Name-a-Day Calendar, February 29: Mercyhurst Lakers
Page 366 of 365
Mercyhurst University is new to Division I in 2024-25. I guess theoretically I should wait until February 29, 2028, to publish this, but that seems silly, yeah?
Chosen in: 1970
Chosen by: Unclear
Mercyhurst College (now Mercyhurst University) of Erie, Pennsylvania, opened its doors as a women’s school in 1926. Intercollegiate athletics were not initially a focus at the school. Then it became coeducational in 1969 and an athletics program was started the next year.
Newspaper archives are a wonderful thing. The archive for Mercyhurst’s student newspaper, The Merciad, is freely available online, and I have them to thank for the knowledge that Mercyhurst’s sports teams have always been known as the Lakers. In the September 18, 1970, edition, sports editor Bill Dopievella notes that the nickname beat out “Knights” and “some rather derogatory terms” and originates from the school’s location near Lake Erie.
Unfortunately, that’s all the information we have because Dopievella wrote the entire passage in the passive voice. “A nickname had to be found,” he writes, and “the name and concept of ‘Lakers’ was chosen”. Who suggested the nickname? Who chose it over the other contenders and how? I guess we’ll never know.
In a timeline of the school’s history, Mercyhurst’s website notes that women’s teams were also originally known as the Lakerettes, though because the first teams founded were men’s teams, that nickname didn’t show up in the September 18, 1970, article. Its first appearance in The Merciad came from sports editor Dario Cipriani on November 20, 1972, referring to the volleyball team. This women’s nickname appears to have been discontinued after the 1977–78 season, with its last usage in The Merciad coming on April 24, 1978.
Since then, all Mercyhurst sports teams have been known simply as the Lakers. Their mascot is a costumed sailor named Luke the Laker.
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