Name-a-Day Calendar, June 17: Pacific Tigers

Page 223 of 365

Chosen in: 1908; made official in 1925

Chosen by: The university community

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Happy 26th birthday to The Low Major co-founder David Peterson, who I’m sure is upset a rival WCC school got today’s entry.

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California Wesleyan College was established in Santa Clara in 1851. One month later, they changed their name to University of the Pacific. Pacific moved to San José in 1871, and it was here that the school’s athletic legacy began.

Pacific began playing football in 1895, originally with no nickname. Then, in 1908, the school briefly discontinued football and replaced it with rugby. The rugby team took the field wearing black and orange striped jerseys, somewhat resembling tigers. Playing off this, the university soon adopted a tiger mascot and people began referring to the team itself as the Tigers. The practice took off from there, and the university eventually made it official in 1925, two years after they moved to their current Stockton location.

Pacific’s current costumed tiger mascot, Powercat, debuted in 1999.

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Next page: Penn Quakers

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P.S. Eli often calls Pacific’s teams the “Pactown Pummelers”. This makes no logical sense, both because “Pacific” is not a town and because the teams do not usually pummel anyone in this day and age, but it sounds a lot cooler and more fun than Tigers and he’s hoping it catches on.