From Aggies to Zips

[sigma7]

So I've been hammering away at Excel to whip up a list of colleges and nicknames. I don't know Excel well enough, and I figured it'd be an interesting exercise to come up with a list and frequency for collegiate nicknames -- we know there are more Wildcats than Owls, but how many?

Armed with the data from this Web site, made a spreadsheet, then spent a while trying to create an intelligent count of the unique nicknames. That took me the longest time, but having solved it, I'd like to share my findings.

There were 1617 nicknames, 539 distinct -- some schools (like Georgia Tech and Hofstra) have multiple nicknames, and some schools have different nicknames for gendered sports teams (Lyon College, University of Central Arkansas) and even different sports (the Haverford College baseball team is the Black Squirrels). There are 354 mascots unique to their college, from the Ambassadors to the Zips. Your top ten mascots are the Eagles (61), Panthers (52), Tigers (45), Bulldogs (39), Wildcats (37), Lions (34), Cougars (32), Pioneers [!] (31), Warriors (30) and Knights (26). There are still teams called the Red Men (Carthage College; Carthago delenda est?) and the Redmen (University of Rio Grande), five Indians, and one Seminoles. Seven teams are in some way purple, 22 red, 35 blue, five black, 53 gold, seven green, 18 yellow, and one white -- the White Mules of Colby College, Waterville, Maine. There are two Bees, one Super Bees, one Maccabees. Two Squirrels, one Black Squirrels (as above).

Disclaimers: "Fighting" has been dropped from the nicknames. Geographically distinct campuses get counted as separate colleges (Davenport University accounts for 20 of the 52 Panthers). There are 160 colleges tabulated that have no official nickname, including several incarnations of DeVry University. Surely they should be the Infomercials.

Comments

[nute.livejournal.com]

I prefer the DeVry Kudzu.

[lacrimaeveneris.livejournal.com]

Oh, the mules. Silly creatures (my school has a long running rivalry with Colby). We have the polar bears.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a lot of schools go the multiple route. Washburn has Ichabods for men and Lady Blues for women. University of Alberta has a tiger and a panda IIRC, depending on the sport.

[alstaria.livejournal.com]

w00t for the Maccabees!

(also for the Buckeyes)

[nsempress.livejournal.com]

I am, variously, a Husky, a Ram, and a Seminole. Sometimes I get confused which one I am now :/

[erica-roo.livejournal.com]

How many Beavers? I know we have a community college with that mascot and our high school mascot was the beaver... and so I am curious if other schools have gone that route, since you probably can't answer the real question: WHY?!!! I would so rather have been a Black Squirrel.

[querldox.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, one school which should have different nicknames for the men's and women's teams doesn't. Thus, the University of South Carolina's women's teams go by "Lady Gamecocks" and sometimes have to put up with the cheer of "Go 'Cocks!".

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

I bet there was only one "Judges"! Brandeis represent!

Re: Indian mascots, there are many others like the Utes, the Chippewas, the Fighting Sioux, the Illini... the Seminoles, in fact, may be the only one of these that has official approval from the tribe they portray. Seminole leaders designed Chief Osceola's costume in its current incarnation, Seminole tribe members get special scholarships to FSU, and while some activists continue to criticize the Seminoles, there's not a lot to be done when the tribe itself is cool with it. Too bad they still suck at football. ;-)

(Any other Gators?)

I'm a fan of non-plural mascots like the Crimson Tide, the Thundering Herd, etc.

[jenny0.livejournal.com]

I've been an Eagle, a Daisy, and a Saint. I think St. Andrews Saints is pretty lacking in imagination, to be honest.

My favourite team name is the Macon Whoopie (Macon, GA).

[daethkow.livejournal.com]

One of a kind.