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Filed under: Aha! Stuff, Fascinations, HOAG Site | By DrHGuy | October 29, 2007 at 6:55 pm

Things Change - Except When They Don’t

When I serendipitously found three articles this morning, all published in the last two days, dealing with topics specifically covered in old Heck of a Guy posts, I recognized my obligation to bring Heck of a Guy readers, many of whom have no contact with the world except through this blog, up to date on these events.

1. Chief Illiniwek Kinda Sorta Returns To University Of Illinois Campus

How It Was: Chief Illiniwek: The following excerpt is from the Heck of a Guy post, Mascot Madness, Part II, published 6 March 2007:

In 2005, the NCAA banned American Indian mascots deemed “hostile or abusive” from its postseason tournaments. At that time, at least 18 universities had such mascots, most notably Florida State’s Seminole and Illinois’ Chief Illiniwek.

Photo by Andrew Ryback at AJ Photography

No one familiar with the NCAA will be surprised to learn that this ruling was a how-many-
angels-can-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin sort of proclamation. For example, some schools using “Warrior” without attendant Indian symbols were not affected.¹ And, the mighty “Braves” of North Carolina-Pembroke were exempted because, according to NCAA president Myles Brand, “the school’s student body has historically admitted a high percentage of American Indians and more than 20% of the students are American Indians.”

That sort of convoluted reasoning² … was reciprocated by capriciously pedantic arguments made by Chief Illiniwek’s supporters in hopes of sufficiently manipulating the semantics to designate the fake Chief a “symbol” of the University rather than its “mascot.” … While that kind of legalistic bickering seems more a distraction than a legitimate debate, the NCAA is not exactly an exemplar of of moral clarity in such matters. It can be swayed.

Florida State University, in fact, won an exemption from the NCAA’s policy on Indian mascots³ because the Seminole Tribe of Florida supported it and the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma declared it wouldn’t oppose the mascot.⁴

Creating a special category of acceptable Indian mascots predicated on approval of that mascot by the relevant Indian tribe⁵ raises interesting questions for the future … . Does, for example, the Seminole Tribe of Florida have the right to withdraw its support later if the mascot’s behavior begins to annoy them, and, if so, would the NCAA be morally bound to ban the University’s use of the Seminole mascot at that time? Or, consider this scenario. Scoundrels, rabble rousers, or even your typical legitimate political radicals determined to revenge historic exploitation of the native Americans gain power among the Seminole leadership and threaten to reverse their stance toward the mascot and demand that the NCAA avenge this insult by forbidding the University’s use of the Seminole - unless the school forks over $100 million or so in reparations to the tribe, changes its name from Florida State University to Florida Seminole University, and opens a Graduate School Of Casino Science. Perhaps I’ve read too much Carl Hiaasen, but that seems pretty believable to me (and a better plot than the one in Nature Girl. Carl, if you’re out there, have your people call my people. We should talk.)

The NCAA ruling did lead, finally, to the termination of Chief Illiniwek’s tenure as mascot of the University of Illinois. A video of his last performance on 21 February 2007 during the game between Illinois and Michigan is available at Media: Chief Illiniwek’s Last Performance

Photo by Andrew Ryback at AJ Photography

How It Is Now: Chief Illiniwek: According to the New York Times article, New York Times,

In the name of free speech and in a reversal of policy, Chancellor Richard Herman lifted a prohibition on the use of the Chief Illiniwek logo on homecoming parade floats just a day before the parade rolled on Friday night. “The university values free speech and free expression,” the university said in a statement, “and considers homecoming floats, decorations, costumes and related signage all representations of such personal expression. Therefore, Chancellor Herman has directed the Homecoming Committee to strike the existing policy from the homecoming float guidelines.”

