Name-a-Day Calendar, August 13: St. Thomas Tommies
Page 280 of 365
Chosen in: 1927 (became popular in 1929)
Chosen by: It was unceremoniously adopted when moving away from the military identity
The early history of what is now the University of St. Thomas is that of a military academy. In 1885, John Ireland, archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, founded the Catholic, all-male Saint Thomas Seminary.1 The liberal arts program was established in 1894 and the College of St. Thomas was born.2
Men’s basketball and football started in 1903 and 1904, respectively, these teams originally sporting no official nickname but sometimes called the Purple and Gray, St. Thomas’ school colors. Also in 1903, the school started a military program, which quickly became a mandatory part of the curriculum. The U.S. Department of War officially named St. Thomas a military school in 1906.
In the years that followed, the military became an inextricable facet of St. Thomas culture. As such, their sports teams took on the “Cadets” nickname in 1914. This culture continued until 1922, when St. Thomas Military Academy split from the College of St. Thomas, rendering military education optional at the latter.
The military academy would also form its own athletics program, but the two schools were still closely linked, so the sports teams at the college continued to also call themselves the Cadets for some time. However, by the end of the decade, it was clear this identity for the college was a relic of a bygone era.
The school’s Purple and Gray student newspaper—which confusingly still served both the military academy and the college—started occasionally using those colors to refer to the college sports teams again around 1926, and a new nickname, “Tommies”, was not far behind; the first time I can confirm that it appeared in the Purple and Gray was on January 14, 1927, in a men’s basketball game story. The story doesn’t have a byline, but the paper’s columnist for sports at the college was William Flemming, so I think it’s reasonable to assume it was his doing.
During this time, “Cadets” was still the official nickname of all St. Thomas athletics, but the college finally dropped it in 1929. From then on, the sports teams at the College of St. Thomas were almost always called the Tommies. Eventually, it became all but official.
St. Thomas’ mascot is Tommie, a costumed “feline of undetermined origin”.
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Became coed in 1977
Became the University of St. Thomas in 1990