Quaker Mascots

by Leesa Whitson

In a sports family you find yourself constantly stepping over bright balls of various colors, sizes and shapes in every room of the house. And you also learn to call teams by their mascot or team names.

Usually these mascots are modified by an adjective, such as Ragin' or Fighting or Mighty. Now that seems to make sense for most teams, but when the mascot is the "Quakers" — that's right — it might be hard to get behind a lineman of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse on the Raging Quakers team. (Better than being in front of him.) Although, I'm not sure the Whittier College Poets football team has it any easier. Is the pen really mightier than a left tackle? What if the left tackle and the poet are the same? Hmmmmm.

I've seen sports columnists refer to them as the "Fighting Quakers."

The American Friends Service Committee, when asked, did make a statement about Pennsylvania University's Quaker mascot, back when the NCAA ruling on team names/mascots came out in 2004. Jonathan Tannenwald of The Daily Pennsylvanian, an independent newspaper of the university, reported: "We haven't had any objection to the use of the Quaker," said Janis Shields, the AFSC's director of media and public relations. "Kind of like Quaker oatmeal." Shields added that the Quakers in general "haven't as a group been discriminated against or targeted against" in the way that some Native American tribes have been in terms of mascot use."

Well, that seems reasonable to me. Their new mascot has a large smile and is wearing sunglasses. Those both seem OK.

Guilford College's Quaker mascot seemed a bit more, well, cranky in its photograph. But he looked intimidating to me. I'd think twice if I were the other team.

Former NFL player, Lamar Lundy has ties to Earlham College's Quaker football program, serving as an honorary coach during a game this year. Swarthmore is the Garnet Tide football team and the Web site tells of Nobel Prize winners who are also athletes. Friend's University has Falcon's Football.

Is there anything wrong with Quaker colleges offering Football as an athletics team sport? What do you do if two Quaker colleges meet on the football field? Are timeouts just moments of silence with attention to strategy?

Both the Wilmington College Quakers and Malone College Pioneers football teams are in Ohio. It could happen, I guess. Although it should be noted that Malone College's head football coach just resigned to take a fulltime position as a pastor. The William Penn Statesmen in Iowa had a tight end drafted by the New England Patriots. So maybe "to football or not to football" is not such an overwhelming issue. Neither is the validity of team sports and the opportunity for violence and/or team concepts like cooperation are within their structure. Sort of like life in general. I guess it's largely to do with the way you approach it all.

It's worth noting that not all of the Quaker colleges have football programs. Some have scary sports that use weapons. Over 40 percent of Haverford's students are in a varsity sport. While they don't have football, they do have fencing — yowch. Those swords are probably sharper than Whittier's pens.

George Fox University's team is the Bruins — which made me wonder why not the foxes — complete with bear claws wrapped around the Bruins logo. They had many sports, but not football. Their baseball team looked pretty spiffy, though. Barclay College in Haviland, Kan., doesn't have football. They have basketball and volleyball.

If you ask my 8-year-old, he'll tell you that basketball can be pretty rough. And anyone who's jammed a finger in volleyball knows it hurts like the dickens. But it hurts less if there's a teammate to empathize with your pain. Of course, team sports will always have its supporters and detractors. Both are frequently and publicly validated on a regular basis.

As for me and my household, we will root for the Chiefs. And anybody who's playing Denver. Or Dallas. Or the Raiders. Well, you get the idea.