Dear Editor:

I want to support Mr. Taylor Beck’s opinion piece of Oct. 30-31, 2021, in the The Covington News and give you my version of the beginning of the Atlanta Braves’ adoption of the “Chop.” 

In 1990, my family and I, along with thousands of other Atlanta Seminole Club members and Florida State Seminole Boosters from Tallahassee, were attending a Braves baseball game at Fulton County Stadium. Deion Sanders was a member of the Atlanta Braves and also played football with the Atlanta Falcons. Coincidentally, I was told at the time the organist was also from Florida State University. 

In 1947 after becoming co-educational (previously known as Florida State College for Women) FSU needed a name for the football team and after many names were batted around the name of Seminole was picked and has been that ever since. The adoption of Chief Osceola riding his appaloosa horse Renegade was adopted in the late 1970s I think because when I was there we had Sammy Seminole doing somersaults down the field before the game. 

During that Atlanta baseball game, the Seminole fans came alive with their “spear chunking” motions and soon the whole stadium was doing the “chunking” motion the same as the Seminole fans did in Tallahassee  and other rival football stadiums. In 1991, the “chunk” became the “chop” for the Braves, and the Braves went from “last to first.” When for the last few years Native American names for sports became controversial, the powers to be at Florida State held a conference with the Seminole Nation and received their blessings from the tribal chiefs, and, as a result, FSU offered any Seminole wanting to attend the university free, full scholarships to that university or its affiliates. 

I think the Atlanta Braves and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation need to become more involved with each other and make it known publicly and bring that Nation’s plight to the forefront. I am a Florida State Seminole and will always be a Seminole. 

Go Braves, and let’s celebrate in a big way our “World Series Champion.”             

Richard Garner  

Covington