Toronto Metropolitan University goes Bold with new nickname for athletics teams
Toronto Metropolitan College made a serious transfer in chopping ties to its longtime Ryerson identify.
So, why not go daring in its athletics renaming as effectively?
TMU introduced Monday that its sports activities groups will now be known as the TMU Daring, one in every of three finalists chosen from greater than 4,800 survey contributions. TMU’s new mascot can be a falcon.
“The concept of Daring got here from the suggestions that was developed from neighborhood members,” mentioned Jen McMillen, vice-provost, college students, at TMU. “They needed a reputation that was distinctive, that was assured. Boldness actually embodies so much about our college and what we’re attempting to do.
“We clearly made a really daring determination to alter the identify of the establishment … and we actually need it to proceed to be daring. So it is one thing that we predict we are able to actually domesticate alongside the college’s new identify.”
TMU introduced in August of 2021 it was dumping the Ryerson identify amid rising requires change. Egerton Ryerson was an architect of Canada’s residential faculty system, and calls for ramped up following the invention of what are believed to be the stays of Indigenous kids in unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential faculties.
Social media response largely panned the brand new nickname. A number of individuals questioned why the varsity did not go along with TMU Falcons. Others poked enjoyable at “daring” as a font.
“You did not even put daring in BOLD,” learn one tweet.
McMillen mentioned Daring is not a nickname you discover elsewhere.
“And that is a part of the purpose,” she mentioned. “That is one thing that was necessary to us is that you do not hear loads of groups named The Daring. That’s a part of the rationale that we predict it suits effectively with suggestions that the neighborhood gave us.”
Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League group OL Reign is nicknamed “The Daring.”
McMillen likened the nickname to the NHL’s Minnesota Wild.
TMU president and vice-chancellor Mohamed Lachemi mentioned boldness is a core worth of the college.
“It’s shared by our college students, mirrored in our method to studying and analysis, and demonstrated on the court docket, the sphere, and the rink by our athletes,” Lachemi mentioned in an announcement. “Our new group identify and mascot symbolize one other alternative to unify our neighborhood behind the shared values and aspirations of our College. I’m wanting ahead to cheering on the Blue, Gold and Daring this fall.”
The group nickname and mascot have been chosen after two phases of surveys. There have been 2,100 responses to an preliminary survey in Might, after which one other 2,700 survey submissions after a shortlist was printed in July.
The Meteors and the Towers have been the opposite two finalists.
McMillen mentioned there was very robust neighborhood suggestions that the mascot be an animal. “Egerton the Ram,” often known as “Eggy,” had been the college’s mascot since 1961.
The falcon, she mentioned, was chosen for a number of causes, together with the very fact the chook of prey typically nests on the campus’s rooftops.
“They’re part of our campus and we are able to see them and may hear them,” McMillen mentioned. “And (there have been) loads of actually robust hyperlinks for us. . . They’re very strategic. And we actually like that.
“So far as daring goes, falcons are as daring as they arrive, one of many quickest animals on Earth, but additionally their timing and their important decision-making very a lot strains up with how our athletes carry out and different elements of the establishment as an entire.”
She added that falcons have gold beaks and talons and sometimes have blue feathers.
“So there is a blue and gold aspect to it as effectively, which is in fact our college colors,” she mentioned.
The number of a brand new group identify and mascot was one of many 22 suggestions put ahead in a report by the Standing Robust Activity Power in August of 2021.
The brand new group identify can be used instantly, whereas new group uniforms, a bodily mascot and signage can be full by the spring 2023 semester.
A particular job drive was shaped in November of 2020 to investigate and tackle the legacy of Egerton Ryerson, who helped design each the general public and residential faculty methods in Canada. It in the end issued 22 suggestions and final August, the varsity’s board of governors permitted a movement to simply accept all 22 suggestions from the duty drive.
A statue of Egerton Ryerson on the college’s campus was torn down by offended protesters final summer time in response to the invention of what are believed to be unmarked graves on the grounds of a former residential faculty in Kamloops, B.C.
The ultimate report from the Fact and Reconciliation Fee detailed widespread mistreatment at Canada’s residential faculties, together with emotional, bodily and sexual abuse, and greater than 4,000 deaths on the establishments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Aug. 29, 2022.
Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press
