DU: Denver Boone won't Return

Because the mascot Denver Boone is so offensive, yeah… Right!

NESN.COM -- Some Americans view Daniel Boone as a legend in this country’s history — a true hero of the American Western Frontier.

Others don’t, including University of Denver officials.

Mascot “Denver Boone,” who served as the UD Pioneers mascot until he was retired in 1998, has been deemed too offensive by administrators to make a comeback, according to FOXNews.com.

A hawk named “Ruckus” replaced Denver Boone until 2007. Since then, the school has been without an official mascot and the school is hoping to fill that void soon.

“Boone was a polarizing figure that did not reflect the growing diversity of the UD community, but rather was an image that many women, persons of color, international students and faculty members found difficult to relate to as defining the pioneering spirit,” Chancellor Robert Coombe said earlier this year.

This one is even better… It’s a cartoon mascot that looks like of like Daniel Boone; I just can’t see anything that’s offensive with this mascot. Of course the P.C. police do.

Fox News – Is a cartoon-like college mascot reminiscent of Daniel Boone -- right down to the legendary coonskin cap -- racist, sexist or otherwise offensive?

Officials at the University of Denver seem to think so. They’ve announced they won’t reinstate “Denver Boone,” who was retired in 1998 as mascot for the UD Pioneers, despite calls to bring him back

This isn’t even the school that I attended, it’s not my Alma Mater, actually, Denver is one of our hated/heated rivals, but this crap makes my blood boil, these pointed headed, handing wringing, P.C. morons piss me off to no end. You just want to tell them to shut the heck up and worry about something that actually matters. Think about this, we have rampart unemployment, no-one can find a job when they leave colege, our country has been at war for 10+ years and these buffoons want to worry about Denver Boone like he’s the reason our country is on the decline.

Wait, what? Do you really want to go there?

I am not sure why the guy that has the TYT blog wants to start a fight with the North Dakota Fighting Sioux fan base? I am sure that most of you have probably never seen it because no one reads his blog any ways.

Then again, I suppose if you want to generate interest and hits and lot of traffic to your blog – infuriating one of the more passionate fan bases in all of college hockey probably doesn’t hurt – it will bring more traffic to your blog.

ND vote lets school scrap Fighting Sioux nickname (Yahoo!)

I'm. So. Pumped. And no, it has nothing to do with my opinion of Native American mascots, the NCAA's rule on them or the larger social and political issues involved. I just hate North Dakota, so things that make them sad make me happy, simple as that. All of that said, this is The Story That Will Never Die (TM), so I'm not throwing the party until what's apparently a minority of the state's residents are unsuccessful in their next avenue of appeal, an attempt at a constitutional amendment.

Apparently Dean Blais' comments about the selection of the Target Center has also gotten ire of the TYT blog as well.

Two can play at that game, Deano. If North Dakota's out of the NCHC tournament, you're left with a choice of: a) two branch campuses, b) two MAC schools (and I love the MAC as a current student at a member school), c) two schools 900+ miles away and d) St. Cloud State in e) a facility that's almost universally seen as second-rate for hockey compared to the Big Ten's Xcel Energy Center. So good luck with that. The Big Ten, without Minnesota, still offers three all-time top ten men's hockey programs and five schools with universal brand recognition. And (including Minnesota again) the main campuses of two NCHC schools, although Nebraska doesn't sponsor hockey yet.

Actually, it is worth pointing out that the Big Ten's entire tournament will be played in St. Paul (or Detroit, in alternating years). In other words, Minnesota will have at least one game at the Xcel Energy Center every single year. North Dakota, on the other hand, will have to get through a best-of-three campus site first round to make it to Minny. They probably will most of the time, but hey, no guarantees when you've recruited the eight best hockey programs in the country into one conference.

Quick break while I finish laughing from typing that last sentence...

While the TYT is half right – the games that UMN plays in are going to be the highest attended games of the B1G tourney – that’s a no brainer – the problem is that other games will not be as highly attended as the days of the old WCHA tourney. That’s reality! No longer will you have SCSU, UND, UMD fans coming to the games at the Xcel energy center.

The aforementioned teams will be replaced by PSU, OSU, MSU and Michigan. OSU hockey fans don’t attend games in their own building what makes you think that they are going to attend games in Minnesota or Detroit for that matter?

Thge lingering question is – are Michigan and Michigan State fans going to attend the B1G tourney in St. Paul every other season? Here is the attendance numbers of the last two games that Michigan was involved in during last season’s CCHA tourney 10,421 (Michigan vs. WMU) and 7823 (BGSU vs. Michigan). If Michigan isn’t going to stuff the Joe Louis arena full of their fans when they are playing what makes people think that Michigan and Michgan State are going to travel to St. Paul when they are only guaranteed only one game?

Going forward It will be interesting to see how many people actually attend the B1G, NCHC and WCHA conference tourneys.

To the person that suggested that OSU and Michigan State being a big draw I wouldn't count on it - here are the OSU numbers for the last two season.

2011-12 14th Ohio State 16 Attendance 82,854 Average 5,178 17,500 29.6%
2010-11 18th Ohio State 17 Attendance 65,093 Average 3,829 17,500 21.9%