Name-a-Day Calendar, June 13: Omaha Mavericks

Page 219 of 365

Chosen in: 1971

Chosen by: Student body vote

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The University of Omaha was established in 1908 and began playing men’s basketball in 1910. The school cycled through a few nicknames in its early days. They first tried “Shetlands” and “Ponies” in 1912, but that was scrapped after one year in favor of simply going by the school colors: “Crimson and Black” from 1913-1920, “Maroons” from 1920-1924, and “Cardinal” from 1924-1938. In 1939, Omaha bucked the trend and adopted the nickname “Indians” for their sports teams and, unfortunately, that one stuck.

But not forever! In 1968, the university was acquired by the University of Nebraska and became a part of their system: the University of Nebraska Omaha. Wanting a new athletic identity to accompany their new academic identity (and wanting to distance themselves from the “Indians” moniker), the student government held a nickname competition in 1971, leading up to that year’s homecoming celebration.

It’s unclear how many nickname suggestions were submitted to this contest, but the student body only voted on four of them: Demons, Mavericks, Roadrunners, and Unicorns. The last of these unfortunately did not win, but it did place second; “Mavericks” won the contest with 566 votes to 515 for “Unicorns”, 397 for “Roadrunners”, and 346 for “Demons”. If a couple dozen people woke up in a different mood that day in autumn 1971, we could have had the Omaha Unicorns.

Omaha’s first maverick mascot was a live bull named Victor E. Maverick, but he didn’t last long because his handlers couldn’t keep him under control. You’d think a costumed human would be easier to wrangle but nope. Here’s current mascot Durango trucking a kid during a race on the field at the 2022 College World Series.

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