… In 2005, the N.C.A.A. announced a policy that prohibited athletic programs using so-called abusive imagery from being the hosts for postseason games and banned the use of Indian nicknames. The policy also banned the use of such images by coaches, players, cheerleaders, band members and others. But even after Chief Illiniwek was banished, he never really went away. “It’s still everywhere, on clothing and merchandise, people have it and it’s still around,” said Yael Dvorin, a senior from Des Plaines, Ill. “It’s not taken away. After years of having that material, chief paraphernalia is everywhere. It is still very visible in that sense.” Charlene Teters, the vice president of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media and a member of the Spokane Nation, began the movement to eliminate Chief Illiniwek at Illinois in the late 1980s. Ms. Teters did not return calls for comment, but on her Web site, she noted that “the effort to remove Chief Illiniwek was never about the mascot, it was and remains to be about racism.” The N.C.A.A.’s executive committee rejected an appeal last year by the University of Illinois to continue using its Chief Illiniwek athletic mascot. On Friday, a spokeswoman said that N.C.A.A. policy only covered athletic events, so the use of the chief’s image at a parade was an internal university issue.

And from Chief Illiniwek OK for Homecoming Parade, we learn

A day before Friday’s homecoming parade, university officials overturned a ban on any likeness of Illiniwek, an American Indian in a feathered headdress, in floats. The decision allows pictures to be used. Chancellor Richard Herman consulted with attorneys and other university officials last week and decided the policy for homecoming restricted free speech. “It’s a freedom of speech, freedom of expression issue,” university spokeswoman Robin Kaler said Sunday. “The university places great value on those two things.” Illiniwek’s image appeared on several floats at the rainy Friday night parade. No protesters showed up.

So there you have it, sports fans. As of this past weekend, free speech is paramount on the University of Illinois Campus - during he homecoming parade. During football games, anti-racism continues its streak of wins over free speech - except in the case of the Florida State University Seminoles.

2. Porter Wagoner: Dead or Alive?

How It Was: Porter Wagoner: This excerpt is from The Heck of a Guy Post, He’s OK; She’s OK, which was published 26 June 2006:

For example, Then, I speculated on Dolly’s feelings about Porter Wagoner after their professional split and tried to recall if Porter were still alive.

According to the Dead or Alive? web site, Porter Wagoner is still alive and will celebrate his 79th birthday on August 12 2006.

And, if one reads between the lines of this excerpt from a 2004 interview , it would seem that Dolly is still happy about having left one of the most popular and most successful singing groups in the Country & Western pantheon.

Interviewer: Maybe you should’ve stayed with Porter. Who knows how many more great songs that would have inspired?

Dolly No, I shouldn’t of either. I’d of been dead and wouldn’t of wrote nothing! One of us would have been dead!

How It Is Now: Porter Wagoner: According to the USA Today article, Country music’s Wagoner dies at 80,

Wagoner, who died Sunday night in a Nashville hospice at age 80 from lung cancer, had a career that didn’t fit into any kind of container.

Wagoner’s working life began in a butcher’s shop in West Plains, Mo., where he occasionally stopped to sing for a local radio show. He made his earliest records, including his first No. 1, A Satisfied Mind (1955), at a radio station in nearby Springfield, but he eventually moved to Nashville.

In 1957, he joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry and celebrated his 50th anniversary with the show this spring. He eventually became the radio show’s public face.

He was best known, perhaps, for his flashy, custom-made stage suits that cost thousands of dollars. He sometimes joked that the suits forced him to stay thin, saying he couldn’t afford to replace them.

In 1960, he launched TV’s syndicated Porter Wagoner Show, on a budget of less than $1,000 an episode. It predated Hee Haw and CMT. At its peak, it aired in more than 100 markets, making it the most important country-music TV property of its time.

Wagoner introduced a young Dolly Parton in 1967. They recorded many duets together, including The Last Thing on My Mind and Just Someone I Used to Know. Wagoner produced some of Parton’s early solo hits (1975’s The Seeker). The partnership ended acrimoniously in 1974, but Parton wrote I Will Always Love You for him as she left.

