Name-a-Day Calendar, December 4: Bowling Green Falcons
Page 28 of 365
Chosen in: 1927
Chosen by: Alumnus and Sentinel-Tribune editor Ivan Lake
Bowling Green State University was founded in 1914 as a normal school and originally played sports as the Normals (or sometimes the Teachers or Pedagogues). Unlike some teachers colleges of its era, Bowling Green was always a degree-granting institution, and as it expanded in the late 1920s to offer degrees in other disciplines, it wanted to revamp its athletic identity so people didn’t just associate them with teacher education.
Around that time, alumnus Ivan Lake ‘23 had read a book on falconry and was fascinated at how tough falcons were despite their relatively small size. On October 28, 1927, he used his platform as the editor of the Sentinel-Tribune, a local daily newspaper, to push for the falcon as the official mascot of Bowling Green athletics. He noted that falcons naturally used the brown and orange color scheme the school had already adopted and that falcons go through tons of training before they’re ready for battle, just like Bowling Green student-athletes. It helped, of course, that “Falcons” was short enough to fit easily in headline space. The name stuck.
Bowling Green’s original mascot Freddie Falcon recently turned 70 years old. Read the history of Freddie and his female counterpart Freida here.
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