Bleeding Tricolour: A branding exercise ... in confusion for my beloveds

Queen's foremost concern athletically is that football game vs. No. 5 Western next Saturday.

The fact of the matter is the Queen's football team is being referred to by two nicknames in the media during the lead-up to its highest-profile sports event yet this year. The issue is still not decided, one year after it was the source of much controversy with Queen's athletic director Leslie Dal Cin admitting to Kingston sportswriter Mike Koreen, "we have not changed this name. We're dealing with it as a phase two ."

Google news searches for Gaels and Golden Gaels reveal the longer moniker might have more penetration, at least in football stories. Ontario University Athletics and Canadian Interuniversity Sport uses the former, but it has not taken. Some papers have even used both names at least once apiece:
It has been very easy for the admin types have been able to run this "we prefer you to use Queen's Gaels" game against a defensive front of indifference. The Queen's mantra at times can be, Don't Ever Get Emotional About It, since it might work against business and networking. A lot of alumni, especially those emotionally invested in football, dislike the name change, but many want peace at any price. Some also realize Dal Cin has got a lot right since becoming the AD, which is a pretty mature view.

The point is, though, you can easier find a bullfighter in Napanee than find someone who is passionate about being "the Queen's Gaels." The media's editorial choices are beside the point. It's not necessarily wrong to use the bowdlerized name. This is me talking, but one conclusion to jump to is that using that name basically says (to me, anyway), "Hey, it's only OUA, no reason to think readers want anything beyond what's in the press release or want to know about the culture and history of these leagues." Or maybe it is being efficient. Everyone has her/his own labour-saving techniques.

Merely addressing this likely betrays the author's preference, which is neither here nor there. It would be like in The Girl Next Door when Emile Hirsch's buddy keeps telling him, "Learn to like it," if a formal change was made.

A compromise has been suggested: Golden Gaels in football, Gaels for the other Queen's teams and build the brand on the Q crest, if the longer name is so, so wrong. This is less about what name Queen's settles on than how people who are smarter, more talented and more likable than yours truly have carried out a half-measure.
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6 comments:

  1. How in the world could an institution that takes itself as seriously as Queens put out so many mixed signals? You know, this type of institutional-administrational disorganization and indifference is the type of thing that led to the demise of the once mighty Varsity Blues.

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  2. Not. Even. Close. Nevertheless, it is irksome.

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  3. The Canadian Sports Hall of Fame still refers to the Golden Gaels

    See Harry Batstone's and Pep Leadley's entries as examples.

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  4. ...not to mention my website:

    www.pbase.com/goldengaelsphotos !

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  5. "Some also realize Dal Cin has got a lot right since becoming the AD, which is a pretty mature view."
    What has she got right, Naete?
    As an athlete in this school, the changes that have occurred that I am aware of that affect me since Dal Cin took over:
    1. A tremendously costly rebranding exercise that took money away from the Queen's Centre (see article 2) and possible new stadium projects, only to come up with about 10 degrees of rotation on the "NEW, STYLIZED" Q.
    2. Given, this is not entirely the AD or athletic department's fault, but a Queen's Centre project that is 15 months behind schedule and counting, and has become known as an almost complete debaucle
    3. As an interuniversity athlete, I now have to pay a large sum of money to receive Queen's branded clothing every year when it previously was provided for me/discounted for me.
    4. The tag "Golden" removed from our team nicknames, effectively making the oldest university in this country turn it's back on it's own history.
    I'm open to being corrected here, but that's how I see it right now.

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  6. Well, you are on the ground and I am not, so I shall stand corrected. I would suggest you mention this to The Queen's Journal; it's more their bag than mine since they cover Queen's athletics and I try to be broader (we do the "Bleeding Tricolour" here because it was a spur for getting this site going).

    A lot of the football alumni will say they've found it easier to work with LDC than some of her predecessors. That's where I was coming from (and let's just say there have been many improvements since the 1990s, when people at other schools called said Queen's looked at interuniversity teams as "glorified intramurals."

    It was a throwaway line on my part, but if what you're saying is true, ergo I blew that one. (Remember Seth Rogen in The 40-Year-Old Virgin: "Well, I didn't know all that, so, sorry.")

    I apologize on that count. Only matter to correct is McGill and Toronto were both founded before Queen's.

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