrior as an athletic mascot. Onondagan Chief Oren Lyons, a 1958 alumnus and former SU lacrosse star, explained that it's "all in the presentation...The thing that offended me when I was there was that guy running around like a nut. That's derogatory" (Daily Orange, March 23, 1976). The Saltine Warrior was subsequently "sidelined" and a contest for a successor ensued (Daily Orange, February 12, 1978).

Briefly in 1978, a Roman-style gladiator reigned over the sites of sports battles, but he was soon both laughed and booed off the field. It was prophetic of his career that in his initial appearance the SU football team lost, 28-0 in a contest against the Florida State Seminoles.

In the following years proposals and attempts at mascots included Egnaro the Troll, a Superman-like figure, and a man in an orange tuxedo. An Orange "with appeal" was introduced in 1980 (Daily Orange, April 4, 1980). Eric Heath, an SU cheerleader, is credited with designing and crafting the first costume for the rotund and fuzzy Orange.

[DFW HOYA]

Mr. Lyons, frankly, isn't even close.

1. There was never a Syracuse Indian. It was the Orangemen, of which the Saltine Warrior was its mascot for about 50 of Syracuse's 120 years of sport. Orangemen did not refer to the Warrior but the color of its jerseys, much as the DePaul Blue Demons do not refer to demons but the D letter on their jackets ( the "D-Men").

2. The Saltine Warrior was around through at least 1978-79, not 1975. I was on a train to the Big East Tournament one year and the last of the Saltine Warrior mascots told the story. Otto did not appear until 1982 and was laughed at by most Big East fans. (Not as bad as that guy in the tuxedo, but close.)

3. You know who changed Orangemen to orange? Well, Nike; more appropriately, the pressure to choose a gender-neutral name that would give Syracuse cover not to do something stupid like, say, calling themselves the Red Storm.

4. Why anyone would use the word subhuman astounds me. I regard the American Indian as a symbol of pride and courage. Whether of not a school chooses to identify with the American Indian is their business, but those who abandoned it solely for politcally correct reasons (yeah, I'm talking to you, Marquette) should be ashamed of themselves.

[momzer]

I dont think it was derogatory to American Indians. I think that because SUcks was so bad at sports, he thought they were subhuman. Now that they are subhuman in class, it all fits.

[rosslynhoya]

It doesn't seem to bother the Irish.

[detmut]

agent orange