Chief Moccanooga was the former athletic mascot for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, until 1996, when the university abandoned the mascot as potentially offensive at the request of the Chattanooga InterTribal Association. Chief Moccanooga was replaced with a mockingbird, the state bird of Tennessee, and the nickname for Chattanooga athletics was changed from 'Moccasins' to simply 'Mocs'.
Chattanooga's decision to remove Chief Moccanooga as mascot was similar to the actions of several other athletic franchises. In 1986, Chief Noc-A-Homa, the former drum-thumping mascot of Major League Baseball's the Atlanta Braves, was removed. The Cleveland Indians continue to employ a potentially offensive Native American mascot, Chief Wahoo.
Famous quotes containing the word chief:
“The wisest conservatism is that of the Hindoos. “Immemorial custom is transcendental law,” says Menu. That is, it was the custom of the gods before men used it. The fault of our New England custom is that it is memorial. What is morality but immemorial custom? Conscience is the chief of conservatives.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)