The Best Nickname in the NESCAC Poll Primer

In light of Amherst's switch to the Mammoths earlier this year and the reveal of the logo this past weekend, we are dusting off the poll for best mascot in the NESCAC. We'll leave the poll open until opening night of the season (poll is on the right sidebar; if you are in mobile mode you'll have to switch to desktop mode). May the best animal or self-referential name win!

Poll: Who has the best nickname in the NESCAC?
With all due respect to the Bates Bobcats and their alliterative mascot choice, we are sticking to the ten men's hockey members of the 'CAC. Below is a little primer for each school's mascot, from the more straightforward (Cardinals) to the newest/ancient (Mammoths) to the ones that make you say huh? (Ephs). The listing is in random order from the regular season standings nearly five years ago when the original poll was generated and in no way reflects any biases here at HITC.

1. Bowdoin: Polar Bears

As Bowdoin's athletic website describes, its association with the polar bear dates back to Admiral Robert E. Peary (Bowdoin class of 1877)'s discovery of the North Pole in 1909.  The school officially made the majestic arctic creature its mascot in 1913 (and just celebrated his 100th birthday in NYC) and Admiral Donald B. MacMillan (Class of 1877) even captured a polar bear for the school, presenting it to them with these words: "May his spirit be the Guardian Spirit not only of Bowdoin Athletics but of every Bowdoin [person.]”

The class of 1912 donated a life sized granite sculpture (pictured) in 1937, which sits in front of Sargent Gymnasium and remains a prominent symbol of the school. For further reading about the polar bear and Bowdoin's bromance, click here. 


2. Williams: Ephs 

Ephs comes from Ephraim, an archaic biblical name whose existence all but vanished from the U.S. culture landscape by 1900. It also happens to be the first name of  Colonel Ephraim Williams, a solider that died in the French and Indian War, nearly four decades before the founding of the college in 1793. Despite its namesake never intending to found a college, the school was started using funds bequeathed by Williams. 

As far as the purple, that association came from hastily created rosettes for a Harvard vs. Williams baseball game in 1867. Learning that Harvard had adopted crimson but Williams had no color, the sister and cousin (who would later become Winston Churchill's mom) of a player made the rosettes, to be pinned on each player, with the inscription: "Let this royal purple be the Williams color, and may it bring you the victory over Harvard."

The purple cow came from a 1907 student vote for a mascot, chosen for the popular  humor magazine on campus The Purple Cow. Reader's Digest also named the purple cow "The Most Loveable Mascot" in 2011. So there's that. For more on the history, click here. 

3. Amherst: Mammoths

We don't need to rehash the story of the old (unofficial) mascot, which you can find by perusing this site or simply using google (or bing, if you are (Dr.) Sebastian Gorka, apparently). After ditching the old nickname in January 2016, the school began a search process last October with suggestions from the Amherst community. The selection committee narrowed it down to 30 semifinalists in December with the likes of Hamsters (an anagram of Amherst) and Fighting Poets (because why not?) joining the ancient tusked animal in the running.

In March of this year, the list was narrowed down to five before the mammoth narrowly defeated the Purple and White (what we had grown accustomed to calling Amherst in the absence of a mascot) in the final vote tally this April. Then, last Friday, Amherst President Biddy Martin unveiled the logo at a homecoming rally (see video below).

As for the tie to the school, the natural history museum on campus displays the skeleton of a Columbian mammoth discovered by former Amherst prof Frederick Brewster Loomis.




4. Trinity: Bantams
A small mascot for a small college conference; the bantam  roosters are known for their aggressiveness and "puffed up" disposition. Trinity's connection to the poultry dates back to federal jurist Joseph Buffington (class of 1875) and his speech at an 1899 Princeton Alumni Association dinner. Discussing the "college barnyard" he said this:

"You will therefore understand, gentlemen, the spirit in which the Trinity bantam, game from comb to spur, crows at your door, hops in, shakes his tail feathers, and with sociable nod to the venerable John [Harvard], and a good natured "How d'ydo" to the ponderous old Elihu [Yale] steps into the collegiate cock pit, makes his best bow to the tiger [Princeton], says he is glad to be here, is not a whit abashed at your hugeness, [and] is satisfied with himself and his own particular coop."


