We were talking in the newsroom Wednesday about team nicknames. Good ones, bad ones, funny ones. The discussion soon turned to the ones that have become a pet peeve of mine.

The past decade has seen a major shift in how we refer to women’s teams in college and high school sports. While some schools, like ours here in Warren County, have kept the “Lady” or “Missy” in front of the school nickname, a lot of colleges have dropped the feminine first names and now simply go by “Bulldogs” or “Rebels.”

As a sports fan, it makes no difference to me whether Mississippi State’s men’s and women’s teams have the same name. Call yourselves the Purple Ninny Anteaters for all I care, you’re still Mississippi State. Vastly different nicknames would make it even easier to tell the teams apart.

As a writer, the trend of dropping “Lady” from nicknames drives me nuts.

When we write a story, we try to make it obvious what sport we’re writing about. If you can’t pick up from the first couple of paragraphs whether it’s baseball, basketball or football, either you’re not much of a sports fan or we’re doing it wrong.

Some sports, though, have the same terminology. Think men’s and women’s basketball. So you might read about the Bulldogs (male version) winning on Saturday, and then the Bulldogs (female version) winning again on Sunday and it makes your head spin. It’s even worse when there aren’t pictures with the story to give you a visual cue.

News stories about either team are bad, too. It’s clunky to have to specify exactly what team and sport you’re writing about when a simple “Lady Rebels” reference could take care of it.

Headlines are easier, I suppose. One-column headlines are the bane of a newspaper editor’s existence. Nothing ever fits right, except for some reason “Bulldogs” and “Ole Miss” and a few other seven-letter terms. But given the status of nicknames nowadays, those don’t always tell you exactly what team you’re reading about.

There’s also a political correctness angle to this that I’ll steer well clear of. Mama didn’t raise a fool. I’m walking a fine enough line as it is.

I don’t want to tick anybody off. I just want my nice, easy, descriptive nicknames back. Is that too much to ask?

•

Ernest Bowker is a sports writer for The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com