Valparaiso University has announced plans to retire its Crusader mascot, citing concerns about negative associations with religious oppression, violence and hate groups.
VALPARAISO — Love it or hate it, Valparaiso University has decided to ditch its Crusader mascot after 80 years of usage.
Much has been said about the change and the way the school made the decision. Trust me when I tell you that this column isn’t about that. No amount of handwringing, Bible-thumping or alumni donations is going to get Valparaiso to move back to the Crusader.
When incoming Valparaiso President Jose Padilla takes office next week, one of his first orders of business will be to convene a task force that will ultimately decide on a new mascot for the school. Knowing money is tight, I’ve decided to throw my hat in the ring with a handful of options that Padilla and the task force could consider in lieu of hiring a pricey outside consulting firm.
There are a few options that are off my board already. While many have suggested the Valparaiso Gold, I’m just not a fan. I was living in Milwaukee when Marquette attempted to change its name from the Golden Eagles to the Gold. People lost their minds, and the school dropped the nickname less than two weeks later. It’s hard to get inspired by a color. That said, I do like the idea of the student section being renamed “The Gold Standard.”
I’m also not supporting any of the nicknames inspired by light. These include Rays, Beacons, Torches or Flamethrowers. I get it. Jesus said “I am the light of the world,” and the Lutheran school has leaned into this imagery. When Valparaiso moved away from the Uhlan nickname in 1941, it renamed the yearbook “The Beacon.” The best option here is probably “Flames,” but Illinois-Chicago has that name already and I’m all about being unique.
Let’s also do away with any alliterative names. Choosing something like the Valparaiso Victors or the Volts, Valiants, Vagrants or Vipers just feels lazy and surely, we can do better than that.
So, what is Valparaiso’s best option for a nickname and a mascot that will unite fans, alumni and current students that have found themselves on opposite sides of the Crusader debate?
Together with Kat Velez, an ultra-talented page designer at The Times, I present to you five choices for Valparaiso’s next mascot.
Valparaiso's shield logo is shown. A natural fit for Valparaiso would be changing its nickname to Shield.
Valparaiso Shield
We’ll get the simple and obvious choice out of the way first. When Valparaiso rebranded the look of its mascot in 2011, the school put a shield in the hands of the Crusader. The “Shield of Character” has become a guiding force for students, as they are given a pin during the opening convocation service each year. The shield stands for eight “unwavering values and distinguished characteristics” including empowerment. This choice would save Valparaiso a ton of money as they already use the branding all over campus.
The Golden Knights would allow Valparaiso to save money by keeping its mascot and inflatable for teams to run through.
Valparaiso Golden Knights
The school could go one step further and keep both the shield and the current mascot and simply change the name. This would be another cost-saving move as Valparaiso could dust off the Crusader costume as well as the giant inflatable mascot and just rebrand as the Golden Knights. If the school wanted to deviate from the look, it could change the color scheme. Former Valparaiso athletic director Bill Steinbrecher recently shared with me that he tried to change the school colors in the early 2000’s to the scarlet red and metallic gold used by the San Francisco 49ers. Steinbrecher even had hats made up and he was distributing them around campus before he was told by the administration to embrace the Brown and Gold.
The DuneHawks was initially an idea in the 1990s, and could connect the university to the Region with the reference to the nearby Indiana Dunes.
Valparaiso DuneHawks
This is a play on a nickname that originated in the pages of the Vidette-Messenger shortly after Valparaiso moved away from the Uhlans. With the school going without a mascot for much of the 1941-42 season, former Vidette scribes Herb Steinbach and Ray Scherer took to calling the basketball team the “Dunes Hawks.” Not wanting to see their mascot taken over by local sportswriters, the school moved quickly to adopt the Crusader name. (Who knew we had such power!) Patrick Feaster, a 1993 Valparaiso graduate, started pushing for the Dune Hawks in 1992 when he wrote one of the first objections to the Crusader mascot in a column for The Torch, Valparaiso’s student newspaper. The mascot ties itself to the Indiana Dunes and could be a good way for the school to truly become The Region’s Division I Team.
The Kernels has two purposes: recognize Valparaiso's ties to popcorn and Orville Redenbacher, and it's connection to wars.
Valparaiso Kernels
Valparaiso is known globally for two reasons: The Shot and popcorn. I know this because every time I wear Valparaiso clothing on an airplane, someone stops me and mentions either Bryce Drew or Orville Redenbacher. What better way to bring unity to the area then by marrying Valparaiso athletics to Valparaiso history? Going deeper, the Valparaiso Male and Female College had many of its students and administrators go off to fight in the Civil War before the school ultimately closed for two years. Henry Baker Brown then reopened the school in 1873. Given that connection and the fact that Valparaiso has used mascots attached to wars in the past, we’ll name the mascot Colonel Kernel.
