UND to hold runoff vote on new nickname next week

North Dakota hockey players
This March 16, 2012, file photo shows North Dakota hockey players wearing Fighting Sioux logo jerseys that were replaced by new jerseys during the WCHA Final Five Championships in St. Paul.
Jim Mone | AP 2012

People with ties to the University of North Dakota will be voting again as the school moves toward a new nickname.

None of the five choices finalized by a committee last summer got a 50 percent majority in voting last week. UND says there will be a runoff vote next week with three choices on the ballot: Fighting Hawks, Roughriders and Nodaks.

Potential monikers there were eliminated in last week's voting were North Stars and Sundogs.

Fighting Hawks got the most support, with about 31 percent of the vote, followed by Roughriders with 21 percent and Nodaks with just under 21 percent.

UND has been without a nickname the last three years after the state Board of Higher Education retired the controversial "Fighting Sioux" moniker that the NCAA deemed offensive.

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