VALPARAISO (AP) — Valparaiso University has adopted the Beacons as its new team name, replacing the Crusaders, a term school officials dropped this year after saying it had been embraced by hate groups.
The university's President Jose D. Padilla announced Tuesday that the private Lutheran school's new nickname "directly connects to the University's motto, 'In Thy Light We See Light,' and represents the Valparaiso University community in many ways."
School officials announced in February that they had retired the Crusaders.
That decision came after a debate recently intensified because groups such as the Ku Klux Klan began using the words and symbols of the Crusades, the bloody religious wars between Christians and Muslims.
