College nickname changes

[Chiefster2000]

Can you think of any college nickname changes? These are all the ones I could remember/find. If you can think of one that I missed please let me know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unive...e_United_States

This is a List of university and college nickname changed in the United States.

* Adams State Indians, now the "Grizzlies"

* Carlisle Indians, a school for American Indians that was a college football power in the early 1900s

* Chowan Braves, reverted to "Hawks" in 2006

* Carthage Redmen, reverted to the "Red Men"

* Cumberland Indians, now the Cumberlands "Patriots" Previously known as Cumberland College until 2005, when it became the University of the Cumberlands. The nickname change came earlier.

* Dartmouth Indians, disused since the 1970s in favor of continuing existing nickname, "Big Green"

* Dickinson State Savages, renamed the "Blue Hawks" in 1972

* Eastern Michigan Hurons, now the "Eagles"

* Eastern Washington Savages, now the "Eagles"

* Louisiana-Monroe Indians, now the "Warhawks"

* Marquette Warriors, became the "Golden Eagles" in 1994

* UMass Redmen, became the "Minutemen" in 1972 (According to the University, "Redmen" and "Redwomen" referred to the uniforms worn by the atletics teams. It was changed to "Minutemen" and "Minutewomen" out of sensitivity to American Indians.)

* MCLA Mohawks, today the "Trailblazers"

* Miami Redskins, in mid-1997, officially changed their names to the "RedHawks"

* Mississippi Flood, changed to Rebels

* Midwestern State Indians, changed to Mustangs

* Nebraska Wesleyan Plainsmen, today the "Prairie Wolves"

* Oklahoma City University Chiefs, now the "Stars"

* Quinnipiac Braves, became the "Bobcats" in 2002

* St. Bonaventure Brown Indians and Brown Squaws, renamed the "Bonnies" in 1979

* St. John's Redmen, became the "Red Storm" in 1995, to be gender-neutral and to avoid any appearance of racism. St. John's website indicates that the name did not refer to American Indians, but to the school color, a bright cardinal red.

* Simpson Redmen and Lady Reds, renamed the "Storm" in 1992

* Southeast Missouri State Indians and Otahkians, renamed the "Redhawks"

* Southeastern Oklahoma State Savages, renamed "Savage Storm" in 2006

* Seattle University Chieftains, now the "Redhawks"

* Southern Colorado Indians, renamed the ThunderWolves in 1995. It is currently Colorado State University-Pueblo, the nickname change came earlier.

* Southern Nazarene Redskins, now the "Crimson Storm"

* Springfield College Chiefs, now the "Pride"

* Stanford Indians, now known as the Stanford "Cardinal" (singular - for the school color, a shade of red)

* Stonehill Chieftains, today the "Skyhawks"

* Syracuse University Orangemen and Orangewomen, indigenous to Ireland, renamed "Orange" in 2004

* University of Central Florida Golden Knights, renamed Knights in 2007.

List of changes as a result of college or university name change or merger

* Case Scientists & Rough Riders, Scientist was used from 1918-1938 and Rough Riders was used from 1930-1971 when changed to Case Western Reserve University and became the Spartans.

* Fenn College Foxes, changed to Cleveland State University in 1965 and became the Vikings.

* Western Reserve Pioneers & Red Cats, Pioneers used from 1921-1928 and the Red Cats used from 1928-1971 when changed to Case Western Reserve University and became the Spartans.

* Oklahoma A&M Aggies, changed to Oklahoma State University in 1957 and became the Cowboys.

[winghaz]

Looks like the best changes were at UMass and Oklahoma State. Minutemen fits perfectly for UMass, as does Cowboys for OSU. These are names they should have been called all along.

[JetsLuvver]

Arkansas State Indians- Red Wolves

Florida International Sunblazers- Golden Panthers

Tennessee-Martin Pacers- Skyhawks

Oakland Pioneers- Golden Grizzlies

Oral Roberts Titans- Golden Eagles

IUPUI Metros- Jaguars

Elon Christians- Phoenix

[oz615]

Belmont Rebels - Bruins

[leopard88]

Lehigh Engineers --> Packers --> Brown and White --> Engineers (again, IIRC) --> Mountain Hawks (all between roughly 1985 and 1997). Apparently someone decided Engineers was not representative of the student body as a whole, then all hell broke loose.

[Gary]

Arizona State Owls-Bulldogs-Sun Devils, although they have also changed their names of schools as well from Normal School to Teachers School to ASU. Now UofA have always had Sun Devils B**** as their nickname for years

[Discrim]

Notre Dame Ramblers-->Fighting Irish...IIRC there was actually a smattering of other names, but Ramblers was the other main name the scribes used to tag ND football with back in the day

Marquette Golden Avalanche>Hilltoppers>Warriors>Golden Eagles>Gold>Golden Eagles...and there was something else before Golden Avalanche, but I forget what it was. in a perverse way, I kinda wish they'd stuck with Golden Nothings/Golden Gold/Golden Whats/Insert Markette Gold joke here

Wisconsin-Whitewater Quakers>Warhawks...something you'd only learn if you ever stepped foot in UWW's athletic building. "Warhawks" was adopted in the 50s, and initially carried with it an Indian logo before a hawk replaced the native in the mid 70s.

Wisconsin-La Crosse Indians-->Eagles...strangely, my high school has a book about UWL football in its library. Nothin weird about that other than UWL and Case HS are on opposite sides of the state. anyway, UWL changed for the 1989-90 season IIRC.

UW Green Bay Bay Badgers-->Phoenix

Milwaukee State Green Gulls-->Milwaukee State (WSU-Milwaukee) Cardinals-->UW Milwaukee Panthers

Gonzaga Fighting Irish-->Bulldogs/Zags...yup, once upon a time Gonzaga harbored a dream of becoming the western Notre Dame.

