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Trump wants a mascot revival—even if it means reviving racism: Telander

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Published  July 29, 2025 11:32am CDT
Sports Commentary
FOX 32 Chicago

The Brief

    • Trump used Truth Social to demand Cleveland and Washington restore their controversial Native American team names, claiming that Indigenous people support this move—a claim flatly denied by organizations like the Lake Erie Native American Council.
    • Telander argues that renaming teams like the Indians and Commanders was driven by decades of public dialogue and moral progress; he cites precedents including name changes at Stanford, Dartmouth, Miami (Ohio), and even a Chicago-area high school.
    • He condemns Trump's nostalgic rhetoric as tone-deaf and harmful, comparing it to the racist school mascots of his own youth and warning against reducing Indigenous identities to cartoonish caricatures.

CHICAGO - I was stunned when President Donald Trump said he wanted—nay, demanded—Cleveland change its Major League Baseball team’s name back to Indians and Washington dump its NFL Commanders nickname and become the Redskins again.

I mean, didn’t we just go through decades of questioning and analyzing and debating whether Native American mascot names used by sports teams were offensive to the people whose identities were swiped for other people’s pleasure? We sure as hell did. And we found that the names hurt.

Because of new understanding, many Native American names and mascots were tossed away. It was the right thing to do. The Stanford Indians became the Cardinal. The Dartmouth Indians became The Big Green. St. John’s changed from Redmen to The Red Storm. And in a rather straightforward precedent, the Miami (Ohio) University dropped its Redskins moniker and became the Redhawks.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a rally at the Waco Regional Airport on March 25, 2023, in Waco, Texas.

There’s even a Chicago high school precedent for Washington’s NFL name change: In 2002, far west suburban Huntley High School dropped its Redskins nickname and became the Red Raiders. Their logo now is a charging red stallion.

Personally, I well recall being in a crowd of reporters in the Chicago Blackhawks locker room after a big game and Jonathan Toews approaching me with that Captain Serious stare locked in his eyes.

"Would you please move off the Chief?" he said ominously.

I looked down. I had no idea I was standing on the team’s logo embossed into the carpeting. I moved. Respect is key.

Cleveland changed its name from Indians to the Guardians in 2021. Its ridiculous Indian mascot, Chief Wahoo, created in 1947--which looks like a bright red, one-feathered idiot with a set of piano keys in its mouth--also bit the dust. In fact, that creature had already ceased to appear on players’ uniforms or caps. But Trump should like this deal: you still can buy all the retro-Chief Wahoo gear you need online!

Former Washington football team owner Dan Snyder said his timetable for getting rid of the Redskins name—a pejorative so strong that some opinion writers will only refer to it as the "R-word"—was "Never." Josh Harris led the group that bought the team from Snyder for $6 billion in 2023, and he dumped Redskins right away and says it’s not coming back.

The question is, why should it? And what is a president doing meddling in a team’s affairs, anyway? I remember speaking with Trump on the phone in 1986 when he owned the USFL’s New Jersey Generals, and he told me his team would soon be in the NFL. I was stunned. I asked Bears chairman Michael McCaskey if this were true, if Trump and his generals would be joining the exclusive league. The demure, proper, somewhat snooty McCaskey’s response was swift and impossible to misinterpret. He hawked dramatically and spat on the Lake Forest sidewalk.

Dropping Redskins and Indians wasn’t political correctness run amok. It was decency to a populace that has gotten screwed since the first white settlers landed here and said, "Hey, we own this place."

Trump wrote on Truth Social, regarding his desire to bring back Indians and Redskins, "Our great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen." This is not true. No Indian groups have said this. In fact, the Lake Erie Native American Council, the Cleveland area group that represents native residents, said in a statement that it: "cannot be clearer in reaffirming that there is no honor for Indigenous people in dehumanizing mascots that reduce us to racist stereotypes."

Trump is prone to hyperbole and wild bragging, but it seems pretty certain he means this one. He has claimed he can make it difficult for the Washington franchise to build a new stadium if the team doesn’t do his bidding and get back to being the Redskins.

Chief Illiniwek during halftime at a University of Illinois basketball game on February 28, 2016, in Champaign, Ill. Chief Illiniwek was the official mascot of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, but was retired in 2007 after controversy (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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People like to be thought of as people, not cartoons. When you’re caricatured, even if done "with respect"—ala the famous and now defunct University of Illinois Chief Illiniwek halftime dance—you become one-dimensional, a pencil drawing. Much of Trump’s life seems like a cartoon—including video of his caddy’s cheating for him the other day on a golf course in Scotland—and if he wants to make things like they used to be—20-to-80 years ago—well, I got one for him.

When I was in high school in Peoria playing for the Richwoods Knights, our nemesis was the Pekin Chinks. You’ve got that right. Pekin won two state basketball tournaments while I was in school with that name. It was single class sports back then, and Pekin was the best team in all of Illinois. They were great in football too. And baseball. Their mascot was a dancing Mandarin guy in full silks, plus a dragon. The girl mascot was called the "Chinklette."

I don’t know. It makes me nostalgic, the way America use to be. Mr. President, please bring back Pekin’s old nickname. It seems right up your alley.

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The Source: This article was written by Rick Telander, a contributing sports columnist for FOX 32 Chicago.

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