Dave St. Peter on the 'No Nickname' Option for UND

If you haven't seen this, UND Nickname Committee member Dave St. Peter, Minnesota Twins president, gives his opinion on the North Dakota nickname option.

  Per Howard Sinker, Star Tribune.

St. Peter said he had two reasons for wanting to keep the no-nickname option. "I thought there was something incredibly powerful and unique about having the words 'North Dakota' stand alone without a nickname. I thought maybe this was a way to reinforce the heritage of the state. Others did not share it but it was something I got personally comfortable with watching our teams perform as 'North Dakota. The second reason was that it was clear to me from the constituency I represented (on the committee), the alumni base, felt very strongly about 'North Dakota' being an option -- and all of the public polling available seemed to indicate that North Dakota was clearly the popular choice. I wasn't comfortable eliminating it."

St. Peter added: "Some of the committee might disagree, but I think the politically correct thing to do was to eliminate 'North Dakota.' That was almost the sense I had, because of the connection to 'Fighting Sioux.' "