Name-a-Day Calendar, January 25: Elon Phoenix
Page 80 of 365
Chosen in: 2000
Chosen by: An administrative task force, with input from the greater school community
The Elon University of today is a nonsectarian institution, so unless you’re local to the area or super well-versed in small private college history, you might be surprised to learn that they used to be, like, super Christian. Affiliation with the Church of Christ was required for members of the Board of Trustees, all students were required to attend chapel, and (most importantly) their sports teams were called the Fightin’ Christians.
The school debuted this nickname prior to their November 17, 1921, football game against local rival Guilford College, and they went through a lot under the “Fightin’ Christians” moniker. Most notably, in 1923, a fire destroyed the primary building on campus, which included several classrooms, the library, and the chapel. But Elon would prove resilient in the wake of this tragedy and continue to grow and improve as an institution.
By the 1990s, Elon was one of the largest private colleges in North Carolina1 and it was time for their athletics programs to reflect that. They moved from NAIA competition to NCAA Division II in 1993, then began a transition to Division I in 1997. But that wasn’t enough for new college president Leo Lambert. When he took over in 1999, he wanted a new identity entirely — something that would more accurately reflect the college’s modern state and make recruiting less of a hassle.2
Lambert assembled a task force of 15 school administrators to determine a new mascot for Elon’s sports teams. They focus-grouped and surveyed students and alumni, faculty and staff, to ensure the name they chose would be well received. And on May 9, 2000, they revealed the new mascot rather bombastically. The college’s theater department built a giant, five-foot-wide egg in which the new mascot could hide as it was wheeled out in front of the school gym building. And out of this egg, shrouded in haze from a smoke machine, hatched the Phoenix!
At the initial reveal event, school administrators described the thought process behind the name: just as Elon rose from the ashes in recovering from its 1923 fire, so too did the Phoenix. It was an immediate hit and the Phoenix would become the mascot that accompanied Elon to Division I.
The mascot itself just looks like a regular ol’ bird. Not much fiery about it aside from the school color scheme it was painted in.
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Today, Elon is the third-largest private university in the state, trailing only Duke and Wake Forest in total enrollment.
Evidently, a lot of people were turned off by the idea of playing for a team called the Fightin’ Christians.