Buffalo News Article about missing the mark, misses the mark

Damn I hate being right

So UB is forcing all schools, units, and departments under one umbrella. This effects the Architecture school, the Law school, and of course Athletics. It's the change that pedestaled voices at The Buffalo News have been begging for, and yet before the sun rose and set on UB's new logo Bob DiCesare, who famously predicted we would be sorry for hiring Bobby Hurley, has already decided he needs something else to complain about.

Can't hate on the name so why not the mascot? Right?

The only thing DiCesare does is prove he is the LEAST qualified person in the world to provide information on UB Athletics. He has also proven that no matter what UB does he will find a way to howl about it.

Go to buffalonews.com if you want to search for his article.

If you follow Bull Run you're familiar with my breakdown of this tripe, so here goes.

Bravo, UB. It cost about the equivalent of Danny White’s annual salary for marketing firms to undo the former athletic director’s hubris when he brushed aside "Buffalo" to take a bite out of the Big Apple.

As noted above this move was not made because of what Athletics did. It was mainly driven by several whole departments that had names which did not fit the university at large. UB has never had a central branding philosophy, now they do.

About $650,000 later in total compensation, say another $200,000 or so in related rebranding costs, here we are, back where we started. Lesson imparted. And tuition-free! Isn’t it great to work in administration.

Two things here...

First

The last three years of UB Athletics have been bar none, the most successful years since before the Kennedy administration. Record attendance, MAC Championships, an NCAA National Champion, more donations, and more exposure. THAT is what Danny White was paid for.

White also oversaw the West Club, a first class sports medicine facility, and several other huge improvements.

Of course if Bob spent more time writing about the sports and less crying like a toddler about the font size you would have seen that.

Second

Where does a journalist columnist get off talking down to people who work to administrate an organization? They have to spend every day working to build and maintain something. You sit on your rear and take pot shots from the peanut gallery.

I've been a part of building and maintaining several enterprise infrastructures. That is hard work and long hours. That is commitment and risk.

Commenting on the things other people build is a hobby. One for which you are fortunate enough to get paid and to have an outsized platform to spread your message.

Trouble is, all this hasn’t alleviated UB’s athletic identity problems. There’s still the matter of that nickname. Bulls are strong. Bulls are relentless. And Bulls are … guys.

Several NCAA schools have this issue. Schools like UB have consistent names for the teams and some others give the teams different names. When I started at UB in the mid 90's the women's teams were called the "Royals." But the female athletes of the time wanted a consistent name.

I think it was a silly request but it was their decision to make and I respect it. It's not up to a guy, who's not a UB alumnus, to tell the women who play UB sports what they should be called.

Anything else?

No one thought about these things back in the late 1800s, when UB first fielded a football team in a male-dominated society that regarded female athletes as either curiosities or abnormalities. "Bulls" reflected the era. Not anymore.

You don't bother to have even the most remedial knowledge of UB's sports history and then go put crap like this out?

UB had no official name when they were founded in the late 1800's and in 1915 when the school went to a full fledged athletic department they were not the Bulls. Through the 20's and early 30's most people referred to the team as the Bison. But there was a problem with that.

Buffalo had several professional sports teams known as the Bison, one of them a professional football team. So they changed the name. It seems the name used back in the day was gender neutral.

It’s past time to transition to a nickname that is accurate and all-inclusive. UB’s athletic teams are no more bulls than mares, no more peacocks than peahens. And what better moment than now for UB to open the floor to suggestions as it strives to reconnect with locals alienated by its shrunken Buffalo bull-oney.

I would have loved the New York Bison, but something tells me you would cry about that too, because crying about UB is pretty much all you have.