Name-a-Day Calendar, April 30: Missouri State Bears
Page 175 of 365
Chosen in: 1906
Chosen by: A committee of faculty and students
In 1905, the Fourth District Normal School was founded in Springfield with no true campus and no permanent buildings yet constructed. Despite this, they began playing intercollegiate sports just a year later, with baseball and basketball (men’s and women’s) beginning play in the 1906-07 school year.
That same year, the school decided they needed a mascot and official colors, so they appointed a joint committee of faculty and students to decide on these two matters. The committee chose maroon and white as the school colors and the bear as its mascot, the latter coming from the Great Seal of Missouri, which features three bears.
The school began constructing its first permanent hall the next year, and it’s all been uphill from there. They became Southwest Missouri State Teachers College in 1919, Southwest Missouri State College in 1945, Southwest Missouri State University in 1972, and simply Missouri State University in 2005. Along the way, they picked up a costumed bear mascot: Boomer.
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