Name-a-Day Calendar, June 20: Pepperdine Waves
Page 226 of 365
Chosen in: 1937
Chosen by: College president Batsell Baxter
In 1937, Christian entrepreneur George Pepperdine founded a liberal arts college in Los Angeles, cleverly naming it George Pepperdine College.1 The school’s first president, Batsell Baxter, almost immediately chose “Waves” as the nickname for its sports teams.
The first ever issue of The GraPhiC student newspaper announced the development in October 1937, noting that “[many] faculty members and students here feel that the naming of athletic teams after animals has been overdone” and that “[no] other team on the West Coast has a similar name” to Waves.
The “Waves” moniker might not have been 100% apt at the time, as the school’s campus was located at 79th Street and Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles, about nine miles from the coast, but once the school moved to Malibu in 1972,2 it became iconic.
Pepperdine’s mascot is Willie the Wave, who’s seen several iterations since his introduction in 1952. He took a decade off from 1996-2006, but he’s back and better than ever!
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Became Pepperdine University in 1971
This is, of course, ignoring that the circumstances of the university’s move were mostly borne of social unrest.
"better than ever"