 RIT's athletics nickname is the "Tigers", a name given following the undefeated men's basketball season of 1955–56.Prior to that, RIT's athletic teams were called the "Techmen" and had blue and silver as the sports colors.In 1963, RIT students fundraised using ‘Tigershares’ to buy a rescued Bengal tiger cub which became the university's mascot, named SpiRIT which stands for Student Pride in RIT(Rochester Institute of Technology).