Fifteen possibilities remain for the University of North Dakota's new nickname, the one that will supplant the discarded Fighting Sioux label, which went down with a fight in 2012 under pressure from the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The committee in charge of coming up with the new nickname — one not considered insensitive to American Indians — has gone from 1,172 possibilities submitted by the public, to 63 and now down to this Final 15:
Blaze, Cavalry, Explorers, Fighting Green, Fighting Hawks, Force, Green Hawks, Nodaks, North Dakota, North Stars, Pride, Roughriders, Spirit, Sundogs and Thunder Hawks.
Among those tossed out by the panel in the most recent cutdown: Arctic Force, Aviators, Flickertails, Warhawks and Prairie Hawks.
The next step is for the committee to rate each possibility and open the process up for discussion at a later public meeting.
Until UND settles on a new nickname, it continues to go without one, relying heavily on its initials, sans any Indian logo.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
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