How Every School in the AP Top 25 Got Its Nickname

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The college football season kicks off next week. Prepare yourself by taking a look at how each team in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25 got its nickname.

1. University of Southern California


2. Alabama

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3. Louisiana State

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4. Oklahoma

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5. Oregon

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6. Georgia

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7. Florida State

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8. Michigan

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Michigan was not nicknamed the Wolverine State because a large number of the largest member of the weasel family roamed within its borders. In fact, the first verified sighting of a wolverine in Michigan wasn’t until 2004. Instead, the state nickname may date back to a border dispute between Ohio and Michigan in 1803 known as the Toledo War. It’s unclear whether the Ohioans applied the nickname to their rivals as a derogatory term or if Michiganders coined it themselves as a source of pride. Wolverines were well known as a fierce and ornery species that would kill much larger prey. Regardless, Michigan would become known as the Wolverine State and the University of Michigan adopted the nickname for its athletic teams.

9. South Carolina

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10. Arkansas

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Arkansas’s athletic teams weren’t always known as the Razorbacks. From 1894 until 1910, the football team was known as the Cardinals, a reference to the deep shade of red that the student body voted the school’s official color—over heliotrope—in 1895. Upon returning to Fayetteville after Arkansas’s 1909 team capped off an undefeated season with a 16-9 win at rival LSU, head coach Hugo Bezdek announced to the crowd of cheering students that his team had played “like a wild band of Razorback hogs.” Arkansas High School in Texarkana, Texas, which first used the Razorbacks nickname, agreed to share the moniker and the wild boar known for its fighting ability was adopted as the university’s mascot in 1910. “Wooo, Pig, Sooie” was incorporated as the school yell, or “Hog Call,” during the 1920s, while the Razorbacks debuted a live mascot in the 1960s.

11. West Virginia

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West Virginia’s football team was known as the Snakes until Mountaineers was adopted in the early 1900s. The nickname went well with the state motto, “Mountaineers are always free.” West Virginia’s Mountaineer mascot first appeared during the 1934-35 school year.

12. Wisconsin

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13. Michigan State

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14. Clemson

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When Walter Merritt Riggs established the first football team at Clemson in 1896, he borrowed the colors (purple and orange) and nickname (Tigers) from his previous institution, the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama, which would later become Auburn.

15. Texas

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In the early 1900s, the Texas athletic teams were known primarily as the Varsity or Steers, and occasionally the Longhorns. In 1913, school benefactor H.J. Lutcher Stark, who had previously served as the football team’s manager, donated warm-up blankets with the word “Longhorn” sewn into them. The student body adopted Longhorns as the school’s official nickname and introduced a live Longhorn as the official mascot in 1916.

16. Virginia Tech

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After the Virginia General Assembly changed the name of the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College to the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute in 1896, the school held a contest to come up with a new spirit yell. O.M. Stull, a member of the class of 1896, won the $5 prize for his cheer, which began, “Hoki, Hoki, Hoki, Hy! Techs, Techs, V.P.I.!” According to Virginia Tech’s school website, an ‘e’ was added to the end of ‘Hoki’ by 1903 and Stull’s cheer became known as “Old Hokie.” Virginia Tech’s connection with the turkey (or gobbler, if you prefer) may date back to 1909, when coach Branch Bocock initiated his players into an informal “Gobbler Club.”

17. Nebraska

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18. Ohio State

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19. Oklahoma State

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Before Oklahoma State University was OSU, it was Oklahoma A&M, and its athletic teams were known as the Agriculturists, Aggies, Farmers, or Tigers. The Tigers moniker and the selection of orange and black as the school’s colors were reportedly a tribute to a faculty member whose father was a Princeton graduate. Oklahoma A&M would become known as the “Princeton of the Plains.”

In 1923, the school was in search of a new mascot when U.S. Deputy Marshall Frank “Pistol Pete” Eaton led the Armistice Day parade in Stillwater. Eaton, a renowned marksman, would become the model upon which OSU’s Pistol Pete mascot and Cowboys nickname were based. One year later, Oklahoma City Times sports editor Charles Saulsberry started referring to A&M as the Cowboys, and in 1926, balloons printed with “Oklahoma Aggies – Ride ‘Em Cowboy” were sold at home football games. Aggies and Cowboys were used interchangeably until the school was renamed Oklahoma State University in 1957.

20. Texas Christian University

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There are at least two accounts of how TCU's athletic teams became the Horned Frogs, but both of them trace the nickname to the late 19th century, when the school was still known as AddRan College. According to one story, the school’s football team practiced on a field that was teeming with horned frogs. The players shared some attributes with the fierce reptiles, not including their ability to shoot a stream of blood through their eyes, and reportedly began referring to themselves as horned frogs. According to another story, a four-student committee chose the nickname in 1897 for the football team and school yearbook.

21. Stanford

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22. Kansas State

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23. Florida

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In 1911, Florida’s student monthly, The Pennant, nicknamed Everglades native and UF center Neal Storter “Bo Gator.” According to The Pennant, the Alligator nickname was extended to the whole team during Florida’s trip to South Carolina that same year. Florida would finish undefeated that season and a local vendor ordered banners that featured an alligator. The nickname stuck.

24. Boise State

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Boise State’s nickname dates back to the school’s days as Boise Junior College. Originally founded by the Episcopal Church in 1932, the school attained four-year status and became Boise College in 1965. After a short stint as Boise State College, the school attained university status in 1974. If a Boise State alum, or anyone else for that matter, knows anything more about the origins of the Broncos nickname, please share in the comments.

25. Louisville

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Louisville chose Cardinal as its nickname sometime around 1913. The cardinal is Kentucky’s state bird.

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August 23, 2012 - 5:30pm
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