NCAA Div I – Your Mascot Is Not as It Seems

Me and the missus were catching some hoops the other day. In particular, we were watching Duke vs. Siena.

Siena are the Saints, but their mascot appears to be a St Bernard. We got to talking about other colleges in the same situation – Georgetown, Navy, UNC …

Well, that just wasn’t good enough for yours truly. Hence this post.

NOTE:  Div I schools only. There were enough of those as is!

Aggies

Before we deal with anything else, we’ve got to address the Aggie issue first.

What the heck is an Aggie? Well, the dictionary is telling me it’s a kind of marble. It’s also saying it’s someone from a land grant college – i.e., one that focused on practical matters, such as agriculture, engineering, the military, and so on.

These schools often had the term “agricultral” in their name – Texas A&M, NC A&T … It wasn’t much of a leap to call students “aggies,” and then to name their teams aas such as well.

This even extended to land grants schools that did not have “agricultural” in their names – UC Davis, Utah State, New Mexico State …

So, what does an “aggie” actually look like?

• Texas A&M – collie
• NCA&T – bulldog

• New Mexico State – cowboy
• Utah State – bull
• UC Davis – horse

 

People?

Most mascots are animals, though plenty are people as well. Now, most of the latter are pretty easy to turn into mascots – knights, vikings, pirates, devils, whatever.

Some of those, though, are a little bit harder. What, for instance, should a volunteer look like? How about an islander? A hilltopper?

• Univ Texas Arlington – Mavericks (horse)
• Univ Nebraska Omaha – Mavericks (bull)

• Wright State – Raiders (wolf)
• Loyola Chicago – Ramblers (wolf)
• Middle Tenn State – Red Raiders (horse)
• Utah Tech – Trailblazers (bison)
• Siena – Saints (St Bernard)

• Navy – Midshipmen (ram)
• Western Illinois – Leathernecks (bulldog)
• Western Kentucky – Hilltoppers (??? – “designed to embody the ‘hill’ of the Hilltoppers name”)

• Texas A&M Corpus Christi – Islanders (??? – “designed to represent the ‘coastal lifestyle’ of Corpus Christi”)

• Longwood – Lancers (horse)
  NOTE:  A lancer was a cavalryman armed with a lance, or spear
  
  
• VMI – Keydet (mule)
  NOTE:  “Keydet” is a play on “cadet”
  
  
• Tennessee – Volunteer (dog)
  NOTE:  From the number of volunteers from the state who signed up for the War of 1812
  
  
• UC Fullerton – Titans (elephant)
• Univ of Detroit Mercy – Titans (centurion)

 

Royals

A subset of the people category are mascots having to do with the aristocratic titles we ditched so definitively way back in 1776.

• Queens – Royals (lion)
• Old Dominion – Monarchs (lion)

• Duquesne – Dukes (lion)
• James Madison – Dukes (bulldog)
  
  
• Univ San Francisco – Dons (bull)
  NOTE:  A “don” is a Spanish nobleman (reflecting the Spanish founding of San Francisco)

If you’re wondering why so many of these teams went with lions – well, they are the “kings of the jungle.”

 

Injuns

Yup, what used to be a very popular source of mascots is now politically incorrect. If you didn’t already change your mascot altogether – Dartmouth, Stanford, St John’s – I guess you could at least come up with something a little more inncouous for the on-field version.

• William & Mary – Tribe (griffin)
  NOTE:  A griffin is a mythological creatures combining the traits of a lion & an eagle

• Bradley – Braves (gargoyle)

• Alcorn State – Braves (hawk)
• Illinois – Fighting Illini (kingfisher)
• Utah – Utes (hawk)

State-Specific

If you’re from North Carolina, you’re a Tar Heel. If from Indiana, a Hoosier. What exactly do those things look like though?

• UNC – Tarheels (ram)
• Indiana – Hoosiers (bison)
• Oklahoma – Sooners (horse)
• Louisiana Lafayette – Ragin’ Cajuns (hot pepper)

• Tarleton State – Texans (duck)

Colors

Before all the eagles and bulldogs and tigers, teams were often named after the colors they wore. The prime example here is Harvard, home of the Crimson. Unfortunately, they don’t really have an official mascot. Here are some that do:

• Alabama – Crimson Tide (elephant)

• Cornell – Big Red (bear)
• Stanford – Cardinal (tree)

• St Francis – Red Flashes (monk)
• Univ North Texas – Mean Green (eagle)
• Kent State – Gold Flashes (eagle)

 

Weather

Yes, weather can be frightening. Now, I’m not talking about sunny summer days or gentle spring showers. How, though, to represent lighting, thunder, tornadoes or hurricanes?

• Iowa State – Cyclones (cardinal)
• Miami – Hurricanes (stork)

• St John’s – Red Storm (thunderbird)

 

Various Stuff

• Univ of Illinois Chicago – Flames (dragon)
• Liberty – Flames (eagle)
• Valparaiso – Beacons (dog)

• Cal State Long Beach – Beach (shark)
• Indiana State – Sycamores (??? – “a furry, blue and white creature designed to represent the school, not a specific animal”)

 

 

What the Heck Is It?

It’s hard to come up with a good mascot when you don’t even know what your team name’s supposed to be.

• Univ Alabama Birmingham – Blazers (dragon)
• Univ Tennessee Chattanooga – Mocs (mockingbird)

• St Bonaventure – Bonnies (wolf)
• St Thomas – Tommies (wildcat)
  
  
• Akron – Zips (kangaroo)
  NOTE:  Winner of a student contest, referring “to ‘Zippers,’ a brand of popular rubber overshoes produced by Akron's B.F. Goodrich Company”

• VPI – Hokies (turkey)
  NOTE:  From a cheer; no relation to turkeys that I can uncover

• Georgetown – Hoyas (bulldog)
  NOTE:  From a cheer, in Latin no less: Hoya saxa, “What rocks [these men are]”