Name-a-Day Calendar, December 3: Boston University Terriers
Page 27 of 365
Chosen in: 1922
Chosen by: Tim Ward via student body vote
Boston University played its first couple decades without a mascot for its sports teams. In 1922, the student body finally got around to selecting one but they were split between the Boston Terrier (suggested by Tim Ward) and the bull moose (suggester unknown).
The bull moose was larger and fiercer – qualities more often associated with athletics – but the Boston Terrier was the local favorite and won the student body vote.
14 years later, Margaret Mitchell released her now-ubiquitous novel Gone with the Wind, in which the main character Scarlett becomes romantically involved with a man named Rhett Butler.1 Scarlet is the official color of Boston University and “Rhett loves Scarlett”, so students took to referring to their mascot as Rhett. It stuck, and that’s been the official name ever since, but there’s recently been a push to change the name because the Rhett from the book was a Confederate soldier. Read more about the controversy here.
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Many, many other things happen in this book that are outside the scope of this project.