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The athletic nickname, or equivalently athletic moniker, of a university or college within the United States is the name officially adopted by that institution for at least the members of its athletic teams. Typically as a matter of engendering school spirit, the institution either officially or unofficially uses this moniker of the institution's athletic teams also as a nickname to refer to people associated with the institution, especially its current students, but also often its alumni, its faculty, and its administration as well. This practice at the university and college tertiary higher-education level has proven so popular that it extended to the high school secondary-education level in the USA and in recent years even to the primary-education level as well.

Themes[link]

In the USA, multiple recurring themes have appeared over time for choosing a school's athletic nickname. In almost all cases, the institution chooses an athletic nickname with an overtly positive goal in mind, where that goal reflects the character of the institution—either a previously established characteristic or a characteristic hoped for as a goal henceforth.

Abstract concept[link]

Often by choosing an abstract concept as its athletic moniker, the institution wants to inspire its student-athletes on and off the field to achieve success that the abstract concept represents. Examples: Stanford Cardinal, UIC Flames, Tulane Green Wave

Animal[link]

Often by choosing an animal, the school wants to emphasize the instillation of fear of losing athletic competititons to the institution's teams, such as through an especially fierce or stealthy animal. When the school chooses an animal as its athletic nickname, usually in the plural or as a collective noun for a group of that animal, then typically, the school has that animal (in the singular) as its mascot, either specifically named with a proper noun or generically referred to without a proper noun. Examples: Michigan Wolverines, Oregon Ducks, Princeton Tigers, Wisconsin Badgers, California Golden Bears.

Collection[link]

Often by choosing a collection that represents a summary of the institution's students or of its history. Such a collection may refer to an ethnicity; a profession; religious designation, such as saints; or other groupings of people. A portion of athletic monikers that fall into this collection category started originally as derogatory epithets from others, but as an act of defiance, the school embraced the term as a rallying cry to overcome the term's negative origin. Because a collection is hard to represent or iconify, when a school chooses a collection as its athletic nickname, the school typically chooses a related but different mascot that symbolizes that collection. Examples: Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Oklahoma Sooners, Purdue Boilermakers, Illinois Fighting Illini

Hero or archetype[link]

A small number of schools choose an archetypical heroic person as their official athletic nickname. This person may be a graduate of the school who is viewed as embodying the school's mission or an archetypal person who is symbolic of the school's area, such as the West Virginia University Mountaineer. In religiously-affiliated schools, this person may be a historical person in the religion who has been bestowed an official designation in that religion, such as a saint in Roman Catholic or Orthodox Christianity.

Native American likeness[link]

Likenesses to Native Americans were at one time widely-popular athletic monikers, especially for schools that adopted them in the nineteenth century or early twentieth century. In recent years, Native American organizations have protested the unlicensed use of likenesses of native Americans related to team names, team logos, athletic monikers, cheerleaders, and cheering techniques. The granting of overtly-expressed written licenses by native American organizations to use likenesses of Native Americans in these ways is rare, although not unheard of. In one notable example, two major groups of the Seminole nation, the Seminole Tribe of Florida and Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, have expressly given Florida State University permission to use the nickname "Seminoles" and certain Seminole imagery. Central Michigan University has a similar arrangement with the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe to use the name "Chippewas".

Because of protests from Native American organizations, some schools have promptly changed their athletic moniker and mascot and cheering practices without significant objection once the issue was raised, especially if such offense toward a group of people was viewed as incompatible with that school's stated mission or if the threat of legal action was too burdensome. Other schools or their student body have defiantly defended their use of Native American likenesses, especially if the institution views the use of Native American likenesses as respectful or so intimately tied with history to be inseparable from the institution, such as if the name of institution derives from the name of a Native American tribe. Still other schools have embarked on a tumultuous selection of a series of failed attempts to find a replacement for a previous athletic nickname that was a likeness of a Native American. For such schools there may even be a point in the dispute to consider the possibility of return to the previously-discarded Native American likeness as the school's athletic moniker or its mascot.