[BBTV]

Indiana University of Pennsylvania --> Indians --> Nothing --> Indians (with a bear? mascot) --> Crimson Hawks

No word yet on if actual town of Indiana, PA has plans on renaming itself Crimson Hawk.

[TruColor]

I'm going to start a new thread over on the Logos board about this, but I've been working hard on my College Colors & Nicknames section on the SSUR.

I have been tracking this stuff for almost 30 years, and do store historical information on nicknames, as well as color changes. Four-year schools, two-year schools, Canadian colleges, etc.

Bear with me - I have a LOT of updating to do right now...but, I have current editions of my primary sources either on hand or on the way to me, and should have everything ready in the next couple of months.

SSUR - College Colors & Nicknames

[hettinger_rl]

South Dakota State University Barnyard Cadets: Now the Jackrabbits

[Gary]

I'm going to start a new thread over on the Logos board about this, but I've been working hard on my College Colors & Nicknames section on the SSUR.

I have been tracking this stuff for almost 30 years, and do store historical information on nicknames, as well as color changes. Four-year schools, two-year schools, Canadian colleges, etc.

Bear with me - I have a LOT of updating to do right now...but, I have current editions of my primary sources either on hand or on the way to me, and should have everything ready in the next couple of months.

SSUR - College Colors & Nicknames

Helpin out Donovan, here is the one for Glendale Community College in Glendale, AZ

Glendale Community College is in the Western States Football League and is affiliated with the NJCAA and has won the NJCAA National Championship in 1988, 2000, and 2005.

[Herk]

Nebraska was named the Bugeaters in the early 1900s.

Iowa State (then Ames College) was initially named the Cardinals until I think 1899.

Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks used to be the University of Omaha Indians

Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) Wolves used to be the Crusaders until late 90s or early 00s

Knox College (Ill.) Prairie Fire used to be the Siwash

[Mac the Knife]

Indiana University of Pennsylvania --> Indians --> Nothing --> Indians (with a bear? mascot) --> Crimson Hawks

No word yet on if actual town of Indiana, PA has plans on renaming itself Crimson Hawk.

I never got the bear mascot (introduced shortly after my time there), and WTF a Crimson Hawk is, I have no goddamned idea. I knew it would be the name as soon as I heard it come out of Tony Atwater's mouth though - just one of those cases where you hear something absolutely ridiculous, completely opposite of whatever else is being said, and know that's the way it's going to end up.

[leopard88]

Notre Dame Ramblers-->Fighting Irish...IIRC there was actually a smattering of other names, but Ramblers was the other main name the scribes used to tag ND football with back in the day

Well, if you want to go this far back, you can probably include half of the colleges in the country.

Maryland Old Liners --> Terrapins

Lafayette Maroon --> Leopards

Georgetown Stonewalls --> Hoyas

And a more recent one that I forgot before --

Colgate Red Raiders --> Raiders

[B-Rich]

Can you think of any college nickname changes? These are all the ones I could remember/find. If you can think of one that I missed please let me know.

I'm going to start a new thread over on the Logos board about this, but I've been working hard on my College Colors & Nicknames section on the SSUR.

I have been tracking this stuff for almost 30 years, and do store historical information on nicknames, as well as color changes. Four-year schools, two-year schools, Canadian colleges, etc.

Bear with me - I have a LOT of updating to do right now...but, I have current editions of my primary sources either on hand or on the way to me, and should have everything ready in the next couple of months.

SSUR - College Colors & Nicknames

Another pretty good resource for these older names is The College Names of the Games: The Stories Behind the Nicknames of 293 College Sports Teams ( Amazon link). I happen to have a copy, and it is a really interesting and informative book. Not sure if it's ever been updated; my copy is pretty much out of date by now (has things like Miami Redskins, St. John's Redmen, etc.) but still gives great history as to original nicknames, how and when they changed, and often how color schemes were adopted.

Others off the top of my head:

USM-- Southerners (pre-1970s) now Golden Eagles

Tulane -- Goats, Greenies, later adapted into Green Wave.

Georgia Tech -- Often called "Engineers" in early days.

[illwauk]

Milwaukee State Green Gulls-->Milwaukee State (WSU-Milwaukee) Cardinals-->UW Milwaukee Panthers

IIRC, they were the Green Gulls the entire time they were Milwaukee State. They didn't become the Cardinals until 1956 when they became part of the UW system. They went from green and white to cardinal and white to look like the Badgers because (at the time) they were the only other UW school besides Madison. When the UW system opened up two other campuses (Green Bay and Parkside) in 1965, UWM changed their colors to black and yellow and became the Panthers.

[ElwoodCuse]

Oh, Wikipedia. Syracuse had nothing to do with the Irish, they picked "Orange" (and thus Orangemen) because their original school colors were awful and when they decided to switch, they discovered no other college at the time had orange as a single official color.

[roxfan00]

Colorado A&M Aggies=Colorado State Rams

University of Colorado Silver Helmets >Frontiersmen > Buffaloes

[SgtCarp]

Shippensburg University (PA)-Red Raiders->just plain old Raiders. They used to have a Native American for their logo but deemed it disrespectful so changed to Raiders and now have just a ship. The only reason I know that is because my cousin went there. Couldn't find the old logo, just the ship.

http://www.ecrha.net/pps-medias/3601.gif

[sacker12]

Troy (State)- Bulldogs; Teachers; Red Wave; Trojans.

The institutional name has changed over the years from Troy (State) Normal School, Troy State Teacher's College, Troy State College, Troy State University, and now to it's current name, Troy University.