Name-a-Day Calendar, April 17: Memphis Tigers
Page 162 of 365
Chosen in: 1914, made official in 1939
Chosen by: Students at a parade
The West Tennessee State Normal School was founded in 1912 and began playing football the same year. They had no official nickname but the media usually called them the Blue and Gray (their school colors), the Warriors, or a combination: the Blue and Gray Warriors.
Following the last game of the 1914 season, a 16-6 loss at Jackson High School,1 students held a parade to commemorate the season. At this parade, some students sparked a rallying cry: “We fight like Tigers!” This seems like an insult to tigers, but the school newspaper and yearbook began referring to school sports teams as the Tigers from then on.
Outside of campus, the nickname took significantly longer to gain steam. Newspapers unaffiliated with the school mostly just kept calling them the Blue and Gray, though some also used “Normals” based on the school’s status as a teachers college. Eventually, campus publications gave up trying to make fetch happen and resolved to call their sports teams the Teachers (or, less popularly, the Tutors).
However, by the late 1930s, students and fans wanted something fiercer, so they revived the Tigers nickname in hopes the public would respect it. They did, and the school made it official in 1939.
The school would become Memphis State College in 1941, Memphis State University in 1957, and the University of Memphis in 1994. And that’s how the Memphis Tigers came to be.
Since 1972, Memphis has cycled through four live tiger mascots, all named TOM (Tiger of Memphis). TOMs I, II, and III attended all home football games, but after TOM III died in 2020, amidst pushback from animal rights activists, the university announced that TOM IV would be kept at the Memphis Zoo.
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