Name-a-Day Calendar, August 18: Stony Brook Seawolves
Page 285 of 365
Chosen in: 1994
Chosen by: A committee of students, alumni, faculty, and administrators
In 1957, the State of New York established the State University College on Long Island in the hamlet of Oyster Bay, on the north shore of the island. In 1960, this school began playing men’s basketball, taking the nickname “Soundsmen” on account of the campus being near Long Island Sound.
That same year, 1960, a major report commissioned by then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller concluded that Long Island needed a major public university. The State figured they might as well put the resources for this into the Long Island school they’d just opened, but they needed a grander campus. Local businessman Ward Melville1 donated over 400 acres of land about halfway across the island in Stony Brook and the school relocated there in 1962.
With this new campus no longer adjacent to the sound, the school decided an athletics identity shift was in order, though it took them a bit to settle on a permanent brand. They became the Warriors in 1963 and then switched to the Patriots and Lady Patriots in 1966.
That latter identity served them well for about three decades while they played in the lower divisions of the NCAA (first in the College Division, then landing on the Division III side of the 1973 split). But in the mid-’90s, the university decided to push their athletics up to Division I, and they wanted a shiny new identity to match the new direction.
University president Dr. John H. Marburger III formed a committee of 32 students, alumni, faculty, and administrators to figure it out. They discussed hundreds of options before coming to their conclusion. In fall 1994, Dr. Marburger announced that all Stony Brook athletics teams would be known as the Seawolves, effective immediately. This identity stuck with the school as it moved up to Division II in 1995 and then to Division I in 1999, and it has remained the Stony Brook nickname ever since.
Though there are a few different animals colloquially known as “sea wolves”, a seawolf in this context is not a real animal; it’s a mythical creature. What exactly is it? What are its characteristics? What does it look like? I don’t know. And it seems Stony Brook didn’t either. Their mascot Wolfie, who debuted in 1995, is just a regular ol’ wolf.
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