Valparaiso University “Crusaders” to be renamed “Beacons”

The latest university to update their team name is the private Lutheran Valparaiso University. Once known as the “Crusaders”, the sports teams will now be the “Beacons”. According to an associated press report, “School officials announced in February that they had retired the Crusaders name following input from students, faculty and alumni. That decision came after a decades-long debate that has recently intensified because groups such as the Ku Klux Klan began using the words and symbols of the Crusades, which were a series of bloody religious wars starting in the 11th century between Christians and Muslims.”