A reader — in fact, a friend and NR cruiser — writes,

Sounds like you’ve had gobs of mail on this one already, but I have to jump in. Here in Nebraska there is a team named the Vikings — the Waverly High School Vikings. And the girls’ team? Well, they are the Waverly Viqueens, of course!

There was a similar letter from Shelbyville, Tenn. And one from the Upper Midwest, which said that fans of the Green Bay Packers sometimes refer to the Minnesota Vikings as . . . the Viqueens. (Yeah? Tell it to Judge Page!)

Then there was this:

My high-school team was called the Rams. Officially, the girls’ teams were the “Lady Rams.” However, some of us guys referred to those teams as the “Ewes,” which did not go over very well.

No? Another reader writes,

I graduated from Fairfield University in Fairfield, Conn., in 1992. Since the school started out all-male, the Jesuits decided to use the symbol of the Hartford archdiocese, a stag, as their mascot. When the school went co-ed in 1969, the women’s teams were called the Lady Stags.

Funny. And this?

From 1973 to 1977, I attended the University of South Carolina, whose teams are the Gamecocks. In my day, the women’s teams were known as the Chicks. And you’d better-by-God believe it ain’t that way today.
Oh, and at LSU, instead of the Tigers, women’s teams were called the Ben-Gals, well into the ’80s.

Took me a second to get that one. Maybe more than a second. Finally,

Reading about the Vikettes reminded me of one of my favorite bumper stickers. It refers to UConn’s outstanding women’s basketball team: “I Love Husky Women.”