Name-a-Day Calendar, February 18: Grand Canyon Antelopes
Page 104 of 365
Chosen in: 1949
Chosen by: Student body vote
The Grand Canyon University of today is a large, rowdy, for-profit school in Phoenix. But when it was established as Grand Canyon College in 1949, it was a quiet, non-profit Southern Baptist school in Prescott, about 80 miles north.
The school began playing intercollegiate sports the year it opened, and students held a vote to determine the school mascot before any games were played. In doing so, the students were torn between a nickname that paid homage to Prescott and one that paid homage to the actual Grand Canyon about 100 miles north; one of each became a finalist. For Prescott, there was “Antelopes”, after the pronghorn that roamed the northern Arizona plains. For the Grand Canyon, there was “Beasts of Burden”, after the donkeys that carried visitors around the park. We don’t know who suggested either nickname, but “Antelopes” won.
Despite choosing the name that represented Prescott, the school relocated to Phoenix just two years later. “College” would become “University” in 1989, but before that, Grand Canyon would debut its first antelope mascot in 1981. For the full history on that and all other things relating to Grand Canyon’s brand identity, check out this 2015 piece by Cooper Nelson in GCU Today Magazine.
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