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NewsAlert: McGill to drop Redmen name

Apr 12, 2019 | 8:49 AM

MONTREAL — McGill University has announced that effective today, its sports teams will no longer be called the Redmen.

Principal Suzanne Fortier says the Redmen name is not one the university would choose today, and it is not one that McGill should carry forward.

The name had been harshly criticized by Indigenous students and staff.

The name dates back to the 1920s and has been described by some as a tribute to the teams’ red uniforms. But in the 1950s, men’s and women’s teams came to be nicknamed the “Indians” and “Squaws,” and some teams later adopted a logo with an Indigenous man wearing a headdress.

Fortier says a committee will be formed to choose a new name.

More coming.

The Canadian Press

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