Tonight last ASU home game for Indians
Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2008
Arkansas State University students, staff and alumni will hold a ceremony to say farewell to three American Indian mascots tonight in Jonesboro.
Many will grieve the retirement of the university’s 77-yearold athletics nickname and mascot family during half-time of the men’s basketball game. Some are relieved to see the last of the stereotypic characters that have been gradually watered down over the years.
The university chose to stop using the mascots in response to an order from the National Collegiate Athletic Association. It determined in 2005 that the mascots of ASU and 17 other universities and colleges were “hostile and abusive.”
Alumni who have portrayed one of the three members of the mascot Indian family — a chief, a brave and a princess — over the years will be invited onto the basketball court of the ASU Convocation Center to be recognized, said Rich Carvell, a faculty member in the department of radio-television and chairman of a committee that organized the ceremony.
Three people who have served as advisers to the students who portrayed the mascots over the years — John Phillips, Genie Harrell and the late Gladys McPike Hudgins — also will be honored, Carvell said. Current students who portray the Indian family will give a “memento” from their costumes to the university.
The school chose to hold the ceremony at the last home basketball game because a large crowd is expected, Carvell said. The game starts at 7: 35 p. m.
The mascots and nickname will continue to be used by athletic teams through the end of the semester.
Next fall, the university will adopt the Wolves as a new nickname and mascot. ASU Chancellor Robert Potts will decide this summer what color, if any, the wolves will be. The new mascot was selected last month by a committee of administrators, faculty members and area businessmen.
Arnold Coleman, a senior graphic design major, said the Indian stereotype is “insensitive.”
He has heard some American Indian classmates say they don’t mind the mascot but dislike the generic stereotype of feathers and face paint.
“If we were the Arkansas State Indians, and you had the mascot dressed up in a suit and he didn’t have feathers, then he wouldn’t be recognizable as an ‘Indian, ’” Coleman said.
Little Rock resident and ASU alumna Becky Boyd Newberry portrayed the Indian princess between 1968 and 1970. She will be at the retirement ceremony.
Like many alumni, she is proud of the university and its mascots.
“I thought the Indian family represented strength and pride and heritage, and I don’t understand why that was felt to be demeaning,” she said.
ASU teams were first called Aggies in 1911. Later, they became Gorillas and then Warriors. The Indians became the official mascot in 1931.
A loincloth-clad caricature known as “Jumpin’ Joe” was adopted in 1937. He was amended to “Runnin’ Joe” in 1994. Three years later, the university discarded the cartoon image and incorporated the letters “ASU” into an Indian headdress.
John Phillips, a banker who lives in West Plains, Mo., portrayed the brave from 1969-73. He incorporated Indian-style dancing that he learned in a scouting organization as a youth. He remembers how excited ASU fans would get when the chief, brave and princess would ride around the football stadium on bareback.
After a controversy around the school’s “Jumpin’ Joe” mascot, the Indian family fell out of favor, Phillips said. In the early 1990 s, he was reminiscing with ASU alumna Genie Harrell wife of the late All-American running back Calvin Harrell — about the Indian family.
They resolved to revive the Indian family. With approval from the university and the help of the alumni association, they auditioned for students who could ride horses and play the parts.
David Elliott, Cory Jennings and Jodi Arns Moody were selected, and Phillips and Harrell made their buckskin-and-beads costumes. An American Indian history and culture buff, Phillips said, he attempted to make accurate costumes.
Phillips said he consulted with some American Indians in the area, but he didn’t check with the federally recognized Osage Nation. University legend says that “Chief Big Track,” the main mascot, is named after an Osage chief. Phillips says the mascot is really a general Southern Plains Indian, and the chief is named for the track that encircled the football field in a former stadium. The chief would ride a horse in full gallop around the track after each touchdown.
When the Indian family was returned to football games, Phillips established a strict protocol for the students’ behavior while portraying the Indians: proper hygiene, no smoking or eating, no goofing around.
“We conducted ourselves very regally and never disrespected the Native American in any way,” Phillips said. “That’s what makes this very hard to swallow. [The NCAA ] said we were abusive.”
American Indians use feathers, beads and other objects from their regalia as part of their religion, said Randi Romo, a Little Rock activist opposed to Indian mascots. It’s offensive for non-Indians to use them to “celebrate throwing a football around,” she said.
Romo is co-founder and director of Center for Artistic Revolution, a grass-roots group that describes its mission as fighting oppression through community organizing and education. Led by Kathy Wesho Bauer, a Menominee, the group started a campaign against the mascot about three years ago, Romo said. Members wrote letters and protested at ASU events against the use of American Indian imagery.
“They wouldn’t go around having the ‘Fighting Africans’ or the ‘Raging Jews’ or the ‘ Frito Bandidos, ’” Romo said. “It would not be acceptable. People would be up in arms.”
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