GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) — Two University of North Dakota hockey fans are trying to find some humor in the coming retirement of the school’s Fighting Sioux nickname.
Grafton residents Hans Halvorson (HAHNTZ HALL’-vohr-son) and Steve Ekman have started a tongue-in-cheek protest known as Save Our Suhaki (soo-HAHK’-ee). That’s spelled s-u-h-a-k-i, and it refers to an endangered antelope in Russia and Mongolia.
The pair’s website says the animal is often mistaken for the hockey team at UND.
The website advocates for saving the antelope, and Halvorson and Ekman say it’s also a way to peacefully protest the end of the university’s nickname. It’s being retired in April after the NCAA deemed American Indian nicknames hostile and abusive
Ekman says he believes the only way to honor the 80-year-old nickname is to change the reference.
