WHAT'S IN A NAME? A trustee at Marquette University offered the university a large sum of money if it would restore the "Warriors" name. (A hint: if you see a university with an eagle as its mascot, there is a good chance it used to have a Native American theme. Marquette and Eastern Michigan come to mind.) Editors at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel urge restraint.

On Monday, Father Robert Wild, MU's president, did the wise and right thing: He declined the funds while he kept the door open to discussion about a name reversion. The full Board of Trustees would decide whether to revisit the nickname issue, Wild said.

The reason money ought to be off the table is that MU changed the nickname out of sensitivity to American Indians, whose leaders overwhelmingly oppose the common practice by sports teams of using Indian nicknames and mascots. Indian leaders believe that such use promotes stereotypes. To offer money is to suggest that Marquette's principles are for sale.

I promise to be nice and say nothing about sponsored research and selling principles. See this for that commentary. Rather, I want to address the silly idea that mascots aren't supposed to give offense. (Why else does Michigan's band insist on playing the one tune it knows as often as it dare?) If we take that seriously, Tongue Tied correctly notes that Incarnate Word's Crusaders (also Valparaiso's) give offense -- do you really want a jihadi blowing up your stadium? For that matter, Wisconsin's Badgers have nothing to do with a small carnivore, rather it refers (originally) to the lead miners of the southwest. For pasties, pirates, and Lands' End, you don't have to go to Cornwall. And Marquette's Warriors might have more to do with the Spanish Inquisition than some basketball fans would be comfortable with.