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Sustainable Excellence Initiative


The same applies at Kansas-KU, Missouri-MU, Nebraska-NU, Oklahoma-OU and Denver-DU. "Midwestern casualness," says former CU historian Fred Casotti. It has always been this way at Colorado, for whatever reason, and at the other five listed above-but seemingly nowhere else in the USA. In the 1950s, there was a concerted effort to eliminate the use of "CU" on the Boulder campus, both as a symbol and in speech, but Casotti said that no one would buy into it. "Nobody would change," he said. "It's easier to say than U of C, UC sounds like slang or something (as in 'you see'), and it was traditional. By trying to eliminate it, they reinforced it."

The official colors of CU are silver and gold. According to the book Glory Colorado, these colors were adopted by the class of 1888, as a symbol of the mineral wealth of this state. But in 1921, as football became more popular, there were complaints from the students that silver and gold did not look good on football jerseys. In fact, silver and gold ended up looking like dirty gray and dark yellow. It wasn't until 1959 that the football team changed its jerseys to black with yellow. And although the football team seems to have set the trend with its color choice, CU still has the official colors of silver and gold.

What or who exactly is Ralphie?
The University of Colorado has the most unique mascot in all of intercollegiate atheltics, a real buffalo named Ralphie. The live buffalo mascot, now "Ralphie V," will continue the tradition of leading the football team out on the field both at the start of the game and the second half. The buffalo first appeared in 1934, and since 1966 has been a regular at CU home and bowl games, and even a select few road and neutral site contests. Check out Ralphie's page for a complete history!

If the nickname Buffaloes started in 1934, what was CU known as before that and how did Buffaloes get it start?
A 1934 contest to select an official school nickname by the Silver and Gold newspaper gave us the mascot or nickname Buffaloes. The nickname was officially bestowed upon the school's teams at halftime of the Homecoming game against Utah that season. Prior to 1934, CU athletic teams usually were referred to as the "Silver and Gold", but other nicknames teams were sometimes called included Silver Helmets, Yellow Jackets, Hornets, Arapahoes, Big Horns, Grizzlies and Frontiersmen. The campus newspaper announced the contest in the fall of 1934, with a $5 prize to go to the author of the winning selection. Claude Bates of New Madrid, Mo., and James Proffitt of Cincinnati, Ohio, were co-winners for the prize as both submitted Buffaloes as their entry. Athletic Director Harry Carlson, graduate manager Walter Franklin and Kenneth Bundy of the Silver and Gold were the judges. Through the years, synonyms which quickly came into use included "Bison", "Buffs", "Thundering Herd", "Stampeding Herd", "Golden Avalanche", and "Golden Buffaloes".

Exactly what sports does CU offer?
The University of Colorado athletic department sponsors 17 intercollegiate, NCAA-affiliated sports. In alphabetical order, they are basketball (men's and women's), cross country (men's and women's), football (men's), golf (men's and women's), lacrosse (women's), skiing (co-ed but counts as both a men's and women's sport), soccer (women's), tennis (women's) track and field (counts as four sports, men's and women's, indoor and outdoor) and volleyball (women's).

Why doesn't CU have baseball or wrestling (or some of the other sports it doesn't have)?
Those sports, along with men's and women's gymnastics, men's and women's swimming and women's diving comprised seven sports that were discontinued on June 11, 1980; the 1979-80 season was the last year of competition for each. At the time, schools needed 14 sports (any mix, men or women) to qualify for Division I status, and the cuts reduced our count to that minimum number (eight men's, six women's). It was purely based on dollars, as which non-revenue sports would be able to survive on shoestring budgets while we recovered from over a $1 million debt; sports like wrestling (No. 8) and the two gymnastics teams were nationally ranked when they were disbanded. The implications of Title IX and the growth of women's athletics led us to add four women's sports: volleyball (1986), golf (1994), soccer (1996) and lacrosse (spring 2014), while budget problems resulted in our dropping men's tennis (2006) bringing our count to 17 (skiing went co-ed in 1983, but still counts as one men's and one women's). As to adding any of these sports back, or adding new ones such as hockey, lacrosse, men's soccer or men's volleyball (the sports we get the most E-mails about), it still basically all comes down to budget. Once we're in a financial position where the sports we currently have are fully funded, we will consider expanding, but remember with Title IX, we would have to add sports in twos, one men's and one women's.

I heard CU had really good baseball, rowing and mountain biking teams, among others, why are they not on this website?
The University of Colorado's club sports is one of the most successful in the nation, as its mountain biking teams have won several national championships and other sports such as men's volleyball, rowing, baseball, and countless others have had a lot of success on the national level. However, these sports are not NCAA-affiliated and within the University, Club Sports is not a part of the Athletic Department. You can find out about all the club sports on their website.

When are schedules released?
It varies depending on sport. Football is unique in that we release a tentative non-conference schedule 5-6 years in advance. The Pac-12 schedules in big blocks so we will usually know those several years in advance. Every other sport is released one year at a time. Fall sports (volleyball, soccer and cross country) are usually released in the early summer months. Most other sports are released around the beginning of the school year (sometime in August), but there are always extenuating circumstances and situations that play into the exact date of release.

Along with that, why does the football schedule always say time is TBA until about two weeks and sometimes just one week before the game?
We understand it is at times frustrating not knowing the time of the game well in advance, but we do not release the time of the football games until we know which of the television partners will carry the game per the Pac-12 Networks contract. As frustrating as seeing TBA is, if we announced all the games will kick off at a certain time and ended up changing for television (with the advent of the Pac-12 Network, it's a virtual guarantee that all games will be televised), we feel it would be more frustrating and confusing trying to figure out the correct time.

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