Poll Favors Moose But Is It A Good Idea?

The week-long poll on a nickname/mascot that closed today surprised me. Before I share my vote, here are what I see as the positives and negatives of each nickname on the ballot.

BackPackers
Positives: Fitting for a school with an outdoor tradition, the Appalachian Trail running through campus and freshman trips ... Original ... Can be shortened to Packers ... Color green works with Packers ... Easy mascot costume.
Negative: Opposing bands would have a field day with this one.

Green Machine
Positives: Minimal change ... Original in NCAA ranks at least ... Like the others, non-sexist and non-violent. ... Again, an easy mascot costume requiring no imagination.
Negatives: Barring a "Transformers" logo, not much marketing interest ... Doesn't relate to Dartmouth other than Green. ... It's so PC as to be transparent.

Moose
Positives: Original in the NCAA ranks ... Does pertain to the area ... Easy mascot ... Support over the years might make it "electable" ... Good for marketing ... Hey, it's an animal.
Negatives: Think Bullwinkle ... When they started a moose hunt in New Hampshire a few years back, critics said it was about as much of a sport as pulling up along a fence and shooting a cow. What does that tell you? ... Underwhelming support among high-ranking football people in the past.

North Stars
Positives: Fits the area. ... Original to NCAA ranks ... Can be shortened to Stars, which fits headlines and has a nice double-entendre ... Shouldn't offend anyone ... Easy logo possibilities.
Negatives: And the mascot would be what? Some goofball in a yellow foam suit trying not to fall over? ... Animals are better for marketing purposes.

River Runners
Positives: Pertains to an area often explored by river ... The Ledyard Canoe Club and annual trip down the Connecticut are staples of the college ... works with freshman trips, etc. ... Shouldn't offend. ... Original to NCAA.
Negatives: Not terribly inspiring ... Shortened to "Dartmouth Runners" might be confusing ... The West Virginia Mountaineer runs around with a musket. The River Runner mascot will defend Dartmouth's honor by what, whacking you over the head with a paddle?

TrailBlazers
Positives: Works with Outing Club and Applachian Trail ... Shortens nicely to Blazers ... Relatively original ... Easy logo ... PC enough for most everyone.
Negatives: Critics might say it's an NBA ripoff ... Some people already think Dartmouth is in the middle of nowhere ... Animals work better, remember. ... Not much marketing promise.

Green Alert Take: I was originally a big advocate of BackPackers because it works on two levels as an outdoor/hiking concept and the group up in Green Bay. But the critics make a valid point with the band suggestion. ... Moose is certainly original, but it's kind of hard to get over the Bullwinkle image. (We have a silly little book in our downstairs bathroom called Uses For Mooses and if you ever looked through it you might have second thoughts about naming a team after one of these fellas.) Beyond that, as a writer who agonizes over subject-verb agreement, I am SO tired of referring to the Dartmouth Big Green as an "it" instead of "they." Do you have any idea how many times I have rewritten paragraphs over the years to avoid having 3-4-5 "its" stack up on each other?

In the end, I'm full-speed-ahead for Dartmouth North Stars. The logo possibilities are endless and easy. Heck, even I could come up with one. There would be terrific marketing possibilities. It certainly fits the northernmost Ivy League school and in fact works on a number of levels. Headline writers could shorten the name to Stars. And as a bonus, it's plural!

You choose:
"The Dartmouth North Stars claimed their first Ivy League title since 1996 with a win over Princeton in the 2007 season finale on Memorial Field."

or

"The Dartmouth Moose claimed its first Ivy League title since 1996 with a win over Princeton in the 2007 season finale on Memorial Field."

I suppose it sounds pretty good either way, huh?

Green Alert Take II: Moose. Yeti. Salty Dogs. Lorax. Timberwolves. Eleazars. They've all had supporters in the past and have gone nowhere because (and this is just my considered opinion) no one with the power to make it happen was willing to step up and take the hit. The time has come, Dartmouth. The Indian isn't coming back so pick a nickname by whatever means necessary (executive fiat if need be) and make it happen. Some people will be angry, a few people will be very angry and 2-3-4 years later everything will settle down and you'll have a nickname that's something other than a large color. ... I've told this story before but I was interviewing a football player for the Lehigh Mountain Hawks once and asked him if he heard much criticism from alumni about the nickname. The kid looked at me like I was crazy. Turns out, he'd never even heard of the Lehigh Engineers. There was quite a hullabaloo down there when the introduced the Mountain Hawk, but it seems most people got over it and nobody died because of it.