Name-a-Day Calendar, June 23: Portland State Vikings
Page 229 of 365
Chosen in: 1946
Chosen by: Students Dale Reeves and Robert Tweedell via a nickname contest
Following World War II, a whole bunch of military veterans, mostly men, returned stateside and found themselves in need of an education. The G.I. Bill promised it to them, but the United States’ capacity for post-secondary education simply wasn’t high enough to take everyone in. Quite a few colleges were founded in the mid- to late 1940s as a result, including the school we now know as Portland State University.
Originally established in 1946 in the Vanport Junior High School building near the Columbia River on the city’s northern edge, the school was first known as Vanport Extension Center. Intercollegiate athletics began the same year, and it didn’t take long for the school to decide on a nickname.
In the December 6, 1946, issue of the Vet’s Extended student newspaper,1 the student council solicited nickname suggestions so that they could sift through them and decide on a winner. Just a week later, they’d reached a unanimous decision: Vanport’s teams would be called the Vikings. Submitted on two separate occasions by students Dale Reeves and Robert Tweedell, “Vikings” was meant to be an uncommon, adventurous nickname to match the uncommon, adventurous nature in which the school was founded.
A great flood struck the Vanport neighborhood in 1948, at which point it became clear the school could not remain there in the long term. It moved downtown in 1952, became Portland State College in 1955, and received university status in 1969.
Today, Portland State is represented by a costumed viking mascot named Victor E. Viking.2
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This paper was renamed the Vanguard after just four issues and it still uses that title today.
Longtime readers might remember that this is the same name as Northern Kentucky’s Norse mascot.