But an educational services director from New York said school history is a poor excuse for not changing mascots that offend certain groups. If I point out that you're standing on my foot, it's fine for you to explain that you didn't mean to hurt me. But, now that you know, you need to get off my foot. As for 'tradition,' many schools once had annual minstrel shows, boys-only athletic programs, and policies that required women teachers to retire when they became pregnant. For that matter, many schools had a 'tradition' of racial segregation.
Tradition is an ineffective fig leaf.
Ironically, quite a few of the players were Native Americans. If it were offensive to them, I would have been more than willing to change. What we are called as a team is not nearly as important as what we are as a people. There is never a good reason to be offensive to our fellow man. Life is too short, and there is too much good to do to waste all of this effort.