SFU Athletics responds to rising chorus of criticism over calling its sports teams the Clan

It appears increasingly likely that Simon Fraser University will dump the controversial name of its varsity sports teams.

Last night, SFU Athletics posted a statement on its website saying that a report regarding the "Clan" nickname will go to the university president in August.

"The university is deeply troubled by and attentive to the emotions and concerns to which these associations have given rise, and the impact they have on our athletes, particularly in light of our revulsion to and condemnation of anti-Black racism," SFU Athletics stated.

SFU president Andrew Petter has been under pressure for many years to change the varsity teams' name.

It remains to be seen whether the announcement will be made by him or the next president, Joy Johnson, who assumes office on September 1. 

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Since SFU opened in 1965, the "Clan" has been used to honour the school's Scottish traditions and the heritage of colonial explorer Simon Fraser.

But there's been a growing backlash in recent years because the sound of the team's name is identical to that of a notorious and murderous white supremacist organization.

A petition on change.org to scrap the "Clan" name has attracted 8,120 signatures, as of this writing.

It points out that the racist 1915 silent film, The Birth of a Nation, was inspired by a novel and play, The Clansmen, which was written by Thomas Dixon Jr.

"The implications of the political and social realm behind this history and era have directly affected Black communities to this day on several levels," the petition states. "The worrisome part about this is it puts SFU’s NCAA Athletes at risk when in the states but it also undermines North American Black history regarding lynching, the KKK, segregation, and more." 

Former SFU men's basketball team guard Othniel Spence has played a key role in elevating awareness around this issue. He wrote an article on the Park Journal website explaining the harmful impact that the Clan name has had on him.

In his first NCAA game at Seattle Pacific University, he noted, a guy asked him what his team's name was.

After Spence replied "the Clan", the fellow replied that "we don't do that here."

"My heart skipped a beat, mainly because of the embarrassment I had," Spence wrote. "He was right. Where in North America have we allowed a school to have the sports teams named 'The Clan'? It shook me to my core. I couldn't deny or defend the name of the school I represented."

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In his article, Spence revealed that during his fourth year, a poll was taken among student athletes around the name, showing resounding support for a change.

"But it was brought to a halt by the president of the school, Andrew Petter," Spence wrote.

A former president of the SFU Student Society, Robert Clift, is one of many who've spoken out on change.org.

"Given when SFU was created our Black friends in the US were literally in a fight for their lives, SFU should never have chosen Clansmen as the team name. 50+ years later, it's time to get on the right side of history," he wrote.