Nebraska mascot’s hand gesture changed to avoid link to white supremacy groups

LINCOLN, Neb. — Herbie Husker’s hand gesture is no longer OK.

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The University of Nebraska has changed its mascot’s hand gesture, after the “a-OK” signal that has been used since 1974 years is now become associated with white supremacy groups, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.

Now, Herbie Husker no longer is shown with his left thumb and forefinger forming an “O.” In recent years, some hate groups have used that gesture as a sign for white power, with three straight fingers forming a “W,” while the circle formed next to an extended finger creates a “P,” according to The Associated Press.

The mascot now has his left arm raised in a “We’re No. 1″ gesture, the Journal Star reported.

The “OK” hand symbol is listed on the Anti-Defamation League’s website as having been co-opted as a “racist” hand sign, CNN reported.

“The concern about the hand gesture was brought to our attention by our apparel provider and others, and we decided to move forward with a revised Herbie Husker logo,” Nebraska Athletics said in an email to the news outlet.

The new meaning was brought to the attention of Lonna Henrichs, the licensing and branding director for the university’s athletic department, in July 2020, the Journal Star reported. That was just weeks after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, which prompted riots and protests nationwide.

“That hand gesture could, in some circles, represent something that does not represent what Nebraska athletics is about,” Henrichs told the newspaper. “We just didn’t even want to be associated with portraying anything that somebody might think, you know, that it means white power.

“We made that change as quick as we could.”

Henrichs said she asked an in-house designer to Photoshop Herbie’s left hand to have one finger pointed in the air. The finger-pointing Herbie will be the only logo approved for merchandising from now on, she told the Journal Star.

The Herbie Husker character was conceived by Dick West, a cartoonist from Lubbock, Texas, the newspaper reported. West drew the character for the 1974 Cotton Bowl, where Nebraska faced the University of Texas.

Lawrence Chatters, the athletic department’s first senior staff-level head of diversity, said he wants the Huskers to be “competitively inclusive.”

“When there is hatred and hurt attached to a symbol, or a word, or a gesture, we have to pay attention to it,” Chatters told the Journal Star. “We don’t have the choice to just say, ‘Well, that’s not what you think it is.’

“Truthfully, those (hate) groups do exist. Truthfully, those are movements that have caused issues in our country. We’re not talking about a false reality here.”

Fans and retailers in Nebraska said the change has been subtle. Scott Strunc, who owns Husker Hounds, said not as many Herbie Husker items are being sold. But it has nothing to do with hand gestures.

“The reason sales are down,” Strunc told the Journal Star, “is because they went 3-9 and they’ve had five consecutive losing seasons.”

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