DU Pioneers mascot "Denver Boone" at center of controversy: Let's Go DU shuts down

This week, Damien Goddard of Let's Go DU announced that, “After eight years, 1.5 million visits, 5755 posts, 32,596 reader comments and countless laughs; LetsGoDU is ceasing operations today. LetsGoDU averaged 30 visits a day in 2005 to almost a thousand visits per day in recent years and its been a wonderful journey. We launched a mascot, built school spirit to unprecedented heights, covered many epic victories and more than a few heartbreaking DU losses. To those who supported DU through this Blog [du78 & many others] and helped PioNation fight the good fight, we say thank you.” At first, I thought that was kind of odd, then I took a deeper look…. Yep, the DU nickname issue has gotten really silly.

Mike Chambers, Denver Post – Boone, created in 1968 from a Walt Disney character named "Pioneer," was DU's official mascot until 1998, and its unofficial mascot after alumni took it upon themselves to fill the void in 2009. Chancellor Robert Coombe in March announced that Boone will not be considered by a steering committee that has identified an elk, a jackalope and a mountaineer as finalists for a new mascot.

DU has not had a mascot since the red-tailed hawk and Ruckus were phased out to begin the 2007-08 season.

"There's no point in having the blog if we don't have Boone," said Damien Goddard, the LetsGoDU founder and DU graduate, class of 1989, who spearheaded the "Bring Back Boone" campaign in 2008. "Boone and the blog have become intertwined, and you can't have one without the other. And it's silly to have two mascots. If the school is going to march down this path of political correctness, we decided to let them go down that path alone."

This ought to be fun, tonight’s NCHC match-up between the UND no-names and the UND Jackalopes will go a long ways in determining this season’s NCHC champion. Yeah! Yay!

So, we are to believe that the Denver Boone mascot is racist character? Seriously? How? What world do these pointed headed people live in? Take a look at this mascot, this little smiling cartoon character is a racist.