STAR-BULLETIN/ JANUARY 2004 Vili the Warrior, a "contracted entertainer" for the University of Hawaii, gets the crowd going at a volleyball game.

---

NCAA steps
into UH’s team
name debate

School officials point out the name
Warriors has Hawaiian origins

The NCAA is now involved in the ongoing University of Hawaii nickname controversy -- but not for the same reason some UH fans don't like the Warriors moniker.

UH Athletic Department officials learned yesterday by reading a USA Today article that the school's football and men's volleyball teams' nickname is being investigated for cultural insensitivity.

Associate Athletic Director John McNamara said he contacted the NCAA as soon as he read the article. It also featured the NCAA's investigation of team mascots that might be considered offensive to Native Americans.

"I told them we'd be happy to provide any information, but we didn't receive the paperwork," McNamara said. "And I told them our situation is a little different. Our Warriors nickname is not Native American, it's Hawaiian."

A total of 30 schools -- including UH and five other teams that go by Warriors -- were sent letters from the NCAA telling them to explain their nicknames, logos, and/or mascots. A committee will then evaluate the information.

It is unclear if the NCAA has the legal power to force schools to change them.

Vili Fehoko, who leads cheers from the field at UH games in a Polynesian warrior costume, is a "contracted entertainer, not a university mascot," McNamara said.

All of UH's men's teams used to be called Rainbows, although the football team was unofficially called the Rainbow Warriors for 25 years. Between the 1999 and 2000 football seasons, the school officially changed it to Warriors with the support of coach June Jones.

Removing Rainbows has helped recruiting, Jones said.

Many fans still prefer Rainbows to Warriors -- most for traditional reasons, some for cultural, some for both.

"I don't like (Warriors). (Rainbows) was appropriate. (UH) has no right to this name," said Jon Osorio, director of the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at UH.

Osorio is a graduate of Kamehameha Schools, whose athletic teams are also known as Warriors.

"The Warrior name itself doesn't bother me. I wouldn't suggest Kamehameha change. Warriors doesn't always mean killers, but can mean people who prepare themselves for battles of different kinds," he said. "No one will ever say Kamehameha shouldn't be Warriors. It's different for UH to appropriate something like this. The rainbow was right because it has to do with the history of the school. June Jones shouldn't have changed it."

Former UH football star Blane Gaison is also a Kamehameha graduate and now he's the athletic director at his high school alma mater. He was a Warrior in high school and a Rainbow Warrior in college.

And he doesn't see what the big deal is.

"People can think what they want. It has nothing to do with culture or anything else. No harm is intended. For us, it's more pride than anything else," said Gaison, who added he has never fielded a complaint about Kamehameha's nickname. "None whatsoever. It seems to be a perfect fit."

Incoming UH freshman offensive lineman Aaron Kia looks forward to becoming a Warrior. The Mililani High School senior, who is half-Hawaiian, said he doesn't think the nickname is insulting.

"To me, it's more something to be proud of. I don't see how it would be offensive," Kia said.