For more on this, and other fun historical tidbits about Trinity, click here.

5. Middlebury: Panthers

In a league of some very unconventional nicknames, Middlebury has one of the most conventional names in all of college sports (the 4th most common in fact). How did the Panther come to be Middlebury's mascot? According to the school's site, "The black Panther was chosen as Middlebury’s after a local merchant established a contest to choose an appropriate symbol for the college in 1922." (source) 

The athletic teams at Middlebury have enjoyed success as the Panthers( 31 national titles since NESCAC lifted the ban on post-season play in 1993) and the school has a stylin' statue that was  installed in 1997 (pictured). Some students, however, would prefer something a bit more Vermont-centric and eccentric (like their NESCAC brethren). This student suggests  the "Middlebury Moose" in his op-ed about changing the nickname. 

6. Wesleyan: Cardinals

Like Middlebury, Wesleyan has a more traditional collegiate mascot. As Herbert L. Connelly (Wesleyan Class of 1909) described it, the development of the Cardinal as Wesleyan's mascot was a gradual process.  First in 1884, the school switched from lavendar to cardinal red because it was “the shade that makes the strongest, most inspiriting contrast with black.” Second, the ever diversifying population of the university necessitated a name other than "The Methodists," which had sufficed for a number of years.

Third, in 1925 the student literary magazine was renamed The Wesleyan Cardinal. Finally, Walter W. Fricke, ’33, a member of the football and baseball team, bought a baseball jacket with the picture of a cardinal on the breast pocket. For a full account, click here. 

7. Hamilton: Continentals 

Unlike Williams and Amherst, the Hamilton mascot/nickname has a bit more subtle connection to the school's eponym. Alexander Hamilton was chief of staff to General George Washington of the Continental Army in the Reovlutionary War, and a continental was a member of said army. The school's colors, buff and blue, come from the color of the continental soldiers uniforms. In the early 2000s, the school introduced Al-Ham (pictured), an anthropomorphic, fluorescent pink pig with a tri-color hat (that of the continental soldier) and a Hamilton basketball jersey.

In 2014, the school cut the fat when they released Al Ham into the wild and replaced him with Alex, a cartoonish verson of Alexander Hamilton that is decidedly more homo sapien than his predecessor. 


8. Connecticut College: Camels

The youngest of the NESCAC schools (founded in 1911), Connecticut College chose the camel as the mascot when it went co-ed in 1969. Along with the Fighting Camels of Campbell University, Connecticut College is one of only two schools in the country to have the camel as a mascot. 

Not the fiercest of animals (and non-existent in Connecticut, except maybe at zoos), the original camel logo and mascot didn't do the team any favors(pictured left). On the verge of their 100th anniversary, the college unleashed a fiercer, more modernized mascot (pictured right).  The re-brand even caught the attention of graphic design website underconsideration.com (here).


9. Tufts: Jumbos 
Perhaps fitting for the largest school in the NESCAC, Jumbo, the famous elephant of P.T. Barnum lore, is Tufts mascot. When  Jumbo met his demise at the hands of an on-coming train in Canada (because...of course he did), Barnum, an early trustee and benefactor of Tufts, had his hide stuffed and eventually donated to the university.

The giant pachyderm was put on display(pictured) in Barnum Hall (formerly Barnum Museum of Natural History) where it sat as a campus treasure until it was destroyed in a 1975 fire. His ashes were collected and put in a peanut butter jar, which is stored in the Tufts Athletic Director's office. For more information on Jumbo, check out the Tufts site. 


10. Colby: Mules

The origin of the mule as Colby's mascot dates back to a student editorial in the Colby Echo in 1923. Based on the football team's success that year, Joseph Coburn Smith '24 concluded that the team was no longer a dark horse and posited: "Why should we not have a mascot, and what would make a better mascot than a little white mule?...The anti-thesis of the Dark Horse?"

The students secured a white mule for that week's game against Bates -a game Colby won 9-6-and the rest, as they say, is history. Through the years there have been many mule mascots for Colby, from Morty to Aristotle to Louis. In many instances, the mascots chosen were mistakenly a donkey(top picture) and not a mule (pictured below). For more on Colby's allignment with the mule, including the difference between a mule and a ninny, check out this 1974 article from Colby Magazine here.