Mascots, flags and logos have almost always been a part of American Sports, whether on the high school, college, professional, or even pee-wee level. However, some sports teams have nicknames and mas­cots that have been the target of the politically correct that have alleged that an ethnic mascot is discriminatory or offensive and should be banned or discontinued. Professional and college teams such as the Atlanta Braves, Florida Seminoles, Cleveland Indians, Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs, and Chicago Blackhawks have been accused of being racially insensitive by using nicknames that might be construed as condescending to the Native American culture.

A big controversy a few years ago was whether or not such names should be outlawed by governmental intervention or voluntarily changed. St Jones University voluntarily changed its mascot's name from the Redmen to the Red Storm. Later Dartmouth College, Marquette University and Stanford dropped their Indian mascots.

Holland dismissed from Oregon football team

Associated Press

EUGENE, Ore. -- Oregon coach Chip Kelly announced Sunday he had dismissed Jamere Holland from the team, hinting it was because of the wide receiver's expletive-filled post on the player's Facebook page.

Kelly said in a statement released by the school that Holland was dismissed for violating team rules, but didn't elaborate. Asked by The Oregonian if the violation was related to Holland's Facebook post on Saturday, the coach said: "I won't get into the specifics, but you're smart enough to figure it out."

Holland updated his Facebook status after linebacker Kristian Kiko Alonso was arrested early Saturday on suspicion of driving under the influence of intoxicants. Alonso is the fourth Oregon player to be arrested in the past month.

In his post, Holland mistakenly concluded Alonso had been kicked off the team and blasted the move as unfair and damaging to the Ducks.

Holland wrote in a later post: "I wish I could block whites as friends and only have blacks LOL, cause apparently I'm misunderstood."

Security often required as fans get into the games

By Tom Kreager, DNJ

Step into a high school gymnasium and grab a seat for a basketball game.

But be prepared for more than a highly contested basketball game between teams trying to keep their dreams alive to win a state tournament.

These days the crowd is just as heated as the action on the basketball court.

A growing trend this year has overshadowed some of the best basketball in Middle Tennessee. Fans - adults and students - have alarmingly become part of the event with an overabundance of bickering on perceived bad calls by officials or anger with coaches or play on the court.

That has carried over to the court in at least three incidents in Middle Tennessee this season involving fans getting out of control, sparking fights during high school basketball games.

Sportsmanship Solution Working

Overview

Read a headline in any major sports media outlet today, and it seems inevitable that an athlete is in the news for all the wrong reasons. Issues both on and off the field continue to have high school and college administrators looking for an answer that provides practical solutions related to sportsmanship.

Time after time, when those either directly related to the incident or in a position to hold others accountable are asked to provide an explanation as to why the incident happened or what course of action they plan to take the response seems to be, "It was the other team", "I don't know what happened", "we pride ourselves on sportsmanship", or "we don't teach that around here."

Leaving administrators and coaches to focus on the same questions, "What is sportsmanship?" "How do we teach it?"

It is in answering this dilemma that STAR Sportsmanship was conceived, aiming to provide athletic administrators to proactively tackled the sportsmanship issue, instead of reacting to further incidents down the road.

The purpose of this report is to outline the role that STAR Sportsmanship has played in aiding the reduction of ejections among interscholastic athletic programs following a mandated implementation of the STAR learning system in three southern states - Alabama, Mississippi and Texas.

Presents  RealSportsmanship

An interactive program on sportsmanship for both players and coaches that has already been shown to help reduce ejections in high school football by more than 60 percent over three years was adopted for use this past fall by the Sun Belt Conference with high expectations that it will have the same positive impact at the college level.

Sun Belt players and coaches must complete the "RealSportsmanship" platform as part of its requirements for competing within the conference. The Sun Belt commitment is for five years.

"Real Sportsmanship," an interactive, reality-based platform, was developed by "Learning Through Sports, Inc.," the latter founded by Brian Shulman, entrepreneur and formerly all-SEC punter for Auburn University in the 1980s.

Shulman, who thought the Golden Rule applied as much in competitive sports as in everyday life, originally developed sportsmanship platforms for high schools in Alabama and later Mississippi. Over three years, there was a significant drop in ejections in both players and coaches.