The sports team nickname of the university I work for is Crusaders. Eugene Volokh guest blogging for Glenn Reynolds approves of one man's desire to end the use of the same nickname at a Catholic high school.

Eugene's argument is subtle and quite soundly libertarian. First, he argues against government bans of such names (at least at private schools--he is silent about public schools). This is a sound libertarian position of course. Then he follows with an endorsement in principle of private groups (such as the high school athletic association) banning such nicknames and argues more generally for public opinion and civil society to step in to eliminate the use of such offensive names.

I think it is vitally important that libertarians couple their arguments against government power with explanations showing how civil society would deal with such problems without the use of government. In a civil society, we have to work with other people peacefully and the price of working with others is that we don't always get to do as we please. In this case, it is quite consistent with the libertarian philosophy for the high school athletic association to refuse to acknowlege teams with offensive nicknames. Politically correct? Yes! But so be it.

Back to my university. I have never been a fan of the name Crusader here and neither are a bunch of other faculty who recently asked that it be changed. I don't necessarily support their case (mostly I don't care), but I admit they have a point on the merits.

My beef is different. I can't quite get over the fact that my university is not Catholic where the nickname at least makes some sense; rather it is affiliated with the Lutheran Church. It used to be the Fighting Lutherans once upon a time. That at least made sense as Luther wasn't exactly a pacifist. But the Crusaders were (um) Catholic the last time I checked.

Btw, they use a Spartan helmet for a logo so the confusion abounds around here.