College nickname changes

[TNT44]

Nebraska was the Bugeaters before being renamed the Cornhuskers

they were also the hawkeyes and the Mankilling Mastodons as well

Interestingly enough, Iowa was known as the Cornhuskers before settling on Hawkeyes.

The University of Northern Iowa was known as the Teachers (they were then called the Iowa State Teachers College) before taking on the Panthers nickname.

[Herk]

Nebraska was the Bugeaters before being renamed the Cornhuskers

they were also the hawkeyes and the Mankilling Mastodons as well

Interestingly enough, Iowa was known as the Cornhuskers before settling on Hawkeyes.

The University of Northern Iowa was known as the Teachers (they were then called the Iowa State Teachers College) before taking on the Panthers nickname.

Iowa being called the Cornhuskers actually makes more sense than Nebraska.

[ferrousoxide66]

...and I don't know why it's taken me THIS long to make sense of Stanford's nickname "the Cardinal", singular. The color... *FACEPALM*

Funniest part of all that is there is a high school in San francisco called Lowell high (where my mother went), and they followed Stanford's scheme and were the Lowell Indians. Right after they changed to Cardinal, they ditched copying Stanford and began copying the Arizona Cardinals.

Yep. I went to Lowell High and I was part of "the last of the Indians" class. That was a mascot vote that was essentially FOISTED upon us as no one really wanted the "Cardinal/Cardinals" connotation. I seem to remember some goofy "Thunderchicken"-esque names garnering most of the support.

Recently, they've been utilizing the Az Cardinals head on their football team helmets, which does look nice - but that didn't come until I was long gone from the school.

[Discrim]

a very brief history of UW Whitewater monikers:

pre-1957: Whitewater teams were known as the Quakers

1957: wanting to project a tougher image, a name the team contest was held through the school paper, and the winning entry was Warhawks. At least one of the four students who sent in the winning name had wanted the mascot to be a hawk, but an Indian was used instead (the logo was an upward-pointnig arrowhead with an Indian holding up a spear inside)

mid-1970s (either 74 or 75): head football coach Forrest Perkins said about the mascot that he never meant for it to be an Indian, and thus Willie Warhawk traded in his Indian garb to become a hawk.

[gosioux76]

Fighting Gobblers? Wow...but then, that also would explain why and/or how the school came about using the likeness of a turkey as its mascot.

I've probably mentioned this before on these boards, but my high school alma mater in Minnesota also has "Gobblers" as a moniker, by virtue of a long-gone turkey processing plant that used to be town.

I remember being told that we were the only school in the country except for Virginia Tech that used the name. Maybe it's because it's hard to develop school spirit around the source of a popular holiday meal? That would also explain the lack of teams named the "Hams."

[gueman]

My favorite part of the story is that years later, according to legend, some Virginia Legislators, who were grads of UVA, VPI's rival school, passed legislation, officially changing the definition of "Hokie" to mean, "a castrated Turkey".

Um I think this Hokie missed the memo on being castrated, 'cause he looks like he is pitching a tent for sure!