What once started as a joke on the Union Street Hoops podcast seems a viable, friendly option.
Valparaiso Koalas
Longtime listeners of Union Street Hoops, my Valparaiso basketball podcast, will know the koala reference. When discussing possible mascots that wouldn’t offend anyone several years ago with my original co-host Parker Gatewood, I mentioned my love of koala bears. They're a lovable animal that can get pretty fierce at a moments notice. We laughed it off and never thought twice about it. Then I started getting tweets and texts from listeners telling me how much they loved the Koalas. It only grew from there. When Valparaiso announced the mascot change two weeks ago, dozens of messages came my way with koala references. What started as an innocent joke has now grown legs. The movement has started. Thanks to Kat, we now have a logo. I’m pleased to introduce you all to Valparaiso’s newest mascot, Rowdy the Koala.
Gallery: The Top 10 Valparaiso men's basketball players of the 2010s
Gallery: The top 10 Valparaiso men's basketball players of the 2010s
10. Shane Hammink (2015-17)
The 6-foot-7 guard transferred to Valparaiso from LSU and made his debut in 2015 after sitting out a year. Hammink burst on the scene with 16 points off the bench against Iona in his second game in a Valparaiso uniform. Hammink eventually worked his way into the starting lineup and helped clinch a win over BYU in the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden with an assist and key block in the final seconds of the game.
Hammink blossomed as a scorer in his senior year, averaging 15.1 points per game. He scored in double figures in 27 of the 33 games he played and scored a career-high 25 points against Wright State in Valparaiso’s final win of the season.
9. LaVonte Dority (2012-14)
The South Florida transfer began his Valparaiso career midway through the 2012-13 season and made his presence immediately felt with 20 points in a win at Missouri State. He scored in double figures in six of his first nine games while settling into a key reserve role on a squad that went to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nine years.
With the bulk of the 2012-13 team moving on due to graduation, Dority ascended into a leadership role as a senior and led the team in scoring (15.7), assists (83), 3-point percentage (42.7) and free throw percentage (84.3). Dority’s 145 free throws rank fourth in single-season program history.
Dority started all 34 games his senior year, topping 30 points on two occasions, including a career-high 33 points in a return to his hometown against UIC on Feb. 1, 2014.
8. Matt Kenney (2009-13)
Kenney will undoubtedly go down as one of the most underrated players in Valparaiso history. Never the focal point on any team he played on, Kenney filled up the stat sheet in a way that few others have done in a Crusader uniform. Kenney is one of just two players (along with Lubos Barton) in program history to finish his career with more than 800 points, 300 rebounds and 300 assists.
The biggest moment of Kenney’s career came late in the 2013 Horizon League tournament semifinals, when the senior buried a corner 3-pointer with seven seconds remaining, keeping the Crusaders within striking distance of Green Bay.
Kenney ranks 10th in program history in assists (330) and tied a school record by knocking down all six of his 3-point attempts against Green Bay in the final regular-season game of his career on Mar. 3, 2013.
7. Tevonn Walker (2014-18)
Walker quietly put together a very productive career with the Crusaders. A key contributor from the moment he stepped on campus, the Montreal native started 116 of 124 career games.
Walker scored 1,405 points in his Valparaiso career, good for 14th in program history. Walker dealt with a handful of injuries during his career and he suffered an ankle injury in the final game of the 2015-16 regular season, leading him to miss the Horizon League tournament. Missing their key defender, the Crusaders struggled to stop Green Bay’s perimeter attack.
Walker led the team in scoring (14.8), rebounding (4.8) and steals (48) as a senior. Walker closed out his collegiate career with a game-high 25 points against Missouri State at Arch Madness.
6. Keith Carter (2013-16)
While the opportunities and the numbers weren’t always there for Carter, the Saint Louis transfer is undoubtedly one of the most talented point guards to ever suit up for the Crusaders. Carter became eligible midway through the 2013-14 season and scored a season-high 19 points against UIC in the Horizon League opener.
Carter took over as the starting point guard as a junior and was playing the best basketball of his career when he suffered a dislocated toe against Youngstown State. Carter missed 10 games, but returned to help lead Valparaiso to the NCAA tournament.
The Chicago native shined as a senior, grabbing 58 steals and dishing out 161 assists. Carter’s collegiate career came to an end when he suffered another foot injury in the first half of the 2016 NIT title game against George Washington. Carter was denied an additional year of eligibility by the NCAA in the summer after his final season.
