Name-a-Day Calendar, December 31: Colorado Buffaloes
Page 55 of 365
Chosen in: 1934
Chosen by: Boulder resident Andrew Dickson via name-the-team contest
The school now known as the University of Colorado Boulder has a deep sporting history tracing back to 1890, when it fielded its first football team. In its early days, sports teams were known by a wide variety of unofficial nicknames: usually “the Silver and Gold” after the school colors, but also sometimes the “Silver Helmets”, “Yellow Jackets”, “Hornets”, “Arapahoes”, “Big Horns”, “Grizzlies”, and “Frontiersmen”.
In 1934, the Silver & Gold student newspaper led a contest to select an official nickname and mascot. The contest garnered more than a thousand entries from all across the country but the winner — selected by athletic director Harry Carlson, graduate manager Walter Franklin, and the Silver & Gold’s Kenneth Bundy — was a local man: Boulder resident Andrew Dickson was the first of six entrants to suggest “Buffaloes” and he was awarded $51 for the pleasure.
Unlike some other schools that use a buffalo or bison as their mascot, bison indisputably once roamed where the University of Colorado Boulder currently sits. Today, live buffalo Ralphie continues that legacy while being one of the most beloved mascots in college sports.
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$111.09 in 2022 dollars…I guess starting tomorrow I’m gonna have to convert these to 2023 dollars