I heard an interview on the radio with a (white) Lamar grad saying she just doesn't understand why they changed the name. After all, it didn't offend HER. Lol....
I hate the political correctness in this country, but what ever. Now the one thing that needs to be changed is the Fighting Irish. It is very offensive to consider all Irish violent and short tempered. That needs to be changed. Not sure why there is no media outrage or groups protesting ND.
Ole Miss didn't change their name but a few years ago they did change their mascot from Colonel Reb to a bear.
As a Lamar alum I have no problem with changing the name Redskins, but Texans is really lame. As for the Lee Rebels, they might as well have been called the Lee Traitors, so a name change was called for their as well. But "Huskies"? Why in the hell would choose Alaskan sled dogs as the mascot for a school in Houston, Texas.
For the people who are upset about this (and there don't seem to be many here), if you really care about the name of your HS mascot more than 3 months after you graduate from HS, you really need to upgrade your life.
i understand that is where they are coming from, but i still dont see it as offensive or anywhere near the slur that redskins is. warrior, viking, brave, celtic - i dont see any of those approaching the level of a "redskin" or even a "fighting irish". if they are prancing around in native american gear, warpaint, swinging hatchets and going "OOO-OOO-OOO-OOO" then i would agree that they should stop, but again, some of those names arent really offensive at all. as for rebel, on second thought i might see how that should probably be phased out too. if i was black i dont think i would want to play on a team whose mascot is based on a caricature of someone who was fighting to maintain the institution of slavery and i definitely would not be cool with any confederate flag/uniform imagery. we also need to do something about this new trend among hipsters. http://www.policymic.com/articles/87709/why-so-many-american-indians-have-an-issue-with-coachella
I wouldn't be surprised if, 50 years for now, names like Texans were considered offensively jingoistic and changed again. Stick with lame animal names and you're probably safe (but not certainly).