Exeter Foxes (and other fictitious rugby teams).

As you might imagine; my job as a gynaecoglogist involves some fairly uncomfortable procedures; but I’ve always been grateful that (unlike when you go to the dentist) people are able to talk back and you can generally build up some good chat as distraction from pain or discomfort. 

I made the mistake this week of bringing up, halfway through a procedure, the topic of changing the name of the Exeter Chiefs. This caused the woman more distress than what I was doing, and clearly dropped her trust levels in me by several notches-

“Oh no”, she cried, "Robbie wouldn’t have any of that. We’ve given up our mascot, isn’t that enough?”

For background - the logo of the chiefs is quite a majestic profile of what looks like a Sioux Chief. It’s grown on me as I see it around on shirts and cars and hats, and hand in hand with this is a lot of appropriation of Native American culture.

The mascot,  the pub names, the fans. 

The club was promoted to the Premiership for the first time in 2010. Since promotion, the Chiefs have become one of the leading clubs in the Premiership, winning the championship title twice in 2016–17 and 2019–20 respectively and reaching a further three finals. In October 2020, the Chiefs won the Champions Cup, the top prize in European club rugby union (P.s. Thanks Wikipedia). Several have been selected for the lions. 

The chiefs are a good team- not just in terms of sporting success, but also in their commitment to gender equality 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2021/05/07/inside-story-exeter-chiefs-built-womens-team-scratch-thrived/

Extensive volunteering and links with the community and essentially eliminating drinking culture in the team - although that is something that is slowly changing in rugby  overall (An excerpt from the book described the drinking games of the teams between 2010 and 2020 " the Bus journeys became less Wild West, and more south -west.." )

Rob Baxter, who “would have none of that” is a humble and well liked man, who is known for being really approachable for interviews with the media, even standing in the rain...

I can see how the logo has come to mean so much, utterly unrelated to indigenous Americans. The club itself says as much in their official statement. https://www.joe.co.uk/sport/exeter-chiefs-mascot-245366 The chiefs have been the chiefs since 1900.  

Despite the fact the chiefs imbue it with mana and respect, ditching the cartoon-like mascot and drinking in headdresses, it's still a problem isn't it? 

A digression: When I was a kid we had a rampant lion, named Percy on our sports uniform- to me it meant successful jazz bands, rugby and hockey and kapa haka; Mahurangi College. It was quite a surprise  to see it on a castle in Alnwick in the UK when I visited it in 2012, although of course it shouldn't have been a surprise.

Warkworth was modelled on the Warkworth of Northumberland, so the college logo was a throw back to that.  Should a small town in NZ still be using the emblem of a noble Norman family? 

What do we do with logos that don't belong, and yet are the heart of community for decades?

The difference when using indigenous imagery without properly knowing or celebrating where it comes from is that it suggests native American culture is historical and irrelevant. Just because it doesn’t offend anyone round Devon doesn’t mean that it’s okay. 

When the Washington American Football team changed its name - it was partly because the term used was derogatory in some settings. Chiefs itself may not be such an offensive term - but whose face are they using here Exeter, and why exactly when it comes to the crunch, is it so important to still use it??  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Redskins_name_controversy

My housemate and I ponder at times about alternat names. The Bristol team recently changed to the Bristol bears with great success- in time I think Exeter will change too.

So maybe still the chiefs, but Celtic? (Credit for image to https://www.facebook.com/JFoliveras)

Or the Exeter hedgehogs? 

Exeter egrets?

Exeter eels

Exeter elephants

Exeter oxes?

Exeter foxes?

Or just Exeter rugby?

Just probably not yet. Robbie would have none of that.