NCAA - Marquette University

Marquette U. Announces Nickname - "Golden Eagles"

Honors current athletics tradition in historic nickname vote

Marquette U.

Milwaukee — Marquette University students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends have completed voting in the “MU Voice” nickname survey and decisively opted for “Golden Eagles” in a voting process carried out during the past five weeks.

“I am gratified and pleased that so many members of our Marquette community chose to get involved in this process,” Marquette President Robert A. Wild, S.J. said. “Everything we have done up to this point, even in making the decision to undertake the discussion of a nickname, was motivated by a desire to respond to our university community. We made some hard choices in the past year but today we celebrate a final decision that will bring new life to our intercollegiate athletics’ identity as the Marquette Golden Eagles.”

Chairman of the Board of Trustees John Bergstrom commented, “From the very beginning of the nickname discussion, the Board of Trustees felt it was important to be inclusive and responsive to members of our Marquette family. While we, as a Board, recognize that a return to the “Warriors” nickname is not possible, it’s inspiring to see how many people took the time to let us know how strongly they feel about Marquette’s athletics identity. We know this discussion hasn’t been perfect, but with the successful vote behind us, it is our sincere hope that we can now move forward together, especially as we enter the Big East Conference on July 1st. We are Marquette!”

Summary of Vote Results

Advantage Research, Inc., an independent survey research firm, was retained to conduct the voting process.

“Advantage Research, Inc. was asked by Marquette to conduct a fair, honest, and scientific poll to determine its athletics nickname. The process was nearly flawless and accurately tallied the votes from both phases of the process. We consider the response rate of more than one-third of the Marquette community to be outstanding,” said Scott Segrin, vice president of operations, Advantage Research, Inc.

A full summary of results from both phases of the voting process is available in PDF format.

• More than one-third of the Marquette community eligible to vote participated in either phase one or phase two of the voting process. 35,777 total individuals participated in one of the two phases of voting.
   
• 23,097 people participated in the second vote, taking place from Tuesday, June 7 through Friday, June 24. The final vote totals in the second vote were:
   
  • 12,562 (54%) for Golden Eagles
  • 10,535 (46%) for Hilltoppers
     
• 31,501 people participated in the first vote, taking place from May 24 through June 6. The two highest vote totals from the first vote were:
   
  • 12,180 (39%) for Golden Eagles
  • 9,298 (30%) for Hilltoppers
     
• 5,587 people made a write-in vote selection during the first vote. Of these, 3,264 people chose to write-in “Warriors.” As stated on the survey, “Warriors” write-ins were not counted as valid for the purpose of the vote.

“MU Voice” Background

The Marquette University Board of Trustees took up the issue of Marquette athletics nickname in September 2004 and pledged to have a thorough discussion of whether or not to return to the “Warriors” nickname. The Board decided unanimously on both May 4 and May 11 that in order to hold itself to the highest standards of its Catholic, Jesuit mission, it could not return to the “Warriors” nickname. It decided on May 11 to turn the selection of the school’s nickname to the Marquette community and announced the “MU Voice” vote selection process.

The “MU Voice” process also included the appointment of the Nickname Advisory Committee to oversee the integrity of the voting process. The Committee, made up of student, alumni, student-athlete, faculty, staff, and Trustee representatives, met regularly throughout the vote to advise the university on best incorporating all members of the Marquette community in the process.

Next Steps

A series of focus groups throughout July will involve students, alumni, faculty, staff and season ticket holders in updating the visual identity for the Golden Eagles logo and mascot. At the same time those involved in this effort will also be reviewing comments and suggestions submitted online during the voting process. In this whole process the university will be assisted by Rickabaugh Graphics, the same firm that designed the new “MU” monogram unveiled in May.

Marquette will officially join the Big East Conference on Friday, July 1.

This article was taken from www.marquette.edu.  All rights reserved.