Name-a-Day Calendar, March 22: La Salle Explorers
Page 136 of 365
Chosen in: 1931
Chosen by: A mistaken sportswriter
La Salle College1 was established in 1863 but didn’t begin intercollegiate athletics until 1931, when they formed teams in football and men’s basketball. For a football game story in the team’s inaugural season, an unnamed sportswriter referred to the then-unnamed team as the Explorers because he mistakenly believed the school was named for one: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.2 In actuality, the school was named much more fittingly for French priest Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, who dedicated most of his life to educating the poor.
Students thought the mix-up was funny and the “Explorers” moniker quickly became very popular. When the school newspaper held an official vote to select a nickname in 1932, “Explorers” won handily.
La Salle’s mascot is known simply as The Explorer. It’s easy to forget that there are actual humans behind these masks, but La Salle sure didn’t.
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Became La Salle University in 1984
A couple years later, Canisius College would nickname their teams for this explorer in a more roundabout but more historically accurate way.
so if the sportswriter knew which La Salle the school was named after, they'd be the La Salle Educators of the Poor??? Much better nickname than "explorers" if you ask me