Tank McNamara by Bill Hinds for September 26, 2009

Norse mythology?!? The Vandals were one of the “barbarian” tribes that sacked parts of the Roman Empire in the 4th-6th centuries, long before the Norse got involved. C’mon, Millar and Hinds, a little research?

..humor fellow commentor humor…

Stop the presses! This is what you get if you look for “Vandal Norse” on Google:

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Vandal+Norse&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Looks like someone owes our boys an apology.

The Vandals were not connected with the Norse. There was a Norse group called the Vendes, which resulted in some linguistic confusion on the part of a few medieval or Renaissance historians. The Vandals weren’t really serious vandals, and they didn’t so much invade Rome as respond opportunistically to a half-arsed invitation that was the consequence of political infighting in Rome itself–twice. Their “Sack” of Rome consisted largely of carrying off some of the loot Romans had previously carried off in their own depredations of other cultures. Previously they had merely been part of the general leakage of eastern and northern tribes into the now-permeable borders of the declining Roman Empire. For a while, they were rather a big deal in North Africa and the Mediterranean world. Their bad rap in history may be due to the fact that they were Arian Christians, and the Trinitarians “won” that particular facet of internecine religious squabbling; history is written by the winners.

As for the argument that it’s just a comic strip so it doesn’t matter, IMO anybody communicating with the public en masse in any medium has a responsibility to get the facts straight.

Which is why I won’t set foot into the blogosphere.

Not only are there Vandals, but Trojans, Spartans (no Athenians, however), Irish, and even Ragin’ Cajuns… you can name your team after any “tribe” you like… as long as they’re either no longer in existence or they’re white! God help you if you name your team “Indians”, however! (The NCAA did let Florida State, Illinois, and Utah off the hook; Hmmmmm…)

I suppose a school that wanted to name its team after sunburned beachgoers would be out of luck.

Furthermore, I think the punchline is a joke on Google – though it would be funnier if he’d checked Wikipedia.

Ol-Goaler, Seminoles, Illini, and Utes are actual native American words used by those tribes/nations to describe themselves, not a term like “Indians” or (shudder) “Redskins.”

Florida State actually has an agreement with the Seminole tribal council to use the name, I believe. The Illini are in a tougher position because “Illinois” isn’t associated with a particular tribe, and so there’s no definitive determination who has the right to approve or object; some “Indians” have a problem with it, and some don’t.

The Illini’s mascot has traditionally been Chief Illiniwek, and over the years there’s been effort put forth to make sure he’s been presented respectfully. The costume he wore for appearances was authentic. He was in a different class from Cleveland’s grinning, bug-eyed “Wahoo” or Atlanta’s “Chief Knockahoma”.

The way it stands now, Illinois can continue to use the name “Fighting Illini”, but they aren’t allowed to use Chief Illiniwek as a symbol anymore. This, as you can imagine, has been an emotional issue around Shampoo-Banana (my home town).

Personally, I think the (ick) “Redskins” ownership should change the team name to the United States Department of Football, District of Columbia Branch. In the sports pages, call them “the Feds.” Olive-drab jerseys, camouflage-pattern helmets. (I think the camouflage would actually look much better on the jerseys, but the numbers would be difficult to read.)

I think it’s the University of Hawaii at Hilo whose teams are called the Vulcans. That has to do with Roman mythology and the fact that they’re located under a volcano, of course, but I HAVE to imagine that many of the students prefer the other association.

“Live long! Prosper! Fight, fight, fight!”

My high school teams, at University High, were called “Illineks” which supposedly meant “little Illini” but actually meant nothing at all. There were periodic movements to change it, but they never went anywhere. We were a strange school, and so goof-ball pun names like “Uni Corns” or the “Unuchs” were likely to gather as much support as something boring but respectable like “Pirates”. (At Urbana High across town, they were “the Maroons”, which always brought to my mind Bugs Bunny’s use of the word.)

I don’t know that any tribal descendants ever weighed in on the issue at all, but I wouldn’t have blamed them if they had. In many ways (sportswise, anyway) we were an embarrassment to be associated with: our basketball team once went ALMOST 5 full years without winning a game.

I took the Norse reference as a joke, as in “it must be true because I read it on the internet”. So I’m agreeing with McGehee. I like fritzoid’s suggestions for the Washington football franchise. But Dangerous Dan ‘ll sue you.

4deerinmyyard: Not to parse something overly fine, but the last panel does not mislead in any way. The man says, “I Googled it. It’s Norse mythology.” It makes no claim that he is correct. It’s just reporting what he said. The fact that the real Vandals had no association with the Norse is irrelevant. Apparently, there exists in Norse mythology a tribe called the Vandals, who probably really had no connection to the real Vandals. Even more to the point, the Google links may refer to totally erroneous information, maybe Vandals actually never appear in Norse mythology; but that is also irrelevant. All the writers are saying is that the man Googled “Vandals” and came up with a connection to Norse mythology. Absolutely nothing erroneous there.

regardless of the historical accuracy of the strip… I’m stoked that my Vandals made it to national print. In addition, we were seen on the NBC National news in a story about the first female Division 1 football referee.

Look out CSU Rams…. you’re about to get pillaged and plundered in the Dome.

Yeah, CalvinNhobbes61, we hope so. We’ll be there, it’s Dad’s weekend!