Name-a-Day Calendar, December 28: Cleveland State Vikings
Page 52 of 365
Chosen in: 1965
Chosen by: Three days of student body voting in an expansive name-the-team contest
In 1964 and 1965, the State of Ohio established a public university in Cleveland and acquired all of Fenn College, a private institution struggling to stay financially stable, to jumpstart it. As a result, Fenn College became Cleveland State University beginning in Fall 1965.
It wasn’t just the academic identity that would get a makeover; the school would also seek to rebrand its athletics. Prior to the school’s acquisition by the State, its sports teams had been known as the Fenn Foxes, but with the switch to Cleveland State, the alliteration was gone and the nickname lost its luster.
The Cleveland Press held a name-the-team contest on the school’s behalf and opened entries to anyone who could mail in a postcard and was not already affiliated with university faculty or Press employees. Entrants were told to include their proposed nickname and, as a tiebreaker, their estimate of Cleveland State’s total Fall 1965 enrollment. Every possible nickname was fair game except for those used by any other college in Ohio,1 any college in the Big Ten,2 or any pro sports team in Cleveland.3 The retention of “Foxes” was fair game but considered a longshot.
The school offered a full year of tuition, then valued at $500,4 to whomever submitted the winning entry. Perhaps because of that hefty prize, the school received thousands of entries, which a faculty committee whittled down to a select few for the student body to vote on. The balloting lasted three days, October 5-7, and “Vikings” emerged victorious.5 Who submitted the winning entry? The university library didn’t know! I guess it’s a mystery.
A costumed Viking mascot would eventually be perfected, but not before going through several makeovers.
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Special thanks to Cleveland State University librarian Marsha Miles for helping me dig up key info for this page.
This ruled out several nicknames but most notably “Cougars”, which several people had suggested prior to the contest but was already claimed by the local Cuyahoga Community College.
Remember, this is 1965, so Penn State, Nebraska, Maryland, and Rutgers aren’t in the Big Ten yet. They could have been the Cleveland State Cornhuskers if they really wanted!
This ruled out “Indians” (MLB), “Browns” (NFL), and “Barons” (AHL).
$4,725.57 in 2022 dollars. You might notice that this is nowhere close to the price of a full year of university tuition today.
Probably on a last-second batch to erase a 33-vote deficit