5. Javon Freeman-Liberty (2018-20)
Freeman-Liberty left a large impact in his two years with the Valparaiso men’s basketball program. The Chicago native scored in double figures in the first five games of his career, but his true breakout performance came when he scored 27 points at Illinois State on Feb. 5, 2019.
Freeman-Liberty took a major leap his sophomore season, starting the year by scoring 19 or more points in the first seven games, including a career-high 32 points against Cincinnati. Freeman-Liberty shattered Valparaiso’s single-season steals mark with 74 swipes. He also became the fifth individual in program history to score at least 600 points in a season, finishing the year with 628 points.
Freeman-Liberty wrapped up his career at Valparaiso by helping to lead the Crusaders to the Missouri Valley Conference title game before declaring for the NBA Draft and ultimately transferring to DePaul for the remainder of his collegiate career.
4. Kevin Van Wijk (2010-13)
The big man from the Netherlands entertained the Valparaiso faithful for three years with his ability to score at the basket. Van Wijk rewrote the Horizon League record book for field goal percentage, shooting 69.5 percent from the floor in conference games as a senior.
Van Wijk battled back injuries for much of his career with the Crusaders, but he came into his own as a junior when he finished fifth in the nation with a 61.7 shooting percentage. Van Wijk was a First Team All-Horizon League selection while averaging a career-best 14.1 points.
The 6-foot-8 forward improved his shooting percentage to 63.3 percent as a senior and entered the NCAA tournament ninth in the country. Van Wijk (60.8) finished his Valparaiso career as the only player to shoot better than 60.0 percent from the field.
3. Vashil Fernandez (2012-16)
One of the most beloved players in program history, Fernandez finished his Valparaiso career by earning three degrees, making two trips to the NCAA tournament and leading the nation in blocked shots as a senior.
Fernandez was relatively new to the game of basketball when he arrived on Valparaiso’s campus, but by the time Fernandez was a junior, he was a force in the paint. Fernandez was named the Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year after he blocked 98 shots.
Fernandez was granted an additional year of eligibility by the NCAA and he returned to lead the Crusaders to the NIT title game. Fernandez broke his previous mark with 119 blocks and he shattered the previous program record for career blocks with 289. He was once again named the Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year and he led the nation with 3.3 blocks per game.
2. Ryan Broekhoff (2009-13)
The Australian native showed up on Valparaiso’s campus as a floppy-haired freshman and left as one of the most complete players in program history four years later. Broekhoff ranks in the top 10 of six different major statistical categories in program history, including seventh in points (1,591), third in rebounding (841) and second in games played (134).
Broekhoff experienced a breakout season as a junior and was named the Horizon League Player of the Year as well as an Honorable Mention All-American selection by the Associated Press.
Broekhoff helped lead the Crusaders back to the NCAA tournament for the first time in nine years when he knocked down a game-winning buzzer-beater against Green Bay in the 2013 Horizon League semifinals. He added another late 3-pointer in the title victory over Wright State.
Broekhoff helped lead the Crusaders back to the NCAA tournament for the first time in nine years when he knocked down a game-winning buzzer-beater against Green Bay in the 2013 Horizon League semifinals. He added another late 3-pointer in the title victory over Wright State.
1. Alec Peters (2013-17)
Sure as fans will debate Michael Jordan and LeBron James as the greatest to play the game, Valparaiso fans will debate between Bryce Drew and Alec Peters as the greatest to put on a Crusader uniform.
Peters burst on the scene his freshman year, scoring 30 points against Evansville in his fifth collegiate game, just days after a tornado ripped through his hometown of Washington, Ill. Peters was named First-Team All-Horizon League as a sophomore and he led the Crusaders to the NCAA tournament.
Peters delivered one of Valparaiso’s finest seasons in the Division I era as a junior, scoring 679 points and grabbing 313 rebounds while adding 91 3-pointers. He became just the second D1 player (Kevin Durant) over the last two decades to average at least 18 points, eight rebounds and knock down at least 80 3-pointers.
The 6-foot-8 forward returned to Valparaiso as a senior after initially declaring for the NBA Draft. Peters became Valparaiso’s all-time leading scorer (2,348) and rebounder (997) before suffering a season-ending foot injury with two games left in the regular season. Peters started all 134 games in his career.
Paul Oren
Paul Oren has been a correspondent reporter for The Times since 2005. A member of the United States Basketball Writers Association, Paul has spent more than 20 years covering Valparaiso basketball. He can be reached at orennwi@gmail.com. The opinions are the writer's.
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Paul Oren
Paul Oren has been a correspondent reporter for The Times since 2005. A member of the United States Basketball Writers Association, Paul has spent more than 15 years covering Valparaiso basketball.