Common and uncommon names[link]

Often, certain nicknames (animals and some abstract concepts, like Giants, Broncos, or Wildcats) become very common. However, some nicknames are unique to that school/team (Illini, Banana slugs, or Demon Deacons)

See also[link]

• List of college sports team nicknames
• Native American mascot controversy

References[link]

• http://asp.usatoday.com/community/utils/idmap/13528183.story
• http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/marquette_university/index.html?query=INDIANS,%20AMERICAN&field=des&match=exact

Joel C. Heitkamp is a former North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party member of the North Dakota Senate, representing the 26th district from 1994 to 2008.

Heitkamp is also a talk show host. He was host of KFGO's News and Views program (replacing, and later being replaced by, Ed Schultz), and now hosts the "Joel Heitkamp Show" on KFGO, KFYR Bismarck, ND, and KCJB in Minot, ND.

On February 18, 2008, Heitkamp announced on his radio program that he would not be a candidate for re-election in 2008 due to Federal Communications Commission rules regarding equal-time for candidates of the opposite party.

His sister, former North Dakota attorney general Heidi Heitkamp, was the 2000 Democratic nominee for governor of North Dakota. She lost the election to Republican John Hoeven.

External links[link]

• North Dakota State Legislature - Senator Joel Heitkamp official ND Senate website
• Project Vote Smart - Senator Joel Heitkamp (ND) profile
• Follow the Money - Joel Heitkamp
  • 2006 2004 2002 1998 campaign contributions
• North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party - Senator Joel C. Heitkamp profile
• The Joel Heitkamp Show

This article about a North Dakota politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Earl Clark

Clark with the Magic
No. 3 – Orlando Magic
Forward
Personal information
Born	(1988-01-17) January 17, 1988 (age 24) Plainfield, New Jersey
Nationality	American
High school	Rahway HS (Rahway, New Jersey)
Listed height	6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)
Listed weight	225 lb (102 kg)
Career information
College	Louisville
NBA Draft	2009 / Round: 1 / Pick: 14th overall
Selected by the Phoenix Suns
Pro career	2009–present
Career history
2009–2010	Phoenix Suns
2010–present	Orlando Magic

Earl Rashad Clark (born January 17, 1988) is an American professional basketball player. Clark played collegiate basketball for the University of Louisville men's basketball team and was drafted 14th overall by the Phoenix Suns in the 2009 NBA Draft.

Career[link]

High school[link]

Clark grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey and attended Rahway High School in Rahway, New Jersey. There, he scored 1,245 career points. As a senior, he averaged 25.2 points, 13.2 rebounds and 5 assists per game. He was a 2006 McDonald's All-American.^[1]

College[link]

As a freshman for the Louisville Cardinals, along with Derrick Caracter, Edgar Sosa, and Jerry Smith, the young group struggled early in the 2006–07 season. The team went on to win 8 out of its last 10 games, earning a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

In the first game of the 2007 NCAA Tournament, he scored 12 points, 4 rebounds and 4 steals against Stanford.

Clark decided not to put his name in the 2008 NBA Draft and to return to the University of Louisville for the 2008-2009 season.

In the 2008-2009 season, Clark, along with future NBA player Terrence Williams, led Louisville to the Big East Title, as well as a #1 ranking, the first ever in the University of Louisville's history.

NBA[link]

Early in his Junior season, Clark announced that he would forgo his senior season to enter the 2009 NBA Draft. On April 4, 2009, agent Dan Fegan told ESPN that he had signed Clark as a client shortly after the end of Louisville's 2008–09 season, which under NCAA rules ended Clark's college eligibility.^[2]

Clark was drafted 14th overall by the Phoenix Suns in the 2009 NBA Draft.^[3] Clark made his first career three pointer on January 28, 2010. Clark was sent to the Iowa Energy of the NBA D-League on March 15, 2010, after only averaging 2.7 points, 1.1 rebounds, and 7.6 minutes in 45 games.^[4]

On December 18, 2010, Clark was traded to the Orlando Magic along with Jason Richardson and Hedo Türkoğlu for Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat, Mickaël Piétrus, a 2011 first-round draft pick and $3 million cash.^[5] On April 16, 2012 he recorded his first double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

China[link]

In August 2011 he signed a one-year contract with Zhejiang Lions in China.^[6] The next month, however, he asked to leave the team for family reasons after not appearing in a game for the club.^[7]

NBA career statistics[link]

Regular season[link]

Playoffs[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Player bio at the University of Louisville
• Player Bio on NBA.com