STRELNIKOV! An obscure state university that spends money on a new mascot design for its sports programs in the middle of a recession is probably not in the very best of hands. Pity poor Nicholls State, in Louisiana, named for a rebel colonel named Tillou Nicholls, who had an arm shot off at Shiloh. The university administration decided that now would be a good time to retire a mascot that they perceived as perpetuationg slavery, rebellion, and Confederate nostalgia.

The replacement design, which didn't come for free, didn't impress everybody.


Now comes a followup from University Diaries quoting a letter to the editor that got it about right.

I must admit that when I viewed the new Colonel Tillou mascot for the first time my own thoughts were of a Bolshevik cavalryman from the Russian Civil War. The politically correct forces claim they began a campaign to replace the old mascot in an effort to improve the university’s image. Unfortunately, the new mascot conjures up an image of a murderous Red Army dragoon slashing his way through a Ukrainian village. This is definitely not an improvement on the university’s image. Instead, it tarnishes the school and everyone associated with it. This whole experience should finally demonstrate the folly of political correctness and its various progeny.

That shadow, or scar, or whatever, on Tovarish Tillou's cheek reminds me of Tom Courtenay's character in Dr. Zhivago slashing his way across Siberia. A mascot is redesigned, a point is made.