BCS Top 10: How Each of the Top 10 Chose Their Nicknames

Did you ever wonder why the LSU Tigers are the LSU Tigers? Or why the Stanford Cardinal don't have an "s" like the other Cardinals teams? Well the answers are all here. 

I got to wondering about these things, so I started looking them up. Here are the current top 10 in the BCS and why they are called who they are called. 

10. Virginia Tech Hokies

Talk about your hokey names! No one is more hokey than the Hoakies! So, why are the Hoakies so hokey? Here's what they say on the website. 

"

What is a Hokie? The origin of the word "Hokie" has nothing to do with a turkey. It was coined by O. M. Stull (class of 1896), who used it in a spirit yell he wrote for a competition.

Here's how that competition came to be held. Virginia Tech was founded in 1872 as a land-grant institution and was named Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. In 1896, the Virginia General Assembly officially changed the college's name to Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute, a name so long that citizens shortened it in popular usage to VPI. The original college cheer, which made reference to the original name of the institution, was no longer suitable. Thus, a contest was held to select a new spirit yell, and Stull won the $5 top prize for his cheer, now known as Old Hokie:

Hoki, Hoki, Hoki, Hy.
Techs, Techs, V.P.I.
Sola-Rex, Sola-Rah.
Polytechs - Vir-gin-ia.
Rae, Ri, V.P.I.

"

Well that answers that question, but the next question is, if you play a Virginia Tech game in slow-mo, are you doing the Hokie Pokey?

9. Clemson Tigers

You may know that the Clemson Tigers beat the Auburn Tigers earlier this year, but did you know that the reason they are called the Tigers comes from Auburn? Based on Wikipedia, this is how they came to be known as the Tigers.

"

In 1896, football coach Walter Riggs came to Clemson, then Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina, from Auburn University. He had always admired the Princeton Tigers, and hence gave Clemson the Tiger mascot. 

"

It's like a little Tigers club apparently. Riggs is known as the "father of Clemson football." If you go there, the next time you pass Riggs Hall, that's who it's named after. 

8. Arkansas Razorbacks

The Arkansas Razorbacks are an aptly named team for the glorious game of pigskin, but how did they get their name? According to wiki:

"

The Razorbacks take their name from the feral pig of the same name. The University of Arkansas student body voted to change the name of the school mascot (originally the Cardinals) in 1910 to the Arkansas Razorbacks. The Arkansas Razorbacks are the only major sports team in the US with a porcine nickname, though the Texas A&M–Kingsville Javelinas play in Division II.

"

So why Razorbacks? There is a great site which has the history of the Arkansas Razorbacks here. It basically tells the story of how Hugo Bezdek once proclaimed the team "fought like a herd of razorbacks" after a game. Neither he nor the student body like the name Cardinals, so they voted to change it. 

Razorbacks are apparently very lean and mean and yes, fighting machines that can weight up to 300 pounds. 

7. Oregon Ducks

Did you know that the Oregon Ducks had quite a fight go secure their nickname, including a basketball coach that swore he would never use such "fowl" language? Here's the story of how they came to be known as the Ducks from College Football History.

"

Before Donald came to Eugene, thanks to the benevolence of Walt Disney, no duck seemed destined to represent the school as its mascot. In fact, during the University's early days, Oregon's pride was tied to a patriotic band of New England anglers with soggy soles. University students re-ferred to themselves as Webfooters. 

Then through the intervening decades, once the duck nickname had found its rightful home, the downy mascot faced challenges from the Humane Society, the student newspaper, a football coach who preferred that his Donald bare his teeth, and a basketball coach who refused to even utter his name. 

Originally, the prevailing campus sentiment was that the University shouldn't degrade itself by dabbling in such nonsense as nicknames and water fowl. The nickname game began early this century when Oregon was originally known as "The Webfoot State." Students took a shine to the slogan and referred to themselves as Webfoots and their yearbook as "The Webfoot." (When the new motto became "The Beaver State" in 1909, Oregon students changed the yearbook name to "The Beaver" before switching back.) 

