UND's nickname committee eliminated 464 nickname suggestions at a meeting Wednesday.
The group went through 500 of the 1,172 individual nickname ideas submitted by the public throughout the month of April. The committee is charged with narrowing down the list so the public can vote and choose a new name. UND's old logo, the Fighting Sioux, was retired in December 2012 after the NCAA threatened sanctions.
The committee also voted to allow the option of slightly modifying the names submitted by the public later in the process. For example, this could mean making a singular name plural or vice versa.
"Obviously the objective here is to come up with best possible names for a public vote," committee member and Minnesota Twins President Dave St. Peter said.
The committee spent almost two hours going through each individual name idea one at a time and voting whether it should move forward. If even one person voted “yes,” the name was kept.
“Yes doesn't mean yes, it means maybe,” consultant Kelly O’Keefe told the committee via video conference. “It means somebody wants to take a look at this name and you can do it later."
“The Force” had six votes in favor of keeping it while “Big Green” and “Flames” tied for second with four votes each. “Flickertails,” UND’s nickname prior to the 1930s, also made the cut along with “Fighting Green,” “Badlanders,” “Aviators,” and “Green Hawks.”
The committee went through the list alphabetically and got to “Hammers” before stopping.
The committee will continue going through names in the same manner at its next meeting, though it wasn’t decided whether any of the more than 2,600 ideas on a “non-considered” list would be looked at even though the committee has the ability to do so.
O’Keefe said names were put on the list of unconsiderable ideas because they were inappropriate or legally unavailable, though he also noted due to the rush to get the list out there may have been errors.
UND General Counsel Julie Evans told the committee NCAA policy prohibits the use of Native American imagery and therefore “Arrows” was excluded from the list as well.
“Roughriders,” a name the committee has yet to get to, was put on the list of considered names because the consultants at Padilla CRT, the firm O’Keefe is working with, thought it would be more easily trademarked than “Rough Riders,” which was on the list of names that aren’t options.
After each name on the list has been looked at in this manner by the committee, the group will look at the remaining options more thoroughly and rate them using a point system.
A public vote, which committee chairman and UND alumnus Karl Goehring said will be open to everyone at UND President Robert Kelley’s instruction, was originally supposed to be held in early May, but the committee could consider a later date if they need time.
The committee plans to coordinate with the UND Alumni Association and Foundation to publicize the eventual public vote, though concrete plans have not been made.
The committee’s next meeting will be May 18 and is open to the public.
