Name-a-Day Calendar, July 7: Robert Morris Colonials
Page 243 of 365
Chosen in: 1963
Chosen by: Unclear (yet)
Founded in 1921, the Pittsburgh School of Accountancy grew first into a full business school—being renamed the Robert Morris School of Business in 1935—and then into an even fuller junior college, becoming Robert Morris Junior College in 1962.1
Robert Morris’ first intercollegiate athletic endeavor was a men’s basketball team that began play in spring 1963. Since its very first game, this team has been known as the Colonials. I can presume that this nickname was chosen on account of Robert Morris himself being an actual Colonial, but I cannot outright confirm this, and I could unfortunately not find any information on who selected the nickname or how, either. Robert Morris’ archivist responded to my request for information by telling me he’d look into it, but I haven’t heard back from him yet. I’ll keep you posted if anything changes.
“Colonials” is a rather unique and somewhat controversial nickname, the latter begetting the former. Many activists believe the nickname unduly glorifies an era that was overwrought with slavery and saw mass exile or murder of Native American peoples. When George Washington University announced in 2022 that they were ditching the nickname for basically these reasons (renaming themselves the Revolutionaries in 2023), it left Robert Morris as the only college in any division of the NCAA that still calls themselves the Colonials. In response to that, Robert Morris stated that they have considered changing not only their athletic nickname but also their school name. But that was over a year ago and we haven’t heard a peep on it since.
Robert Morris’ mascot is (or was?) a costumed Colonial named RoMo. Their own student-run sports media outlet ranked it the eighth best mascot in their own conference back in 2018.
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It became Robert Morris College in 1969, jumped up to NCAA Division I in 1976, and gained university status in 2002.