The University of North Dakota's athletics teams will now be known as the Fighting Hawks, after the school retired the controversial Fighting Sioux nickname in 2012.

More than 23,700 ballots were cast in an online vote for the new nickname, held Nov. 12-16. Fighting Hawks prevailed with 15,670 votes to 11,708 votes for Roughriders.

"This is an appropriate choice, as Fighting Hawks symbolizes the competitive spirit of our athletes, the perseverance of the North Dakota spirit, and the continual ascendancy of the university and the state," UND president Robert Kelley stated in a news release.

The nickname vote was launched following a year-long process that started out with five suggestions: Fighting Hawks, Nodaks, North Stars, Roughriders and Sundogs.

The list was later pared down to the final two.

The university said it will next start the process of developing, selecting and implementing a logo to accompany the name.

The school, located in Grand Forks, N.D., had been under pressure for several years to drop the Fighting Sioux name and Indian warrior logo, which had been used since 1930.

Debate over the name, which was deemed to be a racist stereotype, started shortly after the 'Fighting' was added in 1999. A bill was introduced in the North Dakota House of Representatives to eliminate the nickname, but it died in committee.

The issue re-ignited in 2005, following a decision by the NCAA to sanction schools with tribal logos and/or nicknames. In 2007, a settlement was reached between UND and the NCAA, which gave the university three years to gain support from the state's Sioux tribes in order to keep the nickname and logo.

Without that support, UND agreed to retire the nickname and logo. After that failed, the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education ordered UND in 2010 to retire the Fighting Sioux nickname at the end of the 2010–11 season.

However, in March 2011, the North Dakota Senate approved legislation ordering UND to retain the name but the law was subsequently repealed during a special session of the legislature in November 2011. Supporters of the name didn't give up, though, and in 2012 they gathered 17,213 signatures on a petition to push for a nationwide vote.

The university resumed using the nickname, which prompted a warning letter from the NCAA. A few months later, the state's board of higher education once again ordered the school to get rid of the name.