St. John’s, citing “sensitivities to Native American communities,” will no longer call its sports teams the Redmen, a nickname it has used since 1922.
The school said it has appointed a committee to come up with a new name. Former basketball coach Lou Carnesecca will chair the committee.
The school said no timetable has been set to establish the new name. In the meantime, the new scoreboards at Alumni Hall read “Redmen” and the media book for the men’s basketball team has “Redmen” on both covers.
The name Redmen came about when the school’s football team arrived for a game in 1922 dressed in red from head to toe. Local sportswriters started calling the team “the men of red,” and “Redmen” then came into use.
In 1930, the school adopted a wooden Indian as a good luck charm at basketball games and it used an Indian in its logo until the 1980s.
Marquette University in Milwaukee decided last month to drop the Warriors moniker at the end of the 1993-94 academic year because of concerns that it offended Native Americans.
