Kansas-Kansas State women's game

La. Tech Techsters...I guess because "Lady Bulldogs" would be calling the young ladies Dogs. Doesn't stop Mississippi State, though.

My favorite gender differentaition: Hereford (Texas) High School. The boys: The Thundering Herd. Herefords are cattle, in case any of you urban types didn't know. But since that's not a very ladylike moniker for the gals, they're the Whitefaces. No, that's not racial. Whitefaces are a variety of bovines.

Meanwhile. down in Alpine, Texas, there's the Fightin' Bucks and the Lady Bucks. Or, as the volleyball coach insists on spelling it, Ladybucks. Over in Marfa, there's the Shorthorns and Lady Shorthorns. They're pretty trans-gender down in the Big Bend.

 

I was driving through West Texas once and heard part of a Hereford football game on the radio and they called the football team the Whitefaces, so it has been used for boys teams too.

There's a high school in Western Kansas, Palco, known as the Roosters. We played them once when I was in high school and the girls' uniforms said "Lady Roosters".

 

The boys teams at a small country school (now closed) near where I grew up was known as the Cowfeeders. The girls teams? Cowfeederettes.

 

And in southwestern Kansas there's the Liberal Lady Redskins.

 

I covered Liberal for more than six years, I never heard them referenced as "Lady" Redskins.

(And of course, I never wrote stories referencing them as "Lady" Redskins.)

 

The most recent: http://www.swdtimes.com/swdtimes/2006/021607/story4.html

 

I will make this concession about "lady" ... for those who use it, please use it on first reference only, then drop it like you would the first name of any person in a story. Otherwise, it's lady, lady, lady to no end in the story.

 

If it's their official name, then it's their official name. I'm not a big fan of second referencing school names and nicknames, though obviously some papers do so to fit local style. But changing Lady Bobcats to Bobcats on second reference is as sketchy as changing Bobcats to 'Cats on second refence.

 

Um, if the men's teams is say, the Vols, why isn't the women's team The Women's Vols?

Doesn't it strike anyone else that "Lady Vols" is slightly anachronistic?

As if they should be playing in bonnets and white gloves.

 

Pat Summitt might be one coach's name, but we don't call her Pat Summitt every single time in stories. Once you've made it clear who you're talking about, you don't need to go first reference anymore.

Same applies here. Once you know you're talking about the women's basketball team, why do you need to say "lady" 13 more times in the story? Makes no sense to me.

 

But for the most part, we don't modify nicknames on second reference. Some papers do, but the only time I might do it is in a hed. If we were talking lady Bulldogs or lady Hawks, a tacked-on description, then I'd see your point. But since it's part of the name, Lady has as much right to be in there on second refence as Hawks. It's not a first name/last name thing.

 

Probably from a time when people were more commonly refered to as ladies and gentlemen. I wish most of these schools that use it wouldn't, because it's not necessary. But I'm dealing with the here and now, and if a school elects to use Lady as an official part of nicknames for its women's teams, I've no choice but to go along.