3. This Just In: University of California, Berkeley Offers Lecture Videos On Web Site

How It Was: University of California, Berkeley Lectures On Video: This excerpt is from the Heck of a Guy post, Autodidactic Videophilia 101, published 1 Oct 2006:

The University of California, Berkeley now has its own dedicated section of Google Video with over 250 hours of educational content, including course lectures and symposia, available to the public free of charge.

… Currently, the section includes a half dozen UC Berkeley courses in their entirety, including “Physics for Future Presidents, “Integrative Biology,” and “Search Engines: Technology, Society and Business.” … the UC Berkeley offerings at Google Video can be found at
UC Berkeley Google Video Home Page

How It Is Now: University of California, Berkeley Lectures On Video: According to the Wall Street Journal article, Web 2.0 101: Berkeley courses hit YouTube,

The University of California, Berkeley, is letting millions of people sit in on its classes, free. The school is posting full-length videos of its lecture courses on YouTube. So far, it has uploaded more than 200 videos to the site, showing courses ranging from human biology to physics. Popular lectures include Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s open discussion of search technology and neuroscientist Marian Diamond’s classes on human anatomy. … Shishir Kakaraddi, a 21-year-old engineering student in Bangalore, India, recently watched Mr. Brin’s lecture on the site and liked it so much he invited a couple friends from school to watch it with him a second time. “I only wish there was more computer science,” he says of the YouTube course offerings. … The Berkeley YouTube channel has been viewed about one million times since its launch earlier this month. HOW TO FIND IT: Go to www.youtube.com/ucberkeley.

This one is a bit of a puzzler. See those four videos I selected for the graphic to illustrate Autodidactic Videophilia 101, posted over a year ago? Now, take a look below at three video selections I found on the YouTube Berkley “Most Viewed” page:

Notice any similarities? Like, say, two of the same titles being exactly the same in the two graphics and one title being similar and featuring the same lecturer? I didn’t look past the “Most Viewed” selection but wouldn’t be surprised if “Structural Aspects of Biomaterials” were lurking on the new Berkeley YouTube listings as well.

As far as I can determine, the Wall Street Journal has dedicated an entire article to the appearance of University of Berkeley lecture videos on YouTube for the first time - only a year after the same or similar Berkeley lecture videos appeared on Google Video.

Google Video is, of course owned by Google - which also owns YouTube.

On the other hand, the background on the Berkley YouTube page is lavender instead of plain white, so that’s nice.

Footnotes

This did not save the Marquette Warriors who are now the Golden Eagles ~back~
Convoluted reasoning appears to be endemic to the Indian mascot issue. The first such nickname change took place in 1970 when the University of Oklahoma dropped “Big Red,” an Indian caricature. Shortly thereafter, the the Stanford Indians became the Stanford Cardinal - the color, not the bird. More recently, St. John’s University transformed their moniker from the Redmen to the Red Storm, which sounds as though it makes sense; here’s the kicker - the “Red” in both “Redmen” and “Red Storm” originally referenced “Red” the color (not so different from “Cardinal” the color) rather than “Red” the slang term for Native American. Or maybe it’s “Red” that is the problem. During the McCarthy anticommunist paranoia of the 50’s, Cincinnati’s baseball team officially changed its name from “Reds” to “Redlegs.” After reviewing a few such cases, one begins to sense the wisdom of mascot choices such as “Banana Slugs” and “Stormy Petrels.” ~back~
This is, of course, the origin of the oft-quoted aphorism, “In accordance with the rules and regulations of the NCAA, the only good Indian is a Seminole Indian ~back~
The position of the Seminole tribes regarding the University of Illinois and Chief Illiniwek is unknown. ~back~
Incidentally, my elder son, The Prodigal, is half Mayan and declares himself ~~ready to sell out his heritage to the highest bidder~~ willing to discuss his endorsement of an athletic mascot based on the Inca warriors contingent on the school retaining him as consultant to assure that the mascot thus created is one that shows respect for his people. And his fees are reasonable. ~back~