The Webfoots reference can be traced to a hearty band of Massachusetts fishermen, who in 1776 helped save General George Washington and some 10,000 of his troops from imminent defeat at the hands of the British. When many of the Webfoots' ancestors migrated west of the Cascades and settled in the Willamette Valley in the 1840s, the name stuck to their muddy shoes and came with them. 

L.H. Gregory, sports editor of The Oregonian, has been credited with coining Webfoots as the school's athletic nickname, even though the students had seen themselves as such since the turn of the century. Headline writers searching for ways to parse Webfoots into their sports pages began churning out Ducks, which the students eventually voted as their new nickname over Timberwolves and Lumberjacks. A second student-body election in 1932 beat back the challenges of Trappers, Pioneers, Yellowjackets and Spearsmen, the latter in honor of football coach C.W. Spears, who left before the '32 season for a similar post at Wisconsin. 

Oregon's first live mascot had surfaced in the 1920s when "Puddles," a resident of the nearby Millrace, was escorted to football and basketball games by his fraternity-house neighbors. Puddles and his various offspring were part of the Duck sports scene until the early 1940s when repeated complaints from the Humane Society finally sucked the fun out of bringing a live duck to games. 

However, Puddles' memory was preserved in 1947 when Oregon's first athletic director, Leo Harris, struck a handshake arrangement with Walt Disney. Donald's likeness could serve as a mascot, as long as it was done in good taste. The unique deal stood for 20 years, with Walt Disney Productions providing several versions of the duck for Oregon's use, until the cartoonist's death in 1966. That's when both parties realized no formal contract existed granting the University the right to Donald's image. 

The best evidence Harris could offer was a photograph taken two decades earlier showing the late Mr. Disney in an Oregon letterman's jacket with Donald clearly visible on the front. Disney representatives agreed to negotiate the first written contract in 1973 for the athletic department's continued use of Donald. 

However, not everyone accepted the cartoon mascot's image at face value. Jerry Frei, Oregon's football coach for five seasons (1967-71), wanted Donald to sport teeth in his bill to better portray his team's "Fighting Ducks" image. And Dick Harter, the men's basketball coach for seven years (1971-78), disdained the Duck nickname altogether and insisted that any public relations materials refer only to his "Kamikaze Kids." 

Then Oregon's duck endured another popularity contest in 1978 when a cartoonist for the student newspaper pushed his Mallard Drake as a suitable successor to Donald, prompting one local high school student to comment that "if that sleazy Duck makes it, I'm going to OSU." Donald was the students' overwhelming choice by a 2-to-1 landslide in an election that saw more than twice the typical voter turnout on campus. 

Donald Duck found even more support for his 50th birthday celebration in 1984 during a visit to the Eugene City Airport that drew 3,000 to 4,000 fans for the presentation of an academic cap and gown to Donald, who was named an honorary alumnus of the University of Oregon. Thousands of area residents signed a congratulatory scroll for Donald, and that document is now part of Disney's corporate archives. 

Donald remained the lone duck mascot in any collegiate or professional capacity until the advent of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks franchise in the National Hockey League in 1993. Now, he looks forward to the next millennium in yellow and green as Oregon's enduring ambassador for the future. 

"

Donald a "sleazy duck?" Who knew? I wonder if he "ducked" the questions about his sleazy past. 

6: Oklahoma Sooners

Oklahoma is the only team to be known as the Sooners. If you remember your Civil War era history, you might be able to forget why. If you don't, here's what Sooners Sports reveals about why they are the Sooners. 

"

 
The origins of Oklahoma's nickname stretch back to the Civil War era. The Homestead Act of 1862, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, provided that a legal settler could claim 160 acres of public land, and those who lived on and improved the claim for five years could receive title.
 
"Boomers" were settlers who favored the opening of unassigned lands in the Oklahoma Territory and lobbied the U.S. government to this end. Promoting the "Boomer's Paradise," early advocates of settlement in the Unassigned Lands began what is referred to as the "Boomer Movement.
 
