Name-a-Day Calendar, August 9: Southern Jaguars
Page 276 of 365
Chosen in: The mid-1940s
Chosen by: It evolved from “Cats”
The school now known as Southern University and A&M College1 was founded in 1880 and began playing football in 1916. Its first teams were known as the Bushmen, after the indigenous peoples of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa.2
In 1936, the nickname was changed to “Cats”, though I’m not sure how or by whom. Not any specific breed of cat or species of large cat. Just…Cats. They were called the “Southern Cats”. I repeat this twice largely because I don’t think I’ve ever seen this barebones nickname used for any sports team.3
Within a decade, someone evidently decided this wouldn’t do, as the name evolved to “Jaguar Cats” and then to the current “Jaguars” around the time Southern won three consecutive Black college football national championships from 1948–1950.
Southern was previously represented by two generations of live jaguar mascots, both named Lacumba. Almost every time this name appears, the given source explains that the name Lacumba translates to “Heart of Africa”, but none of them go on to clarify what language this translation is from. I looked into this for quite a while and I still have no idea.4 But I digress: the second Lacumba passed away in 2004 and Southern, the only HBCU with a live mascot, replaced her with a costumed jaguar of the same name.
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Originally Southern University for Colored Students
These peoples are also known as the San.
Further research reveals an arena football team in Georgia known as the Peach State Cats.
Perhaps one of the Khoisan languages (of the San peoples)?
Cats is a much cooler name tbh