Name-a-Day Calendar, July 27: SMU Mustangs
Page 263 of 365
Chosen in: 1917
Chosen by: Librarian and president’s secretary Dorothy Amann via student body vote
Southern Methodist University (SMU) was established in 1911 and began classes in 1915, with the football program beginning play the same year. This team was originally known by the school’s colors: “Red and Blue”. They were also sometimes known as the Parsons, the term “parson” usually used to mean an ordained Christian who is a member of a Protestant clergy.
By October 1917, the student body wanted a fiercer, more fitting nickname, so the Executive Committee of the Students’ Association set up a suggestion box to solicit nickname options. The committee then narrowed these suggestions down to three finalists—Bisons, Greyhounds, and Mustangs—and had the student body vote between them at a pep rally on November 1.
The winner of this vote was “Mustangs”, submitted by Dorothy Amann, the university’s primary librarian and a secretary to the president. She is said to have submitted this nickname after attending a football practice that season and noting that the players ran “like a bunch of wild mustangs”.
Since 1932, SMU has hosted a live mustang mascot named Peruna.
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