What were they thinking? In the name of Florida State University, the Collegiate Licensing Company recently fired off a trademark notice to Bradenton Southeast High School demanding that it stop using the word “Seminoles,” as well as the spear and Indian profile associated with FSU. For the record, Southeast has been known as the “Seminoles” for the entirety of its 51 years and has been using the images for three decades. The cost to remove all such references has been estimated at more than $100,000.
FSU, however, has now reversed itself and notified Southeast that it can, upon further review, continue to be the “Seminoles” or even “Noles” and keep those FSU-like images too. And, what the hell, the “Tomahawk Chop” can also stay. Southeast will have to pay $1 a year to the FSU booster club for the rights.
The timing was interesting. Maybe it was the embarrassment of bad press or the fact that Southeast alum Peter Warwick, a former FSU All-American, is now a Southeast coach and is about to be inducted into FSU’s hall of fame. Or maybe somebody decided that this was the worst idea since offering to make Bobby Bowden an “ambassador coach.”