{"id":147062,"date":"2021-08-26T11:29:26","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T21:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=147062"},"modified":"2021-08-26T13:14:41","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T23:14:41","slug":"uh-manoa-national-mascot-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/08\/26\/uh-manoa-national-mascot-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"National mascot rankings don\u2019t do Rainbows justice"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"rainbow\"<\/p>\n

The University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa is consistently ranked among the best universities in the nation and the world<\/a> by the top ranking entities including U.S.<\/abbr> News and World Report<\/em>, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS<\/abbr>) World University Rankings, Times Higher Education University World Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities. It came as a surprise to many when UH<\/abbr> was ranked among the worst when it came to college mascots in a survey conducted by Quality Logo Products<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Northwestern University\u2019s Willie the Wildcat was named the best mascot in the survey of 126 NCAA<\/abbr> Division 1 mascots by 1,266 people. Oklahoma State\u2019s Pistol Pete was named the worst mascot. Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> came in 5th worst. The survey used Vili the Warrior, even though he has not been on the sidelines of UH<\/abbr> football since 2011.<\/p>\n

Although maybe not a traditional mascot, Rainbows have been the UH<\/abbr> symbol since 1923 after upsetting Oregon State, 7-0, at M\u014dʻiliʻili<\/span> Field. According to the UH<\/abbr> Traditions<\/a> webpage on UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s HawaiiAthletics.com<\/a>, a rainbow appeared over the field during the game, and reporters started calling UH<\/abbr> teams the Rainbows. No surprise as Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> may be the best place on Earth for rainbows<\/a>, and rainbows are of special significance in Hawaiian culture.<\/p>\n

Warriors was added to the nickname in the late 1960s. One reason was the tremendous support of the UH<\/abbr> scholarship fund-raising organization, ʻAhahui<\/span> Koa \u0100nuenue-the Order of the Rainbow Warrior. <\/p>\n

Then came the Rainbow Wahine in 1972 when UH<\/abbr> launched its women\u2019s athletic program. The Rainbow Warriors and Rainbow Wahine have been cheered on by UH<\/abbr> fans for decades, and just this year, the Rainbow Warrior volleyball team brought home a national championship. <\/p>\n

“Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> fans will take the Rainbows over Willie the Wildcat any day of the week,” said UH<\/abbr> spokesman Dan Meisenzahl<\/strong> in response to the rankings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rainbows have been the UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa symbol since 1923.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1362],"tags":[58,631,9,550],"class_list":["post-147062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-athletics","tag-ranking","tag-uh-manoa","tag-manoa-athletics","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147062"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147102,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147062\/revisions\/147102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}