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to Gostate.org
This is the archive of older Gostate.org webpages. GoState is the
voice of the movement for a balanced state-city identity at "San
Jose State", which was founded as the California State Normal
School (1862-1921) and is the school from which the entire CSU system
grew.
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Gostate.org
article archive
First Published
Spring 2004
Anti-Spartan
Professors Attack
a California State Institution
 In
late March 2004, while San Jose's CSU students were away on
Spring break, a group of anti-Spartan professors issued a press
release to pressure University President Joseph Crowley to "pull
the plug" on Spartan football, the oldest athletic tradition
in the California State University system. Just one week earlier
students had elected the whole slate of Spartan Party candidates,
who ran on a platform of preserving San Jose's Division 1-A
athletics and integrating the campus more closely with the CSU
system to which STATE gave birth.
It is very evident from the cynical timing of the professor's
announcement that these professors have no regard for the students
they purport to benefit from their myopic "cost-saving"
proposal. Indeed, it is very telling that one of the central
points of their press release was to complain that some top
members of the Spartan athletics staff make more money than
some of the professors do.
Since it was chartered as the California State Normal School
in 1862, STATE's official seal has contained the Great Seal
of the State of California, as evidenced by the image of the
Seal above recently taken in Tower Hall. Within the Seal, the
Goddess Minerva is depicted surveying a buccolic California
scene. She is adorned with a Spartan-esque helmet, shield and
spear, the very symbols of Spartan athletics.
In 1924, STATE's students were given a choice between the "Spartans"
and the "Gold" as their school's athletic mascots.
Although detailed historical information as to why these were
the only two choices is sketchy, it is widely believed that
the "Spartans" represented Minerva's armor and "Gold"
represented the mineral Californians were famous for mining.
The students voted for the "Spartans" to be guardians
of the school that bore the Great Seal of California as its
seal from the date it was chartered in 1862.
Today, the same group of anti-Spartan professors who pressured
the University to disregard the students democratically expressed
wishes with regard to Spartan football also seek to overturn
the historic 1924 vote and remove the Spartans as the symbol
of California's oldest public university. These professors claim
the Spartans symbol is too "warlike."
In the United States, the principal path to notoriety and success
for most "state university" schools is through athletics,
particularly Division 1-A football. Schools like Brent's Ohio
State, Florida State and Louisiana State have used their football
prowess to achieve national reputations in both athletics and
academics.
In additon to pushing for a more state-oriented image and identity
for California's oldest public institution of higher learning,
all Californians should rally to the defense of STATE's Spartans
and Spartan football. As described above, the Spartan symbol
is as important to California history as "Buckeyes"
is to Brent's Ohio State. We should not allow interlopers from
other states to dismantle a symbol of California State's oldest
athletic program, a program that may one day lead the CSU system
to the nationwide prominence it deserves.
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