There have been rumors and talks (mostly just that...talk) for years, about W&M one day becoming The Griffins (folks WILL talk...). However, today's announcement of a Sports Nickname change, by George Washington University, would make even an immediate change to Griffins seem like a genius move compared to what took place in the Nation's Capitol.

Below is an excerpt from the USA Today story on the name change:


George Washington University announced on Wednesday that the school is changing its nickname and will now be known as the Revolutionaries.
The university said it enlisted students, alumni, faculty and staff to spend 12 months filtering through 8,000 moniker suggestions before landing on the new name, which has been approved by the Board of Trustees.
"This is an exciting day for the George Washington University Revolutionaries," President Mark S. Wrighton said in a statement. "I am very grateful for the active engagement of our community throughout the development of the new moniker. This process was truly driven by our students, faculty, staff and alumni, and the result is a moniker that broadly reflects our community—and our distinguished and distinguishable GW spirit."


Last June, the university announced that it would be retiring its previous nickname, the Colonials. The name was criticized because colonialism is the overtaking of a country by citizens of another, often leading to the persecution and marginalization of the original residents.
"Meet the Press" moderator and George Washington alumnus, Chuck Todd, hosted a Breaking News style video to share the new name on the school's social media pages. He asked the audience if the name was the Ambassadors, Blue Fog, Revolutionaries or Sentinels before the video changed to clips of the campus and scenes from around Washington D.C. until the big reveal where "Revolutionaries" lit up in fireworks.




My first opinion was "What the ...". I have complained about the NFL Commanders name change, in the past, but even that name looks good next to ...Revolutionaries!

Think about it. It is 15 letters long! Most sports teams use their nicknames on their Home jerseys. How low will they GW players have to wear their shorts to get the whole name visible??! What will the "shortened" version of the name be?? (ie., the Metropolitans could, at least, be called the Mets). I see no shortened form of Revolutionaries that works.

It took hundreds of people's input, over 8000 possible names, to come up with...that? What exactly were the level-headed people doing during those meetings?


Now, most of this is definitely tongue-in-cheek, but seriously, how bad a name is this? Just asking for a friend...

I dunno, I’ve always found GW to be sort of revolting …

I actually like Revolutionaries, I think it's a better name than Colonials.

The Runnin’ Revols


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Damn it. Revolutionaries was what I was hoping we would grab once we inevitably change our name. Obviously there's the colonial connection but it does double duty with William & Mary as well. "Revolutionaries Football: Its Glorious". Also the nickname will definitely be Revs just like the MLS team.

I would rate this name change as a lateral move. The justification for changing it is as ridiculous as ever, but that said, “Colonials” is a little flat in the first place.

It’s nowhere near as bad as changing Lehigh from the Engineers to the Mountain Hawks, the Hofstra Flying Dutchmen to the Pride, or the Elon Fightin’ Christians to the Phoenix. In those cases they took colorful, unique nicknames and trashed them in favor of Generic Focus Group Brand Identity 297619.

When the boneheads inevitably decide to change our nickname to “Griffins,” not only will I withhold my donations, I pledge to begin actively stealing from the athletic department in protest.

(05-25-2023 05:00 PM)Blow Gym rat Wrote:  I dunno, I’ve always found GW to be sort of revolting …

The headlines will practically write themselves after a poor showing:

“REV—OLTING!”

(05-25-2023 07:54 PM)A Quest Called Tribe Wrote:  .
It’s nowhere near as bad as changing Lehigh from the Engineers to the Mountain Hawks, the Hofstra Flying Dutchmen to the Pride, or the Elon Fightin’ Christians to the Phoenix. In those cases they took colorful, unique nicknames and trashed them in favor of Generic Focus Group Brand Identity 297619.

Keep in mind too that GW many years ago were the "Hatchetites" after the cherry tree myth.

Colonials to Revolutionaries likely helps them keep their existing imagery, I'm assuming.

(05-25-2023 06:39 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  I actually like Revolutionaries, I think it's a better name than Colonials.

I get it. GW's long term goal is to become smaller and more selective global university. It hurts that objective if your school is associated with Colonialism.

I think Colonials is one of the least known nicknames anyway. I bet most casual fans call them GW without even knowing their nickname. And I am guessing they'll be called "Revs" for short - maybe even with some secondary marks. If "Colonial" had more emotion or character to it, I'd be more annoyed by the change. But I think it's meh overall.

They should have kept it simple and just gone from Colonials to Colonels in honor of their namesake's job during the French and Indian War.
https://twitter.com/AmExperiencePBS/stat...HtIfg&s=19

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(05-28-2023 12:53 PM)3xTribe Wrote:  They should have kept it simple and just gone from Colonials to Colonels in honor of their namesake's job during the French and Indian War.

Assuming someone on the name change committee was aware of that…