Queen's AD admits confusion, says teams are 'still the Golden Gaels'

Oy. This has become Queen's AD Leslie Dal Cin's Golden-gate bridge to nowhere:
"Right now, (the team name) is still the Golden Gaels," said Dal Cin, who has been on the hot seat since the athletic department started asking for support from other universities and media in referring to the teams simply as the Gaels after the new logo was unveiled Aug. 27.

" 'We have not changed this name. We're dealing with it as a phase two.'

"That phase could take around two years to complete, Dal Cin said, as the university will embark on a lengthy consultation process with all its stakeholders before making a final decision on a team name.

"So, Dal Cin was asked hypothetically, would you go back to ... errr, stick with Golden Gaels if the overwhelming consensus is to maintain the official name.

" 'Sure,' she said."
-- Mike Koreen, Kingston Whig-Standard
This corner calling this a PR nightmare would be the equivalent of dumping a bucket of water on someone and telling him it's raining. Out of Left Field was the first on this ("The name you'd love to touch ... but you mustn't touch," Aug. 29). The stance there was outlined in plain old English.
"The right move is the one that the people who vote with their feet (fans) and their donations (alumni) live with" ... "The choice here is to keep using Golden Gaels until there's an official change."
The following week, after Queen's first game, was when it really picked up steam among the alumni, fans and media (in that order). My co-blogger Duane Rollins started beating the drum very loudly. Others soon joined in and suffice to say, it spread both virally and by word-of-mouth among football alumni.

It kind of came to head after the University Rush game on The Score last week. Queen's star D-lineman, Dee Sterling, corrected The Score's D.J. Bennett on the team name during a post-game interview.

(I didn't hear it clearly, but it sounded like Sterling informed Bennett, "We're the Golden Gaels." Other accounts have him saying, "We're still Golden.")

It did not seem right to go all high dudgeon over this back on Aug. 29. Stephen Brunt's behaviour when he declined his ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame over the Mark McGwire issue earlier this year was a guide.

Brunt demurred from writing a column or getting into the issue on Prime Time Sports. To him, it was "purely personal, not more grist for the mill." (Out of Left Field, Jan. 20)

If that was good enough for the sportswriter's sportswriter on a very hot-button sports issue, then by extension, it was good enough for a carpenter's son from Bath, Ontario who was lucky enough to attend Queen's. Any reasoned, sober analysis would have been tied up in "purely personal" reasons.

Letting people decide for themselves was the right way to go. It's pretty clear now how it's going, and if Queen's makes a playoff run this year, it could really snowball.
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