George Washington University has been under assault from the usual bored student radicals over the use of “Colonials” as a team name, purportedly because it promotes colonialism. This seems ironic for a university named for the most successful rebel colonist in the history of the world, but of course, the radicals don’t object to British control of its American colonies; they object to the existence of those colonies in the first place and to the nation that they became.

The “Colonials” moniker, as with many such nicknames, dates to the 1920s and was adopted without a ton of thought:

GW teams were referred to as the “Buff and Blue” for many years, and in the 1920’s the football team was known as the “Crummen” (after coach Henry Watson Crum) and the “Hatchetites” (after the student newspaper called the Hatchet). The name “Colonials” came into use in the fall of 1926. An editorial in the Hatchet from October 27, 1926, explained the new nickname:
Dissatisfaction has been expressed for the past several years with the nicknames usually associated with the George Washington University’s athletic teams. Some years ago the name “Hatchetites” was invented for the team and it, or some corruption of it has been used ever since. Now the terms “Hatchetites,” “Hatchetmen,” “Hatchets,” Crummen,” “Axemen,” “Tongmen,” and so forth, are all very well, if not entirely euphonious, but they hardly carry the dignity that our team should bear. In the place of the names the University Hatchet suggests the use of the connotation “Colonials” for the teams of the Buff and Blue. What name could be more fitting? This, the school named after George Washington, and having as its colors the Continental Army buff and blue, the colors of Colonial America, should be entitled to bear the name of “Colonials” if any school is so entitled. George Washington University, in its antecedents, is a colonial school. Dating back to very early post-Revolutionary days, it was founded when the term “colonial” still applied to an era which was then passing. Let us then, in just regard for our precious heritage, adopt as the name for the warriors wearing the Buff and Blue the term “Colonials.”
The “Colonials” nickname has also been attributed to a faculty member and former student at GW, Elmer Louis Kayser (who held a number of positions at GW from 1914-1985 [this is not a typo, he was affiliated with GW for 70 years!]), the last being University Historian. Perhaps he suggested it to some students who took it to the editorial board of the Hatchet. At any rate, GW teams have been known as the “Colonials” ever since.

We should all agree that going back to the Crummen or the Hatchetites would be a nonstarter. There is reportedly a movement afoot to rename the team “the Fog,” the pretext of which is the school’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood and the real aim of which is yet again to choose a team name that is stripped of any sort of evocation of human beings, humans being by nature controversial. If you look at the alleged proposed list of replacement names, however, nobody seems to have considered the most obvious choice of all: the Continentals. George Washington may have started off as a colonial soldier, but the service that made him the Father of Our Country and led him to be chair of the Constitutional Convention and our first president was his leadership of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783. That’s already the inspiration for the school colors.

Switching from Colonials to Continentals would be an easy, smooth transition. Sure, it would not placate the radicals, whose real grievance is with Washington and the United States of America, but it would have a clarifying effect — before the Fog rolls in — to compel them to argue against that openly, and to discard the name only when the university and the city it resides in are so far gone that they are prepared to sever all ties to Washington.