Name-a-Day Calendar, April 18: Mercer Bears
Page 163 of 365
Chosen in: 1924, origins in 1892
Chosen by: Student body vote, via a fan in the crowd at the school’s first football game
Mercer University first played football in the 1891-92 school year, with their two games that season occurring in spring 1892. The university’s first teams were called the Baptists because, you guessed it, they were a Baptist school.
The first football game in the history of Mercer University was played at Georgia on January 30, 1892. At some point in the 50-0 blowout loss, one of Mercer’s big linemen apparently ran down the field in a comical manner, causing a fan in the stands to retort in a way you probably wouldn’t hear at a football game today: “Whence cometh that bear?”1
This remark evidently stuck with the student body and the fanbase at large for decades. When the university held a student body vote to choose a mascot in 1924, “Bears” won.
Mercer is one of a select few universities to have both a male and a female mascot; their costumed bears are named Toby and Tot.
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Whether I believe this story is true is for you to decide.
Nah if I'm ever at a game with a Bears team again I'm saying that