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Political correctness, I guess you can call it. I have another couple of words for it: Simply asinine. It comes from the National Collegiate Athletic Association and has to do with college nicknames and mascots for their teams during NCAA tournament play. Before you say, whoa, what's this have to do with drag racing, please hear me out. And if the NCAA had anything to do with a drag race -- fortunately it doesn't -- what it might be like. Thank goodness NCAA doesn't stand for NHRA. But trying to touch all bases for readers, I couldn't help but read the Associated Press reports of the NCAA action, which outlaws the names, logos and trappings of colleges which use Indian names or some derivative thereof, in playoff action. To show just how asinine that is, the Florida State Seminoles can be the Florida State Seminoles and have their Indian chief on horseback throughout the football season, but not in any NCAA tournament action. That's akin to NHRA putting in the 85 percent nitro rule for semifinals and finals, but not using it during qualifying or the early rounds, if you get my drift. I guess if the NCAA had its way, we'd have to melt down any Indian Head nickels we have in our possession or stop play Charlie Barn et's musical, Cherokee, or anything to do with Indian Summer. And if they were controlling NHRA in the earlier days there're be no Jerry "The King" Ruth (we're a republic) or naturally no Ed "Ace" McCulloch (that's too related to card gambling. Interested in what the general public, rather than NHRA thought of the new rule, I called up AOL, which tries to keep abreast of such things and offers its readers a chance to offer an opinion. The survey showed 89 per cent of the respondents said leave it up to the schools and 11 per cent agreed, saying the Indian names are offensive. Wonder what drag racers would say? Poppycock, as Don Garlits might offer. Shoot, his early nickname "Swamp Rat" might be endangered as would Don "The Snake" Prudhomme's, because well, the NCAA might insist that's taking unfair advantage of species which cannot defend themselves and may be repulsive to some people. NCAA, stick to the important things, like maybe getting a decent football playoff system into place or improving officiating in your "tournament" sports, such as basketball and baseball. The NHRA will stick to having fuel rules as well as others consistent, and will hopefully consult its competitors before any changes. Like only partial qualifying. Rain at a National Event earlier this year is an example of the latter, from the NHRA Carquest Auto Parts Nationals at Pacific Raceways. Here was Cory McClenathan's response to that one, for good measure and an example of something NHRA, not NCAA, should address: "Personally speaking, if you're going to run one car in a class, you should have to run them all in the session to count." Go Seminoles. Go Illini. If you disagree with this, you can say so to Normfro@aol.com. The opinions expressed in Froscher'sForum are those of the author and do not necessarily express those of Drag Race Central, it's editors, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Atlanta Braves, or the NHRA.
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