At the Women’s Final Four in Cleveland last week, a reporter generated some discussion about women’s basketball teams using the word “Lady” to differentiate themselves from the men’s programs. Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer, for instance, dropped the “Lady” from the Scarlet Knights nickname when she joined the program 12 years ago.
Pat Summitt, coach of the Lady Vols, said the nickname would never change at Tennessee. The reporter, and some officials in women’s basketball, scoffed.
The argument is simple: No men’s team goes by “Gentleman,” it’s 2007 and women are striving for equality.
And dropping the “Lady” would be a great idea except for the pesky little problem that it doesn’t make sense and very few, if any, women at Tennessee want to see the name changed. Good for them.
What’s so wrong with being called a lady?
I posed the question Monday to the head lady of the Lady Vols, the queen of the most successful women’s athletic program in the country. Joan Cronan is the women’s athletic director at Tennessee, and she looked at her three consecutive SEC all-sports trophies as she spoke.
“It’s never really bothered me to be called a lady,” she said. “I don’t think that’s demeaning.”
And you, Pat Summitt?
“Nicky Anosike would be the first to tell you that we’re proud to be called ladies and Lady Vols,” Summitt said, referring to her fierce and competitive center.
As someone who would like to see women’s sports succeed, I realize the game needs better marketing and promoting to flourish. Dropping the “Lady” from nicknames, while possibly being more politically correct in a world where people are offended so easily, does not accomplish either.
Many programs, like Rutgers, canned the term in recent years. Who noticed? What did it change? Not much. “Lady” or no “Lady,” there will always be people like radio personality Don Imus, whose recent descriptions of the Rutgers players are so troubling I will not repeat them here.
Tennessee, meanwhile, has brilliantly marketed and branded the “Lady Vols” name and logo. It gives Tennessee fans a separate identity that spurs pride, not feelings of patronization. You could argue that, by dropping the “Lady,” Tennessee would be hurting its brand and, as the most recognized women’s team in the country, damaging the sport.
“That Lady Vol logo is known throughout this country and throughout the world,” Summitt said.
And it’s doubtful anyone believes the bullying Anosike, the talented Candace Parker or the trashtalking Shannon Bobbitt are any less tough because they wear the name “Lady” with pride.
Sue Donohoe, vice president for Division I women’s basketball at the NCAA, said if a push existed for the NCAA to consider eliminating “Lady” from all nicknames, “it would have to be something certainly that would be driven from our membership up to be activated and discussed on a national platform.” Could a change be enforced?
No way, Cronan said.
“Would McDonald’s give up their arches?” she said. “If you have a logo and you have a brand, why would you change it?”
If women’s teams were tagged by one of Imus’s traits, then we have a problem. But tagging a nickname with “Lady” doesn’t appear to disrespect anyone at Tennessee. They are proud to possess their own identity. They are proud to be ladies. Women’s sports are different. In many regards, they are far more representative of the NCAA’s mission than men’s sports.
Cronan doesn’t need to drop the “Lady” to prove her program outpaces the men.
Those three SEC allsports trophies are plenty.
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