The Boomer Movement gained new momentum in 1886 and 1887 when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway constructed a line that ran right through the Unassigned Lands. Rail stations at Guthrie, Edmond, Oklahoma (City), Verbeck (Moore), and Norman, created when the line was built, offered high potential for townsites.
 
At this time political pressure was exerted to open up the Unassigned Lands to settlement. In 1889 an amendment to the Indian Appropriations Bill allowed President Benjamin Harrison to proclaim the Unassigned Lands open for settlement.
 
At high noon on April 22, 1889, legal aspirants would be able to enter the Oklahoma Territory and choose 160 acres of land. The event soon became known as the "Oklahoma Land Run" or "Land Run of 1889". Settlers from across the globe, seeking free land, made their way to Oklahoma Territory to stake their claim to a new life.
 
The great dramatic moment came when, at the stroke of noon, starting signals were given at the many points of entry. In some instances it was given by a blue-clad military officer firing his pistol or by his trumpeter, at times by a citizen firing his rifle in the air, or, as at Fort Reno, by the boom of a cannon. All produced the same results -- a tumultuous avalanche of wagons and horsemen surging forward all in one breathtaking instant. 
 
April 22, 1889, was a day of chaos, excitement, and utter confusion. But it was nonetheless a significant day in national history, one that gave birth to new hope for thousands of Americans and became an iconic image in the history of the west.
 
One of the few rules to claiming a lot of land was that all participants were to start at the same time. Those who went too soon were called "Sooners". Sooners were often deputy marshals, land surveyors, railroad employees, and others who were able to legally enter the territory early to mark out choice pieces of land for themselves or others.
 
As time went on, "Sooner" came to be a synonym of Progressivism. The Sooner was an "energetic individual who travels ahead of the human procession." He was prosperous, ambitious, competent, a "can-do" individual. And Oklahoma was the Sooner State, the land of opportunity, enterprise and economic expansion, very much in the Progressive spirit that engulfed the old South in the 1920s.
 
OU athletics teams were called Rough Riders or Boomers for 10 years before the current Sooner nickname emerged in 1908. The university actually derived the name from a pep club called 'The Sooner Rooters.' 
 
Today, the thunderous chants of "Boomer! Sooner!" roll across the Oklahoma landscape. The success of University of Oklahoma athletics teams over the years has made the nickname synonymous with winning

"

5. Boise State Broncos

I couldn't find why they were called the Broncos, so instead here's how the blue turf came to be. 

"

After 16 seasons of playing on standard green AstroTurf, athletic director Gene Bleymaier came up with the idea to install the blue turf. He decided that, if BSU was going to spend $750,000 on a new surface, he didn't want to see BSU install yet another green field, and that a blue field might provide some national notoriety for the school, then a member of the Big Sky Conference. Bleymaier gained the support of BSU President John Keiser, and on September 13, Bronco Stadium introduced its unique playing surface to the world with a 74-0 victory over Division II Humboldt State. (BSU was 4-2 at home in 1986, but managed just one road victory and posted their first losing record in four decades, resulting in the resignation of fourth-year head coach Lyle Setencich.)

BSU replaced the first blue AstroTurf with the same in 1995, then with blue Astroplay (a grass-like synthetic surface that is more forgiving than traditional AstroTurf) in 2002. The AstroPlay field lasted just six seasons and was replaced in the summer of 2008 with blue FieldTurf surface. Due to complaints by fans that the reflection and glare off the field gave the new field a dull and uneven shade of blue, FieldTurf agreed to replace the field free of charge. The fifth blue turf was installed in the summer of 2010.

"

I imagine most of the Boise State fans are blue today. 

4. Stanford Cardinal

In case you've ever wondered why the Stanford Cardinal faithful get so upset when you refer to them as "Cardinals" and make "off-color" remarks, it's because Cardinals is a name for the birds!

"

Following its win over Cal in the first-ever Big Game in 1892, the color cardinal was picked as the primary color of Stanford's athletic teams. White was adopted as a secondary color in the 1940s.

