Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

University asks Gonzaga fans to tone down on Mormon-mocking

GVMDDKNVBRBNHAJZ4EF5TRH43E

Gonzaga has asked their rowdy student section to tone down on the Mormon-mocking ahead of a visit from BYU.

According to the Gonzaga Bulletin, there was a meeting last week between administrators and the athletic department in which it was decided that an effort would be made to stamp out anything that could be construed as making fun of BYU players for their religion.

It makes sense. If there was a Jewish or Muslim school in the WCC and these students dressed in costumes mimicking stereotypes associated with those religions, the student section would be disbanded.

But I also think that there are two other things that might have played a role in this decision.

For starters, Gonzaga now has a player on their roster that is Mormon and has served a mission in Jesse Wade.

The other?

Eric Mika, who had 29 points and 11 boards at Gonzaga last season as the Cougars handed them their first loss of the year in the final game of the regular season, told reporters that seeing those costumes fired him up.

I wonder if that has played a role in BYU’s third straight win at Gonzaga, or if that played a role in Gonzaga’s efforts to stamp this out.

Probably not.

But it may end up being a nice side effect.