In 1930, the athletic department adopted the mascot "Indian." The Indian symbol and name were later dropped by President Richard Lyman in 1972, after objections from Native American students and a vote by the student senate.

From 1972 to 1981, the official nickname was the Cardinals. Despite the plural form of the name, the name was intended to refer to the color, not the bird. During the 1970s, a number of suggestions were put forth as possible nicknames: Robber Barons (a sly reference to Leland Stanford's history), Sequoias, Trees, Railroaders, Spikes, Huns and Griffins. The last suggestion gained enough momentum to prompt the university to move two griffin statues to be near the athletic facilities.

On November 17, 1981, school President Donald Kennedy declared that the athletic teams be represented by the color Cardinal in its singular form.

Stanford has no official mascot, but the Stanford Tree, a member of the Stanford Band wearing a self-designed tree costume, appears at major Stanford sports events. The Tree is based upon El Palo Alto, a redwood tree in Palo Alto that appears in the Stanford seal and athletics logo.

"

3. Alabama Crimson Tide

My guess was that it had something to do with Christianity, but I guess I was wrong. Here's how the Crimson Tide came to be known as such. 

"

Early newspaper accounts of the University's football squad simply referred to them as the "varsity" or the "Crimson White." The first nickname popular with the media was the "Thin Red Line," which was used until 1906. Hugh Roberts, former sports editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald, is credited with coining the phrase "Crimson Tide" in an article describing the 1907 Iron Bowl played in Birmingham. The game was played in a sea of red mud with Auburn, a heavy favorite to win. Alabama held Auburn to a 6-6 tie, thus graduating to their newfound nickname.

"

2: Oklahoma State Cowboys

Did you know that Oklahoma State used to be the Aggies? I sure didn't. Here's what Wikipedia reveals about how the Cowboys came to be known as the Cowboys. 

"

Prior to 1957, OSU was known as Oklahoma A&M. As was common with most land-grant schools, its teams were known for many years as Aggies. However, in 1923, A&M was looking for a new mascot to replace its pet tiger (the inspiration behind the school colors of orange and black). A group of students saw Frank Eaton leading the Armistice Day Parade. He was approached to see if he would be interested in being the model for the new mascot, and he agreed. The caricature that was drawn that year is more or less the same as the one used today.

The new mascot had become so popular that by 1924, Charles Saulsberry, sports editor of the Oklahoma City Times, began calling A&M's teams the Cowboys. "Aggies" and "Cowboys" were used interchangeably until A&M was elevated to university status in 1957.

"

I'm still not sure what "tigers" and "aggies" have to do with each other, but now it doesn't matter. Pistol Pete and Cowboys work together just great. 

1. LSU Tigers

If you're assuming that LSU chose it's name based on the animal, you'd be making an... well you know the expression. Here's what collegefootballhistory.com reveals about how the Tigers claimed their name. 

"

According to Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr., PhD. and the "Guide to Louisiana Confederate Military Units, 1861-1865" (LSU Press, 1989), the name Louisiana Tigers evolved from a volunteer company nicknamed the Tiger Rifles, which was organized in New Orleans. This company became a part of a battalion commanded by Major Chatham Roberdeau Wheat and was the only company of that battalion to wear the colorful Zouave uniform. In time, Wheat's entire battalion was called the Tigers. 

That nickname in time was applied to all of the Louisiana troops of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The tiger symbol came from the famous Washington Artillery of New Orleans. A militia unit that traces its history back to the 1830s, the Washington Artillery had a logo that featured a snarling tiger's head. These two units first gained fame at the Battle of First Manassas on July 21, 1861. Major David French Boyd, first president of LSU after the war, had fought with the Louisiana troops in Virginia and knew the reputation of both the Tiger Rifles and Washington Artillery.

Thus when LSU football teams entered the gridiron battlefields in their fourth year of intercollegiate competition, they tagged themselves as the 'Tigers'.

"

Now the question is which of the rifle arms will the Tigers hope carries them to the BCS Championship.